CSO Faults Abuja Lawmakers For Prioritising Streetlights Installation Over Education, Healthcare

By; PETER NOSAKHARE, Kaduna

A civil society organisation (CSO), MonITNG, has faulted lawmakers representing Abuja, Ireti Kingibe, Ajiya Abdulrahman and Joshua Chinedu Obika, for prioritising streetlights installation and vehicle purchases over education and healthcare.

In a statement shared at the weekend, the CSO compared the amounts allocated for the installation of streetlights and vehicle purchases with education and healthcare allocations in the Federal Government budget.

For instance, 150 million Naira was budgeted for solar streetlights in selected communities, while another 100 million Naira will light up Apo Legislators’ Quarters.

100 million Naira was earmarked for provision of vehicles for traditional rulers, and 75 million Naira for distributing household items, while 25 million Naira was approved to supply 35 desktop computers to Orozo Secondary School, 50 million Naira for “educational grants” to indigent students, and 50 million Naira for a one-off medical outreach.

While drawing a comparison between both, the CSO described the health and education allocations as “tokens”, adding that over one billion, one hundred million Naira was allocated to “projects that serve as political patronage” instead of responding to pressing community challenges like primary health centres without medicines and schools with proper educational facilities.

“The state of education, water, and health facilities in Abuja’s satellite communities remains in ruins. Many schools are overcrowded, with dilapidated classrooms, no libraries, and no laboratories.

“Primary health centres lack drugs, equipment, and personnel. Entire communities in Abaji, Kwali, and Gwagwalada still struggle with unsafe drinking water, forcing families to depend on streams and wells. These are the urgent needs that should have guided budget nominations, but they were ignored,” MonITNG lamented.

The CSO further noted that the projects were assigned to agencies that lack the mandate to execute them. It cited examples of tertiary institutions such as the College of Veterinary and Medical Laboratory Technology in Vom, Plateau State, the Federal College of Horticulture in Gombe, and the Cooperative College in Oji River, being assigned to implement projects in the FCT.

Another CSO, BudgIT, has, in the past, criticised legislators for assigning budgetary projects to Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) that lack the mandate to execute them, pointing to this as a significant issue alongside duplicated projects and a general lack of transparency in the budgeting process.