This present National Assembly is not entirely useless

Chambers Umezulike January 27, 2017 0

Thoughts on the Interrogation of the NGN 9.2 billion Women Clean Cook Stove Project Saga by the Federal House of Representatives

 

I have been involved in several dialectics on the practical importance of the National Assembly (NASS) since 1999. Most of such dialectics have ended with the conclusion that the institution has been a gross waste while levying the country so much. The foundation of this conclusion is rooted on several actualities. First, since 1999, the NASS has been used as a compensatory platform to settle former politicians and a mechanism for accentuating a post-1999 outbreak of political patronage in Nigeria. In short, the institution has directly supervised the proliferation and culturalization of contemporary corruption in the country. Secondly, the leadership crisis the Senate experienced from 1990 to 2003 started occasioning some elements of incertitude on the minds of Nigerians on what could be the real essence of such institution. Thirdly, one cannot remember any bills from the National Assembly that has had any impacts on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

Fourthly, since 2007, despite a peroration of leadership crisis in the Senate, the NASS then became a traditional resort and relaxation point for failed and grossly corrupt governors, who siphoned all their states had, and were seeking ways to get covered with some sort of immunity from prosecution. To some of the lawmakers, it was a tool of still being relevant and in the political game. Fifthly, what irritates most Nigerians also encompass the fact that over 5 per cent of our national budget goes to the National Assembly. Conversely, such expenditure has been immersed in extensive secrecy with even pedestrian knowledge-deficit on what they do with such percentage. Sixthly, the NASS has gross-transparency and accountability deficit. The Nigerian lawmakers are the most paid all over the world, with humongous amounts of constituency allowances for implementing projects in their constituencies which they do not account for.

I am personally an exponent of this narrative that NASS has been a colossal waste up to this point, since 1999. I am part of those advocating that law-makers remuneration should be grossly cut to de-incentivize the transposition of clueless politicians to either of the chambers. While law-making should be a part-time activity. I am also part of those advocating for the eradication of constituency allowances since there are no monitoring and evaluation regime to ensure project implementation. I am also part of those advocating for the concatenation of the two chambers. Ultimately, I am part of those strongly advocating for #OpenNASS.

However, despite the inadequacies of the NASS including the present one, and the fact that it is still business as usual, one would be sincere of the fact that this present NASS ain’t that entirely useless. If you could remember, they were the ones that stopped the government from borrowing $30 billion while there were no plans on what to use it for. They were the ones that suspended the sale of national assets. They were the ones that suspended the increment on phone data tariffs. They have indeed made some critical interventions whether they did this in the interest of Nigerians or for political intricacies.

Consequently, just few days ago, the Federal House of Representatives (HOR) commissioned its committees on Anti-Corruption, Environment and Habitat to carry off an investigation over the last administration’s “Clean Stove For Rural Women Project,” which was under the Ministry of Environment. The project was at NGN 9.287 billion and initiated in 2014 to supply 750,000 units of clean stoves and 18,000 wonderbags to rural women. If you could remember so well, the project was chaperoned by a saga, resultantly from ambiguity in its contracting processes, cause celebre on the number of stoves that were procured and dynamics of the 2015 political transition.

This is a project that Connected Development’s Follow The Money (a grass-root anti-corruption movement) has been tracking its spending since 2014. The organization subsequently found out that only 45,000 clean cookstoves were provided and exhibited at the Velodrome of the National Stadium in Abuja. In addition, it also revealed that out of the 9.2 billion Naira, Federal Ministry of Finance only released N5 billion to the Federal Ministry of Environment for the execution of the project, and the Ministry of Environment only released 1.3 billion Naira to the contractor of the project – Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited. Till today, no one has seen any single beneficiary of the cookstoves.

It’s beautiful that the present NASS has also intervened in another great area through this investigation. I hope the investigation would not be compromised but would rather springboard appurtenant sanctions for those that compromised the rule of law in the process of the project.  I also wish to call on the Committees involved to implement this investigation in an open manner so that all relevant stakeholders (civil society and the media) can witness it to share findings, narratives and ensure transparency in such effort.

 

Chambers Umezulike is a Program Officer at Connected Development and a Development Expert. He spends most of his time writing and choreographing researches on good and economic governance. He tweets via @Prof_Umezulike.

Aftermath Poor Implementation of #WomenCookstoves Project: Stakeholders Urge New Minister of Environment to Support Local Markets for Alternative Energies

codepress November 17, 2015 0

Connected Development’s [CODE]  Follow The Money project, held its’ fifth stakeholders meeting on the 9.2 billion Naira allocated for the procurement of 750,000 Clean cookstoves and 18,000 wonderbags on 12th November, 2015 . The forum was strategized to share insights and knowledge gaps as the billion naira project did not get to the rural women it was meant for.

The event which took place at Reiz Continental Hotel Abuja, had in attendance, representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Ecological Fund Office, journalists and the civil society. Sharing the findings of its Follow The Money team, Monitoring and Evaluation expert, Oludotun Babayemi, said that the initiative found out that clean cookstoves that was exhibited by the former Ministry of Environment was not newly purchased, and that from findings, these were clean cookstoves that was meant for a project initiated two years ago.   

CODE M & E expert,Oludotun Babayemi, discussing findings of Follow The Money initiative

He further hinted the stakeholders that the contractor – Integra Renewable Energy cannot be reached as they have vacated the building used as their office. Likewise, stating that after several meetings with the Ecological Fund Office officials, it could not be ascertained if the 4 billion remaining in the Ecological Funds for this project still remains in their coffers “It’s like a tracking platform where we track funds when they are being released to when it gets to the community itself” said Babayemi, as he further explained the involvement of Follow The Money in the allocated 9.2 billion Naira Clean cookstoves project.

The representative from the Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Yusuf, Kemi Ahmed, though unaware of the complete situation concerning the stoves said that options such as subsidizing the cost for local manufacturers would have been a better solution as it all boiled down to affordability and that the federal government should have gone for greater advocacy to sensitize rural women on the benefit of the clean cookstoves as they are main users of firewood.

Mr. Uwem Ujeh, from the Ecological Fund Office [EFO] also expressed his lack of thorough knowledge on the clean cookstoves project and said that the EFO does not initiate projects but rather projects are initiated by communities in need, civil society organisations or other ministries. He added that there was always an implementing agency in case of all projects funded by the office, and in the case of clean cookstoves, it was the ministry of environment, as such, projects are not necessarily funded by the EFO but money released by the ministry of finance into the ecological fund office’s account was used to fund projects.

Mr. Eluma, a deputy director from the Ecological Fund Office expressed dismay at the absence of any representative from the ministry of environment to further explain what went wrong or what progress was being made as regards the project.

While commenting on the issue, Mrs. Onuvae Precious, from Nigerian Alliance for Clean cookstoves noted that a one-page fact sheet stating an alternative use of the funds would be a better option than procuring and distributing the stoves for free which would undermine the market development goal of the Nigerian Alliance of Clean Cookstoves.

Mr. Tunde Salman, from the Good Governance Monitoring Group, noted the scarcity of resources in the country and that the government shouldn’t involved itself with buying stoves as this would support rent seeking and collection and at the end of the day the product would not reach the beneficiaries.

In his final address, Mr. Babayemi, noted that the next stakeholders meeting would be focusing on the great green wall project, which is a planned project to plant a wall of trees across Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara desert as a means to prevent desertification and to track funds that have been released by the Nigerian government.