(http://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/constitution-150x150.jpg)
In any democratic settings, there may either be presidential or parliamentary system of government, whereby the executive power is held by executive president or prime minister as the case may be.
Government policies and programmes are executed in accordance with laid down rules and procedures for the benefits of individuals and the country as a whole.
The rules and procedures are codified for the sake of peace and orderliness and individual functionaries know the guiding principles under which they operate with the sole aim of knowing the limitations of their jurisdiction to avoid conflict and to peg laxities in the execution of government businesses.
The legislative arm enacts and makes law for the stability of any country. This comes in form of bills that are introduced to the floor of the house and usually, every bill needs a simple majority or any modality for the passage of a bill before any bill can become an act of parliament.
Whenever a bill is passed by the house, the president or the prime minister gives his assent. In extreme cases, the members in the legislative house veto their proposal if the document is refused assent by the executive.
The complimentary arm is the judiciary which sees to conflict resolution in the day to day running of government. The judiciary interprets the law and sees to it that conflicts and disorderliness are reduced to the barest minimum.
Where there is overlapping of functions, the judiciary draws attention to the relevant portion of the constitution to settle the conflict that may arise for peace and tranquility to reign.
The principle of checks and balances confers on each of the three arms the power to influence one another such that no arm is absolutely independent of the other. This principle erodes absolutism in governance and anarchy that may originate there from.
From independence in 1960, up to the second republic between 1979 and 1983, project execution was the sole responsibility of the executive arm of government. The legislature then exercised the power of oversight to ensure that budgetary provisions are judiciously adhere to, in order to reduce the incidences of unexecuted and abandoned projects; although this was on paper.
What obtains in the current dispensation is remarkably different. We now have what is called constituency allowance which is the money allocated for specified projects in federal constituencies of the whole country. The senators have their own constituency projects as their counterparts in the house of representatives.
Major in this category are boreholes, health centres, recreation centres, vocational centres amongst others. The proponents of this constituency project idea were of the opinion that they will enable the elected representatives in the two chambers of the National assembly to be closer to their constituencies.
They will be able to foster concrete synergy that will ensure face to face interaction and bring to the knowledge of elected representatives what the needs of the people are in accordance with the dictum of two heads that are better than one.
The problem of skewed development will also abate.From 1999 to date when the concept of constituency. Project holds sway, a lot has been said about the claim of inevitability by the people concerned.
Many have argued that it was introduced by the regime of former president Olusegun Obasanjo with the sole intention of currying the goodwill of the legislators.
Some have even concluded that what he had in mind was to pave a leeway for his punctured third term agenda which would have prompted the globally condemned sit tight syndrome that many African countries have fought against in recent time.
Others have argued that it is a worth while programme if only those whose duty it is to manage the fund are honest enough to channel the fund rightly.
From what we can see around us, we can easily conclude that both arguments are right. Unfortunately when some policies are defective, the authors may not be there again to advance moves for their repudiation.
If they do after leaving office, the incumbents may not take the call serious, especially if they can derive benefits without taking responsibility for their existence.
What is required is to be rational with whatever we are doing so that it will be possible for periodic review of policies and programmes for them to be more beneficial to the society.
Any programme that has been discovered to have high value for benefiting communities can still be worked upon to increase the utility value.
The greatest problem that is bedeviling most constituency projects is the non-suability of most of them either due to non-completion or because those who initiated the projects are no longer in office.
Worse still, successive governments may not have the political will that will ensure the proper maintenance of projects that do not directly originate from their vision statements.
Many of these projects are at various stages of completion but have turned derelicts just because those who started them are no longer in power.
Some of the projects are also not in tandem with the needs of the people.
For instance, a senator that was voted out of office this year in Osun Central initiated and established a cottage hospital in a small community of Olorunda Local Government when it is evident that the comprehensive health centre that is already in existence is underutilized because of the population size.
The cottage hospital has been completed, but it is yet to be equipped and commissioned, and the surrounding is now overgrown with weeds. Only God knows what will become of it.
Programme and project initiation and implementation must follow policy direction that is principally aimed at achieving certain goals and objectives that will impact positively on the masses.
Tax payers' money should be put to good use so that this country can move towards eradicating certain problems which are fundamental to our growth and development. One of these is the prudent management of our scarce resources.
Change in government must not result in utter abandonment of programmes and projects that have reached advanced stages of completion Government must be a continuum since the same people are direct beneficiaries of any government in power.
Articulation of policies and progrmames is the only way to move the nation forward so that we can get to the level of standing tall amongst the nations of the world.
Nigeria now ranks 6th in the world in terms of population density. Every aspect of our lives must show that we have indeed come of age to showcase ourselves as rational beings who know what to do with what we have.
Constituency projects in the hands of legislators can stay if they will add values to human lives. Otherwise, the executive arm should be left with projects execution.
Osun Defender