A presidential democracy like we operate in Nigeria has three branches of government at both the state and federal governments levels. They are, the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. As we all know, in Nigeria, states are the federating units and Nigeria presently consists of thirty-six states and a federal capital territory. Ideally, the most important branch of government is the LEGISLATURE because it is the only branch that has the power of APPROPRIATION without which the other branches cannot function. By the power of appropriation, it means that it is the branch that gives GLOBAL APPROVAL to all Revenues and Expenditures of all the branches.. It is to ensure the effective operation of the system of CHECKS AND BALANCES that the Executive Branch is seized with the SPENDING POWERS on what has been duly appropriated by the legislature. The Judicial branch is to interpret the laws and settle disputes among branches of government, tiers of government, citizens, foreigners, corporations, human and non-human entities. The president is the symbol of the Executive branch at the federal government level because, apart from the Vice President, all employees and appointees of the Executive branch are agents of the president. The president is therefore the single most important and powerful person in the federation. Only the president and Vice President are elected by the people in the Executive branch.

The legislature is made up of the elected representatives of the people. Though individually, they are no match to whoever is the president but collectively, they are more powerful than the president because they can REMOVE THE PRESIDENT FROM OFFICE. Legislature is therefore supposed to be made up of wise, deliberative and sober men and women because a lot is expected of them. The legislature makes the laws and creates the institutions around or with which the Executive branch operates. The mistake which is generally made is because the Executive has the power to incur expenditure, all attention is focused on it as if the other branches are mere appendages and not co-equal partners. The legislative agenda designed by the legislature shapes the direction of government and the contents of governance. A lot has been said about the legislature in Nigeria both at the federal and state levels albeit casting it in the negative light. I refrain from joining the bandwagon of those who do not see anything good in the legislature because I know that such people are ignorant of the place of the legislature as the immutable symbol of democratic government in Nigeria. Other branches of government exist no matter the type of government in place and only the absence of the legislature signposts the absence of democratic government in any country. Nigerians like democratic government but yet do not appreciate the existence and role of the legislature in any democracy. This is a paradox because you cannot have a presidential or any democracy without a legislature.

The more robust the legislature, the stronger and more meaningful the democracy. With its strategic position, why then is the legislature the least popular of the three branches of government? The reasons are threefold namely; a) they are the closest to the people and affect their sensibilities the most b) they harbor the highest number of crooks, journeymen and carpetbaggers of the three branches of government and c) the way they extort people just to perform their normal functions is indecent. In Nigeria for example, the legislature runs an opaque method of administration which is not amenable to transparency and accountability. They extort money and bribes from the Executive branch and their agencies before they perform their statutory functions. They are in the rat race for materialism and have chosen material comfort over HONOR, DIGNITY AND INTEGRITY. But the legislature is not where people go to make MONEY but where they go to make LAWS AND ENSURE GOOD GOVERNANCE for the people. The misunderstanding of this role by some legislators themselves is the reason those members of this important branch are in rat race to compete with members of the executive branch in terms of wealth and material acquisitions and possessions. This attitude is the reason the legislators appropriate so much funds to the branch with nothing to show for it.

Legislators as a result , have constituents who place so much financial burdens and demands on them forcing most of them to dabble into capital projects which ordinarily are within the mandate of the executive branch. This led Nigerian legislators to introduce what they now call the concept of CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS which some crooks among them have converted into SLUSH FUNDS for personal enrichment. Using the Anambra South Senatorial District as a case study, I observed that until Senator Patrick I. Ubah of the YPP became our representative in the Senate, we never knew that the CONSTITUENCY FUNDS which we normally read in the press were actually real. Therefore, for twenty years, our representatives both in the House of Representatives and the Senate had been collecting CONSTITUENCY FUNDS on our behalf without accounting for them. Such daylight robberies went unchallenged because the constituents never asked questions and took everything for granted. Our former representatives including the fellow that calls himself, Mr Project but who is now angling to be promoted into the Senate having spent twelve years in the House of Representatives have always used the fund for personal enrichment leaving the constituents high and dry. With Senator Patrick I. Ubah of the YPP we are about to enter Canaan and do not want the other man to take us back to Egypt. Senator Patrick I Ubah of the YPP is the only person who applied the Constituency funds to the peoples welfare and copiously added his personal money. That explains why they are rooting for him. That is why CONTINUITY FOR HIM IS IMPERATIVE. YOU DO NOT CHANGE A WINNING TEAM ESPECIALLY,AN HONEST AND KIND-HEARTED ONE LIKE SENATOR PATRICK IFEANYI UBAH of the YPP. Mr Project has been in the House of Representatives for good twelve years and have not bettered the lives of his constituents in any way. Instead, he is busy amassing ill-gotten wealths through the instrumentality of the constituency funds and other privileges while giving the people excuses and Cock and Bull stories. . A VOTE FOR SENATOR PATRICK IFEANYI UBAH OF THE YPP IS A FOR HONESTY AND TRANSPARENCY.

Previous representatives of the Anambra south senatorial district area in both the Senate and House of Representatives have cheated the people by misappropriating the constituency funds which were meant for their welfare. But it took providence in the effective representation of the people by Senator Patrick I. Ubah of the YPP to expose the unfortunate underhand dealings. We do not want to go back to the crooked era. Somebody calls himself MR PROJECT but is only interested in hugging and mounting signposts on projects executed by the Executive branch led by the president without any mention of whether or not any project has been executed with the huge amount collected for the CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS. I CHALLENGE THE SO-CALLED MR PROJECT TO SHOW US THE LIST OF PROJECTS EXECUTED WITH THE HUGE CONSTITUENCY FUNDS WHICH HE HAS BEEN RECEIVING ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OVER THE PAST TWELVE YEARS IF HE IS HONEST WITH THE PEOPLE as he claims. Electorates should not allow themselves to be deceived by the political platforms and parties used by some crooks to catapult themselves into the National Assembly but should rather weigh in on the effectiveness of such representations scrutinizing the individual concerned. People should not just be allowed to collect money on behalf of their constituents, funnel such funds into their PRIVATE POCKETS and come back to gaslight the voters.

We thank God for exposing the TRUTH BY BRINGING SOMEBODY LIKE SENATOR PATRICK I. UBAH OF THE YPP INTO THE MIX. Without him, these so-called REPRESENTATIVES would have been deceiving and telling us stories. There is a difference between the remunerations and perquisites of a representative and the money which he is given on behalf of the people such as constituency fund . I am only demanding ACCOUNTABILITY for the money collected on behalf of the people. For the so-called MR PROJECT from Nnewi, he should account for the huge money which he has received on behalf of the people over the past twelve years that he has been in the National Assembly. This money is built in the NATIONAL BUDGET PASSED ANNUALLY BY THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. We are talking of gargantuan sums collected over the past twelve years which remains unaccounted for. It is not impossible that Mr Project makes some RETURNS to members of the CLIQUE/STAKEHOLDERS who sustain him in office and are bent on asphyxiating the people by holding them down in perpetuity. To these people, effective performance does not matter, what matters is CULTIC LOYALTY. EVERYDAY FOR THE THIEF AND ONE DAY FOR THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE. The day of reckoning has come and Mr Project should account for what he has done with our money in the PAST TWELVE YEARS. It is unwholesome attitudes like this which continually diminishes the legislature in the eyes of the Nigerian people. People call them all sorts of names because of characters whose stock in trade is swindling the people they are meant to represent.

Legislators are not members of the Executive branch and their effectiveness is measured by the BILLS THEY SPONSORED FOR THE WELFARE OF THEIR PEOPLE and the institutions they attract to their constituencies in aid of development. They are Problem-Solvers who bring the peculiar problems and needs of their constituencies to the floor of the National Assembly to be legislated upon and for solutions. Mr Project should show us the BILLS WHICH HE SPONSORED IN THE THREE SESSIONS HE HAS STAYED IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. It is not a case of behaving like a harmless MIMILO while steadily LYING TO the people. People now believe that they can wangle their ways to power by using filthy money to buy their ways into SUCCESS IN PARTY PRIMARIES and thereafter use the goodwill of the political party to hoodwink the people. We owe it as a duty to posterity to puncture such balloons of lies and expose such pretentious maneuvers. It is time we separated the WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF. A critical analysis revealed that Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah of the YPP sponsored more BILLS in the Senate in less than four years than Mr Project sponsored in his entire twelve years in the National Assembly . This is verifiable and not the bogus claims which are meant to deceive the unsuspecting. I have been depressed since I found out this reality. Pitiful!!!!!

……………………………………

Godson O. Moneke, a quantity surveyor, economist, sociologist, administrator and sociopolitical advocate wrote from Abuja.