Assistants of a federal lawmaker representing Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye Federal Constituency of Gombe State, Hon. Yaya Bauchi Tongo, have been accused of threatening officials of Tracka for requesting updates on the lawmaker’s projects in the 2024 Budget.
Tracka is a not-for-profit organisation in Nigeria that traces constituency projects allocated to members of the National Assembly in their various constituencies across Nigeria. It not only tracks the execution of government projects but gives an update on the stage of such projects.
In a post on its X handle, Tracka disclosed that things went awry when its tracking officials asked questions about the public projects allocated to the lawmaker in the 2024 budget, instead of responding, “We have received numerous threats” from his aides.
Tracka, a project by BudgITng, stated on X that “The continuous threats to our State Officer and Community Champions in Gombe State must stop.”
It admonished the lawmaker and his aides to be accountable to the people who gave him the mandate to represent them and “be open to the public and how public funds are being spent and stop intimidating Nigerians for asking questions!”
At the time of publication, the lawmaker has neither responded to the allegation nor shown stages of the projects allocated to him in the controversial 2024 budget.
Before winning election as a member of the House of Reps., Hon Tongo was a former chairman of Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe. He also served as a special adviser to the Gombe State Government before being elected as a member of the State’s House of Assembly.
Using constituency projects as a tool for corruption
Special Intervention Projects (SIP) popularly called Constituency Projects in Nigeria were initiated during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and allocated to each member of the National Assembly, who are believed to be closer to their constituents, so that the dividend of democracy will touch every corner of the country. Billions of naira are allocated to lawmakers every year for these projects.
However, politicians have been accused of using it as a conduit to siphon public funds, where they either poorly execute or completely abandon such projects, diverting the funds to personal needs.
It is reported that at least N100 Billion is inserted into the yearly budget for SIP. In the 2024 budget, for instance, the National Assembly reportedly inserted 7,447 projects valued at over N2.24 trillion, a civic-tech non-profit organisation BudgIT says.
The organisation also revealed that the inserted projects under constituency projects have “no national significance but narrowed to personal interests”.
Apart from the monthly running cost of each Nigerian lawmaker, which is at least N20 million, they have been accused of using constituency projects to accumulate wealth.
In March 2024, a lawmaker representing Bauchi Central District, Senator Abdul Ning raised alarm over the padding of the 2024 budget with N3 trillion and that the country was operating two budgets concurrently.