Nigeria procurement failures are fuelling waste and underdevelopment, YPP candidate Peter Agada says, proposing stronger oversight and ₦40m per ward
The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party, Peter Agada, has blamed Nigeria’s poverty and underdevelopment on the failure of successive administrations to fully implement the Public Procurement Act, 2007, particularly provisions establishing the National Council on Public Procurement.
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Agada said in a statement on Monday that the failure to enforce the law had contributed to wasteful public spending and hindered national development.
He argued that implementing the relevant provisions would subject government projects to greater scrutiny, reduce costs and ensure that public funds delivered tangible benefits to Nigerians.
“Implementation of these sections will interrogate 90 per cent of all the projects gulping Nigeria’s resources over the years,” he said.
The YPP candidate said the four core principles of public procurement, namely economy and efficiency, value for money, transparency and fair competition, had not received adequate attention.
He attributed Nigeria’s development challenges over the past 27 years partly to weaknesses in the procurement system, arguing that establishing the council would strengthen accountability in government contracts.
“The savings alone from the forensics of projects can fund all the projects carried out in Nigeria’s Ward Intervention Initiative two or three times over,” Agada said.
He also called for reforms in engineering, procurement and contracting, citing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project as an example of the need for stronger oversight of major infrastructure projects.
According to him, the proposed National Council on Public Procurement would reinforce the Bureau of Public Procurement’s capacity to scrutinise contracts, monitor procurement processes and promote transparency in public expenditure.
Agada also proposed allocating ₦40m in funding outside the Federation Account Allocation Committee allocation structure to each of Nigeria’s 8,809 wards for community development projects.
“This idea is funding for ward development projects; we intend to send funding of N40 million in non-FAAC funds to every ward in Nigeria,” he said.
He explained that a 13-member steering committee would oversee the funds and projects in each ward, guided by a development master plan.
On financing the proposal, Agada said the initiative would draw on foreign direct investment, land-title valuation, reduced public-sector waste, subsidy savings and lean governance.
“We are not going to tamper with the current FAAC and tax structure,” he said.
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He added that forensic reviews of government projects and spending would help identify unnecessary expenditure, with the resulting savings redirected towards development initiatives across the country.
