As the details of the 2016 Budget continues to unfold, it has emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari has slashed the N100 billion Constituency funds meant for the 469 Senatorial Districts and Federal Constituencies to N60 billion.
The President ordered the reduction, a situation which has placed the constituencies of the Principal Officers in the Senate and House of Representatives in jeopardy.
The National Assembly has since 2008 struck an agreement with the Federal Government whereby some projects are set aside for execution in the 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 House of Representatives seats through different Ministries and parastatals.
The projects are designated as constituency projects, though, some Nigerians went away with the impression that the funds are allocated to the lawmakers.
The amount meant for execution of the projects have remained constant at N100 billion in the past years, with each geopolitical zone getting N10 billion, while the balance of N40 billion is spread among the Senatorial Districts and Federal Constituencies of the Principal and Presiding officers in the two chambers.
Investigations however confirmed that while the President government has agreed to continue to fund the Constituency projects, it has however indicated that the amount would be slashed to N60 billion.
It was gathered that the Senators and members of the House of Representatives have been requested to submit details of the project to be executed in their constituencies to the Committees on Appropriation in the two chambers.
Sources affirmed that the cut would affect the N40 billion meant for execution of projects in the constituencies of Principal Officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, as according to a source, all the constituencies are only to now benefit from the N60 billion allocations.
“Now that the sum of N40 billion is being removed from the constituencies of the Senate President, the Speaker, their Deputies and the other Principal officers, a huge distortion might occur in the manner the allocations are made,” one of the lawmakers said.
