SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, (THEWILL) – The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information, Abdulrazak Namdas, has averred that it is the enemies of the people that criticise the setting aside of funds for the execution of the constituency projects of members of the National Assembly.
He made this remark during the commissioning of constituency projects in his Jada, Ganye, Toungo and Mayo Belwa federal constituency of Adamawa state.
The commissioned projects include: a block of two classrooms and a headmaster’s office in Ganye, four solar powered boreholes in Ganye, Toungo and Jada as well as two other handheld boreholes in Toungo and Jada.
While speaking in favour of constituency projects, Namdas said, “people speaking against constituency projects are the enemies of the people, people who are sad that projects are executed that have direct positive benefits on the lives of our people”.
He further challenged Nigerians to pay a closer attention to the nation’s budget especially as it relates to their constituencies, explaining that constituency projects are not directly executed by legislators.
“When budgets are done, certain amounts are allocated for constituency projects for each constituency, in my case about N120 million.
“The legislator’s task is to decide what kind of project and where it will be cited and to ensure it is domiciled in the relevant MDAs. The legislature then plays an oversight function of ensuring that these projects are implemented.
“Budgets are public documents that every Nigerian should look at and see that projects allocated to their constituencies are fully implemented. I have made it a policy to announce the amount allocated for my constituency so that the people can see and judge for themselves what has been done. This is computer age; people can know everything and they have the right to know.
“The essence of democratic governance is the openness associated with it, so Nigerians should ask questions about everything that affects them and politicians should be open to questions without feeling attacked.”
Namdas, who is leading a House of Representatives ad-hoc committee set up to investigate matters relating to missing monies from the coffers of NNPC, assured that the National Assembly would bring back Nigeria’s $17 billion missing crude oil money.
His words “Nigeria is ranked sixth in the list of oil producing nations and crude oil sales are still unaccounted for. We have invited the NNPC, DPR, the Central Bank and other major players in the oil industries to account for inconsistencies in matters relating to declared crude funds, so far, we have not been getting the required answers but I assure you we will get to the root of it.
“$17 billion is up to Nigeria’s budget when converted into naira, right now we just export oil but it is not clear how much crude is being lifted in this country because people are diverting crude oil sales,” he added.
He maintained that his committee would not relent until all those involved are made to give the account of their stewardship to Nigerians, adding that “I am confident we will bring back Nigeria’s money and use it to develop our country instead of borrowing.
“This Government is a government that fights corruption and as legislative partners we will play our part,” Namdas said.
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