Assessment of the Effects of the National Assembly Constituency Projects in Ukwa East – Ukwa West Federal Constituency, Abia State from 2011 – 2019
Thesis
Given the controversies that had trailed the issue of constituency project in terms of its constitutionality, legality, and mechanism for delivering democratic dividends to the people, this research seeks to assess the effects of National Assembly Constituency Projects in Ukwa East/Ukwa West Federal Constituency, Abia State from 2011 – 2019. The main objective was to determine the status of the constituency projects in the constituency in terms of functionality. Other objectives were: to examine the effect of the constituency projects on the constituents; to ascertain the role of the people in the selection, implementation, and management of the projects, and determine the factors that influenced the siting of the projects and whether the projects were evenly distributed. The study reviewed the literature on the role of the legislature in promoting good governance and highlighted the concept of constituency projects, the emergence of constituency projects in Nigeria’s democracy, and other climes. The theoretical framework employed by the researcher to interpret the result of the study was the Principal-Agent Theory. The research method employed was descriptive design, which utilised a purposive sampling technique with the application of the krejcie & Morgan table for determining sample size for research activities. Respondents were selected from the constituents of the political wards of the LGAs that constitute the constituency. Quantitative data were collected using interviews and questionnaires administered to respondents. The study employed secondary data from Appropriation Acts and documents from the National Assembly committee on ZIP. The data collated were cleaned, categorised, analysed, and discussed. The findings of the study were: that the constituency projects were sited in the constituency during the period under review which aided development, provided jobs, and improved the wellbeing of the people; that most of the projects were completed and functional; and that the projects sited in the constituency were the preferred projects of the constituents; and observed that the constituency projects were not fairly allocated across the LGAs that consist the constituency. The study recommended that for the legislators to play their representative function effectively, especially in the delivery of democratic dividends to the people, there is a need for them to ensure that constituents’ priority projects are recommended. Thus, constituents should be carried along in the selection, implementation, and management of the projects to ensure the effectiveness of the policy; the executive should promptly release ZIP allocation funds to ensure completion and functionality of the projects to curb abandonment and waste of public resources; the National Assembly should enact legal framework to prescribe the implementation and management of the ZIP, and intensify its oversight function to safeguard transparency and accountability to improve the impact of the policy on the welfare of the people. Finally, constituency projects should be evenly located between the LGAs that constitute the constituency to ensure equality and balanced development. The Constituency Project Policy was a commendable one, it is hoped that this policy should be sustained to provide democratic dividends to the citizens and continue improvement of the socio-economic lives of the people.