“Irrespective of the manner in which Nigerians have been impoverished to the point whereby certain citizens in the country can hardly live on one dollar per day, impunity is being celebrated in the face of daunting corruption.” This is according to rights activist, comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi.
He says that certain public office holders who are obviously corrupt are being celebrated and impunity goes on without punishment meted out on the perpetrators of those corrupt acts. “If proper investigation is carried out, discoveries will show that most of the monies which these politicians lavish for political activities are the ones meant for certain constituency projects.”
Comr. Zikirullahi further charged the media and civil society to promote transparency and accountability in the planning and delivery of constituency projects in Kano, while giving his welcome statement at a media and civil society engagement on fostering transparency and accountability in constituency project service project delivery organized by the Resource Center for Civic Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED).
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Meanwhile, Barrister Nuhu Musa, a senior lecturer at Bayero University Kano (BUK) stated that the lack of a legal framework which regulates constituency projects delivery in the country is heightening corruption among public office holders, noting that while some citizens are enjoying the delivery of some constituency projects, others continue to be impoverished as a result of the poor service delivery in communities.
“The absence of a legal framework that clearly spells out how constituency projects should be carried out, as well as monitoring mechanisms makes corruption thrive. Asides from Lagos state which has such a law, the national assembly, and the other thirty-five states do not have such a law that specifically explains how the projects should be carried out.
“Once such law exists secrecy which exists in the running of constituency projects will be a thing of the past. I urge the media to advocate for such law to be enacted across states in Nigeria.” He concluded.
Similarly, Hajiya Hadiza Ibrahim, a lecturer in the department of mass communication in BUK points out that fact checking of constituency in the delivery of constituency project has become imperative because oftentimes, politicians lie about carrying out certain projects whereas in reality, such projects do not exist.
“If effective fact checking isn’t carried out by journalists, certain public office holders will mislead the journalists and the larger public, which will in turn affect the credibility of a medium, hence the importance of fact checking. Verification of information before sharing is much needed in this age when false information is everywhere.” She said.
