Gbenga Daniel wants senators to get more money for constituency projects

Gbenga Daniel who recently made headlines in his request to suspend his pension payment as a former governor while he’s a senator says he is open to the possibility of increasing funds that lawmakers receive to execute constituency projects to court goodwill of their constituents.

“I think going forward, what may happen is the possibility of looking at the law again and ensuring that for these constituency projects, a lot more is given to lawmakers, because that’s the only thing people want to hear,” he said.

The federal lawmakers statutorily get allocations in the annual budget to execute intervention projects in their constituencies. Even though the process has been plagued for years by a lack of transparency, senators are believed to receive ₦‎200 million annually to execute these projects.

The lawmakers don’t get the funds directly and are only mandated to identify useful projects for their constituents, but critics believe they have an undue influence on who gets awarded the contracts, leaving room for corruption.

However, notwithstanding the cloud of uncertainty over the administration of constituency projects, Daniel, a former Ogun governor who served eight years between 2003 and 2011 and currently the senator representing Ogun East, said the fund should be increased to make it easier for lawmakers to meet the needs of their constituencies.

The former governor who said his position is premised on the wrong perception Nigerians have about what the roles of lawmakers should be noted that the job of a lawmaker should primarily be about making laws, but constituents are more interested in projects they can see with their eyes.

“The level of poverty is such that they just say, ‘Look, the governor is doing his job; you too as a senator, what are you bringing home? Where are the roads you’re tarring? What have you facilitated?’

“When you’re not able to do that, you better be sure that from your allowances, you’re doing a lot of things,” he said.

The constituency projects allocation was first introduced in 1999 after lawmakers complained about their constituents demanding to see the dividends of democracy in their immediate environments.

Daniel lamented that he would not be perceived as a successful lawmaker if he doesn’t have projects to show during his time in office. He said this explains why he doesn’t support slashing the allowances of lawmakers because they have to satisfy their people somehow, even from their own private pockets.