Budget Padding: Lawmakers Have No Business With Constituency Projects – Akintola

It has been revealed that Nigerian lawmakers have no business with constituency projects.

This is accordig to a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Adeniyi Akintola.

He said the role of Senators in the constitution is to make laws that will enhance good governance.

Akintola stated this in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Thursday while reacting to the Senate’s allegation of padding the 2024 appropriation bill.

Akintola noted that under the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), the national assembly had no power to execute any project; it is the executive’s responsibility.

Akintola lamented how society had been aiding lawmakers in taking up duties that were not theirs.

He attributed this to the ignorance of the electorate, who, he said, kept on demanding national largess from their representatives.

“We cannot blame the national assembly members. The electorate doesn’t know that the national assembly’s function is to make laws and not to allocate projects.

“Unfortunately, it is the same electorate that will go to them and ask for largess, palliative or what have you,” he said.

The legal luminary stressed the need for political education of the electorate to enhance good governance in the country.

He said Nigerians should hold their lawmakers accountable and ensure that they see to the implementation of budgets as stipulated.