Member representing Bwari/AMAC Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Obika Chinedu, has urged the federal government to remove the responsibility of constituency projects from lawmakers, arguing that it distracts them from their core duty of lawmaking.
Speaking with Daily Post, Hon. Chinedu described the concept of constituency projects as “the greatest harm that has been done to the legislative arm of government.”
According to the Labour Party lawmaker, “the greatest harm that has been done to the legislative arm of government is this particular thing called constituency project. I hate it.”
He stated that Nigeria could only “recover the country by taking off the constituency project from legislators.”
Hon. Chinedu insisted that community projects were not the responsibility of lawmakers but of the executive arm.
“We should only go out to supervise those whose job it is. Legislators have been turned into executives,” he said.
He lamented that lawmakers were now judged by their ability to attract roads and other projects to their constituencies, rather than their performance in lawmaking.
“Everywhere we go, we keep receiving demands from people about one project or the other. People are no longer interested in lawmaking or things that should be put into the Constitution to better the lives of the people,” he said.
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“Everybody is dragging how he can attract a road here or light there. The road is meant for everybody to have. No constituency is more than the other,” Hon. Chinedu stated.
He noted that some lawmakers without access to powerful committees or leadership positions often struggle to attract projects, leading constituents to unfairly brand them as failures.
“People will look at him and say, ‘you have failed.’ No, it is not true. This has harmed us. That is why people who have no business with the National Assembly are there,” he said.
Hon. Chinedu lamented that “lawmakers are no longer talking about legislation; we can no longer debate issues. Everybody is running to put satellites and boreholes, and the country is wasting away.”
The legislator also observed that Nigerians often mistake lawmakers for members of the executive arm.
“People that come to our houses don’t actually bring what we should be working on; rather, they will be telling us what they should be telling the executive,” he said.
“Instead of them being mad at those in the executive for not doing what should have been done, when they see a legislator whose work is mainly legislation, they bring it forward.
“That is why you see that some of the legislators run away from their people because of numerous demands that cannot be met. Most times, the communities don’t understand it,” Hon. Chinedu added.