Misappropriation Of N500b Development Fund, Cause Of Insecurity, Emergence Of IPOB In South-East – Civil Society Group Alleges
A Civil Society Group under the aegis of Association for Public Policy Analysis (APPA) has come hard on Southeast Lawmakers at the National Assembly accusing them of the cause of the growing insecurity in the South-South zone of Nigeria.
In their analysis, the group revealed that within the period of five years under review, a total of N449,487,676,361 was appropriated to the South-East but unfortunately no accountability of the said fund.
The group decried the negative negative effect of the alleged situation, which remains a core factor to the growing insecurity in the region, including the emergence of the proscribed ‘Independent People of Biafra’ (IPOB), which gave birth to the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Meanwhile, like other region of the country, Southeast is also faced with daunting challenges of criminality ranging kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking among others.
APPA insists that the worst culprits are those who mismanaged squandered the resources allocated to the region, describing them as worse criminals whose stewardship of inhumanity led people into crimes.
Comrade Princewill Okorie said that what constitute National Security goes beyond military actions or that of the police and other paramilitary but concern the overall areas of the duties of the government that boarder on the well-being of the citizenry.
Speaking during the group’s press conference, Okorie said, “We are encouraged to do this in recognition of our constitutional assigned duty as Nigerian citizens in section 25 (b, c, d and e) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”
Calling on the members of the National Assembly under review, he said, “Let all the National Assembly Members and Federal Executive Council from the South East zone render account of how the projects appropriated by the Federal Government for the zone during their tenure since 2016 of Buhari administration were handled and how citizens of the zone benefited.”
He frowned at the fact that there is no copy of Budget in all the local government areas in the South-East.
The statement reads, “No copy of the Federal Budget is available in any of the 95 Local Government Councils of the Zone. Even the members of All Progressives Congress in the zone whose party is leading Federal Government has no information on these projects to give to South-East people.
It is this failure of political leaders of the zone to apply transparency and accountability principles of good governance that has created room for young men of the zone to claim that the zone is marginalized and abandoned. Hence, the security challenges allegedly caused by activities of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Survival of Biafra (MASOB). “
The group revealed how much that has been allocated to the five States of the South-East, which came to about N500 billion, which ought to have made the region an eldorado.
Read the statement below:
PRESS STATEMENT
PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI SHOULD SET UP FEDERAL PROJECTS ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADVOCACY COMMITTEE TO PROMOTE LOVE FOR THE COUNTRY AMONG CITIZENS AND REDUCE INSECURITY.
Gentlemen and women of the press, we are constrained to invite you to lend our voice and proffer solution as Public Policy Analysts to the current challenging security situation in our beloved country Nigeria.
We are encouraged to do this in recognition of our constitutional assigned duty as Nigerian citizens in section 25 (b, c, d and e) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
These sections states as follows:
(b) Help to enhance the power, prestige and good name of Nigeria, defend Nigeria and render such national service as may be required.
c) Respect the dignity of other citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of others and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood.
(d) Make positive and useful contribution to the advancement, progress and well-being of the community where he resides.
“(e) Render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order.
“It is based on the above constitutional provisions that we unveiled Federal Projects/Policies Advocacy and Monitoring Programme (FEPAM) in October, 2019.
The objective was to advocate for execution of Federal Projects at the States, monitor and report on findings with regards to execution status. In other to practically demonstrate our commitment to FEPAM, we extracted, analyzed and documented capital appropriations made for five South-East States in Federal Appropriations Act (Federal Budget) from 2016 to 2020. The exercise made us discover that 5,242 projects were appropriated for the five States.
From 2016 – 2020 as follows:
Abia State
997 Projects
N105,103,004,876
Anambra State
1,250 Projects
N114,917,733,625
Ebonyi State
734 Projects
N48,078,351,599
Enugu
962 Projects
N117,244,273,497
Imo State
1,299 Projects
N64,144,312,764
Total
5,242 Projects
N 449,487,676,361
It is saddening to observe that South-East Zone has about 45 members of House of Representatives, 16 members of Senate and about 6 Ministers in the Federal Executive Council, yet no accountability record on these projects is available in the Zone.
No copy of the Federal Budget is available in any of the 95 Local Government Councils of the Zone. Even the members of All Progressives Congress in the zone whose party is leading Federal Government has no information on these projects to give to South-East people.
It is this failure of political leaders of the zone to apply transparency and accountability principles of good governance that has created room for young men of the zone to claim that the zone is marginalized and abandoned. Hence, the security challenges allegedly caused by activities of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Survival of Biafra (MASOB).
Unfortunately, instead of addressing the issues of non execution and non accountability on Federal Projects execution in the zone.
The Governors are tinkering with idea of setting up Zonal security outfit. We make bold to say that the foundation of challenges of insecurity in South-East Zone is the abuse of the rights of the citizens of the zone by the political elites who refuse to account for projects that have been appropriated for the zone. Therefore, instead of dissipating energy and wasting resources to establish South East security outfit by the Governors, they should set up South-East Federal Projects Advocacy and Accountability Centres in the five States to monitor and report on execution of Federal Projects appropriated for the zone by the Federal Government.
For example, the current Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma was in the Senate from 2016 to 2019 before he became Governor of Imo State in 2020. He is now implementing recovery agenda. It will be morally right for him to extend it to all the National Assembly members from Imo State that have been at the National Assembly since eight years among whom he is one of them.
Let all the National Assembly Members and Federal Executive Council from the South East zone render account of how the projects appropriated by the Federal Government for the zone during their tenure since 2016 of Buhari administration were handled and how citizens of the zone benefited.
If they all account for their roles in execution of projects appropriated for the State under their watch, Imo people and South-East People by extension will appreciate the effort of the Federal Government and identify those that have held the development of the zone down.
Our experience since the public presentation of the Budget Analysis Brief on Capital Appropriations for South-East States on 10th December, 2020 have not been a good one, especially from institutions of State i.e. Federal Government that have responsibility for release of funds, procurement, fiscal policy and expenditure monitoring, the National Assembly to mention but a few. It is for this reason that we are constrained to seek intervention and partnership with the Nigerian media. FEPAM is a national project, but, we commenced budget analysis from the South-East Geo-Political Zone because of the issues of marginalisation, abandonment and neglect in federal projects which some citizens of the zone are raising.
Generally, the spate of insecurity in the country today manifesting in form of kidnapping, rape, robbery etc calls for the need to appraise the nation’s national security policy to identify what has gone wrong.
The authors of the Draft National Defence Policy described security of the nation as @an all encompassing condition in which citizens can live in freedom, peace, safety, participate fully in the process of governance enjoy the protection of fundamental rights, have aces to resources and necessities of life, and inhabit an environment which is conducive to their health and well-being (RDNDP-1-2).
In addition to the above is the provision of section 14 (2) (b) of the constitution which provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government and section 16 (2) which States that the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring (b) that the resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good.
In our opinion, the above provisions of the Constitution made it imperative that the Executive and Legislative arms of the Federal Government appropriated resources for provision of social amenities that enhances the economic and social well-being of citizens. It is expected that these amenities such as schools, hospitals, roads, empowerment and agricultural Projects and programmes captured in the annual budgets shall enhance the socio-economic conditions of Nigerian citizens.
The idea is that, with the execution of these projects and programmes, youths will get employed, professionals and skilled men and women will have jobs to do and earn money to solve their problems. This will enhance peace and security as idle minds or frustrated youths will be few.
On the negative side, failure to execute these projects will create room for negative views about the country and its leadership. Idle and hungry youths could be pushed into wrong ways of living such as crime which leads to insecurity. Recent survey has revealed that unemployment rate in the country now stands at 33.3% while 23.18 million Nigerians are unemployed.
This is the reason why it has become not only imperative but also urgent that Federal Government under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should in effort to curb crimes of Physical Insecurity such as Kidnapping, rapes, robbery among others.
It is also to curb the official crime of diversion of funds meant for execution of Federal Projects in States, failure to monitor contractors to ensure they deliver according to specification, failure to make public, releases made by Federal Government for execution of Federal Projects in States, failure to monitor and report on expenditures made for implementation of annual federal budgets, these acts are similar to crimes of Physical crime of kidnapping if not worst because the perpetrators take advantage of public trust bestowed on them as public officials to deny millions of Nigerian citizens the opportunity of benefitting from resources of Federal Government.
Whereas the kidnapper holds unto few victims in a particular area, an official criminal who perpetrates the above acts destroys the well being and destiny of uncountable number of citizens located in different parts of the country. The worst is that, these official criminals desecrate the laws of the land by disobeying the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the oath of office they took. For example, failure to build hospitals appropriated for, will lead to death of millions of citizens it was meant for. Failure to establish a school would lead to emergence of illiterate persons in their hundreds and thousands.
The provision of enabling environment that makes crime thrive in Nigeria manifests more on the Legislative side.
National Assembly members have Constituency offices expected to assist them deliver their legislative functions to their constituents.
In view of section 88 (1) (b) which gave the legislature (National Assembly) the power to investigate into the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, Ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for;
Disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by the national Assembly.
Executing or Administering Laws Enacted By The National Assembly, and.
The powers conferred on the national assembly under the provision of this section are exercise able only for the purpose of enable it to.
make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defeats in existing laws; and
expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.
In view of these provisions, one wonders why the legislators at the National Assembly are not enforcing these provisions to ensure that projects which they appropriated funds for are executed.
In most Federal Constituencies and Senatorial Districts, citizens are not aware of what is appropriated for them because needs assessments are neither conducted by the Legislature nor Executive arm at that level. Since constituents are kept in the dark about projects, locations, specifications, amounts appropriated or released, some legislators take advantage of their constituents, connive with their fellow oppressive criminal minds in the executive to divert funds meant for the projects to their personal use. Since they are the only ones with the power to raise such issues at the floor of the House, the matter dies down as they will not raise it. The Executive arm is intimidated to raise such issues for fear of not being punished by the National Assembly refusing to approve their next year’s budget. Most traditional rulers who would have spoken the truth to power in this circumstance have been compromised by the legislators through insignificant gifts which results in some traditional rulers mobilizing some compromised youths in communities to hack down on citizens who try to raise issues of accountability on the performance of their elected representatives or appointees.
ladies and gentlemen of the media, from the above analysis, we can all agree that fight against insecurity in Nigeria today must not be left to only the military and Security Agencies alone. The President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari need to urgently constitute Federal Projects Advocacy and Accountability committee to deal with public servants and legislators who create conducive environment for crime and insecurity to thrive in the Country. Given the definition of National Security provided by Draft National Defence Policy, such conduct of Government officials which provide fertile grounds for crime and insecurity should be prevented and the perpetrators identified and dealt with as official criminals in the nation’s quest for security, unity and peace.
Thank you for coming
Comrade Princewill Okorie
National President,
Association for Public Policy Analysis.
