Mr. Abdullahi Shehu, a federal lawmaker from Bauchi state has given N10k each to 137 women (N1.370 million) as his constituency project after the federal government approved N96 million for the project.
Under the deal that was carried out by the Federal College of Horticulture Dadin Kowa and Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Shehu, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, in 2021 nominated training and youth-women empowerment in his constituency as part of his constituency project.
A project the federal government under the 2021 Zonal Constituency Project had allocated and approval the sum of N96 million for.
Worse still, Mr. Shehu, the Bauchi lawmaker, and the implementing partners (Federal College of Horticulture Dadin Kowa and Federal Ministry of Agriculture) after getting N96 million from the federal government for his constituency project, gave N10k each to 137 women, an indication that shows he may have spent only N1.370 million from the approved N96 million.
Tracka, a public accountability organization official who monitored the event, confirmed to MAWA Foundation that only 137 women were given N10k each.
It is not however clear if the Bauchi lawmaker will give more money to additional women and youth, however, as it stands now, the lawmaker is seen to have shortchanged his people.
Constituency projects are nominated by the lawmakers for the needs of their constituents and recommend same to the executive during budgeting; this will help to improve the living condition of the people in their constituents through building local infrastructures.
And, often, community residents are not aware such monies have been given to their representatives, and that makes accountability very difficult.
However, Nigerian experience has shown that Lawmakers do not execute constituency projects as they appear in the national budget, and getting them to account for monies approved for such intervention is always difficult.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Bauchi lawmaker for a response as his telephone number was not reachable and a text message sent to him was not answered.