Constituency Project: Shehu Sani Explains Senate’s Sharing Formula

Former Senator representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has clarified the disparity in the Senate’s sharing formulas for the constituency project.

Naija News recalls that amidst the controversy trailing the alleged padding of the 2024 budget, the lawmaker representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Opeyemi Bamidele, confirmed that Senators received N500 million for constituency projects.

However, some lawmakers on the Labour Party (LP) platform claimed to have received N250 million for the constituency project.

Also, Delta North Senator, Ned Nwoko, boasted in a recent interview that he received as much as N1 billion from the 2024 budget for constituency projects.

In an interview with Naija News, Shehu Sani confirmed that legislators do not get the same amount for constituency projects.

According to him, there is a ranking in the Senate, and a senator is also likely to get more money if fewer senators are from his zone.

He said, “We have six geopolitical zones. What they do is to share the money equally to all these zones, and it would be shared to a number of senators in those zones. So if there are less senators in your zone, you are likely to get more money. In the Senate, all senators are not equal some get more constituency projects than others.

“If you are from the Northwest central part of Nigeria where we have about seven states, you have more senators but if you are from the Southeast where you have five states, you have less senators, so most likely people from that zone will get more money than senators from the north. But it also appears that there are some forms of calculations done, but naturally, principal officers are given more money than just lawmakers in the Senate. There is also ranking, principal officers, committee chairmen that is why some senators get more money than others.”