PDP chieftain Segun Sowunmi has called for the cancellation of constituency projects in Nigeria’s national budget, alleging they are a source of corruption, budget padding, and undermine legislative oversight
Constituency Project Cancellation in the national budget has been strongly advocated by Segun Sowunmi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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Sowunmi argues that these projects are a breeding ground for budget padding, widespread corruption, and represent an unwarranted duplication of executive functions.
Sowunmi, who served as a former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s Presidential Campaign Organisation for the 2019 general election, contended that the current provision for constituency projects significantly undermines legislative oversight and compromises the crucial independence of the National Assembly.
His concerns echo those raised by BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation committed to promoting budget transparency and accountability across Nigeria and other African nations.
BudgIT recently accused the National Assembly of inserting a staggering 11,122 projects, collectively valued at N6.93 trillion, into the 2025 national budget.
According to an 18-page report released by the organisation, this figure represents a substantial 12.5 per cent of the N54.99 trillion budget that President Bola Tinubu signed into law on February 28, 2025.
A detailed analysis within the BudgIT report further revealed that 238 projects, each exceeding N5 billion in value and totalling N2.29 trillion, were inserted into the budget with little or no discernible justification.
Moreover, the analysis indicated that 3,573 projects, valued at N653.19 billion, were directly assigned to federal constituencies, while 1,972 projects, worth N444.04 billion, were allocated to senatorial districts.
Speaking with *Saturday PUNCH*, Sowunmi stated that the recurring controversy surrounding inflated budgets and unexecuted projects linked to lawmakers’ constituency allocations had severely eroded public confidence in the entire budgeting process.
“The problem with the National Assembly is how we end up with a process that we call constituency projects,” Sowunmi said.
“I feel we are coming to a point where we have to remove that from the privileges that the National Assembly members get, the reason being that the idea of constituency projects is what makes them incapable of doing oversight.”
He further elaborated on how these projects compromise legislative independence: “If lawmakers have to be lobbying ministries and agencies for contracts and all of that, that already means that there is a collaborative potential and a lack of independence between the legislature and the executive.”
Sowunmi maintained that constituency projects, initially conceived to allow lawmakers to deliver tangible benefits to their respective areas, have been severely abused.
“Constituency projects only crept into our democracy because the government was trying to figure out how to give them (lawmakers) something to take back to their people, but I think that the process is now over-abused,” he asserted.
The PDP chieftain firmly argued that constituency projects have devolved into a mere tool for political patronage and personal enrichment, rather than serving as a genuine vehicle for community development.
He passionately urged the Federal Government to abolish constituency projects entirely and redirect the substantial funds to more impactful and sustainable development programmes across the nation.
