The Senator representing Delta North, Ned Nwoko, has disclosed that he attracted N1 billion for constituency projects.
Nwoko disclosed this during a chat with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye on ‘Mic On Podcast’.
The revelation follows a recent interest in allocations for constituency projects for federal lawmakers in the wake of Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe’s – representing Cross River North – disclosure that some “senior” senators got N500 million for projects.
Jarigbe spoke during the Senate’s deliberations on the allegation by Senator Abdul Ningi, who has now been suspended, that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion.
Days after the suspension, when asked if he received as much as N1 billion in allocation, Senator Nwoko said: “Of course I did. But these are projects for my people and that is why I am here.”
But he would have preferred that the constituency project allocation to every senator be fixed.
“The way it is done now, you basically rely on your weights and contacts to see what you can get for your people,” Senator Nwoko said.
“Well, it is just the system. Just the system. It is a system in Nigeria… like I said, I’d have preferred a situation where we all know what we are getting — you don’t need to lobby for it and it is a standard thing.
“Everyone of the 109 senators from the onset should know what is going on in their particular district and it should be published.
“A better approach would have been for senatorial uniformity. So if they say that everyone should get about N1 billion, so be it. But this way, you rely on your weight and contacts to see what you can get for your people.
“This is not money for us. It is money for projects within our senatorial districts. So if you have roads, water projects, training programmes all aggregate to a certain sum.”
The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, said presiding and principal officers got more in constituency project allocation because “some animals are more equal than others”.
