Ireti Kingibe’s claims on first-year constituency projects in FCT had more flaws than facts

Ireti Kingibe, the Labour Party senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), marked her first year in office on 12 June. A few weeks later, she celebrated the occasion by listing, on her verified X account (archived), legislative motions, bills, and constituency projects she had sponsored within one year in office.

Her claim included facilitating road construction at Kpaduma, Karu, and Gwagwalada. She also listed streetlights at Karamajiji, Mpape, Kwali, and Jikwoyi, an ongoing 50-bed hospital at Dobi, and a Consultant Office Block construction at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, as part of her achievements.

Based on DUBAWA’s count, she made claims about 29 projects in total. For most, she did not mention locations, but DUBAWA tracked nine identifiable projects to investigate the lawmaker’s claims as part of our accountability responsibility.

Illustration of Kingibe’s claims under focus. Designed by Phillip Anjorin)

The true claims

Out of the nine projects, DUBAWA found three projects to be true. We started with the 50-bed hospital at Dobi, Gwagwalada, which the senator mentioned as “ongoing.” On a visit in early August, this reporter met an uncompleted project at the site, a walking distance from the existing health care centre in the community.

Ongoing 50-bed hospital at Dobi. Photo credit: Phillip Anjorin)

For her second verified project, we went to Ishan Road in Karu and confirmed existing reports of 6km of asphalt road construction.

We proceeded to the Karamajiji community, where she claimed to have facilitated the instalment of 22 streetlights, the third project we validated in her claim. DUBAWA saw the first instalment, numbered 12, at the community’s entrance while other streetlights stood a few feet away from each other.

Streetlights in Karamajiji. Photo credits: Phillip Anjorin)

She mentioned 23 streetlights in Anagie, Sangaruwa, Ajegunle, Gbagi village, and Mashapa. DUBAWA found only four in Gbagi village, while other places mentioned suffer from the lack. No resident confirmed such a project in all the communities mentioned.

Where she goofed

Anthony Udeh, a motorcyclist who works around Jikwoyi on the outskirts of Abuja, sneered when this reporter told him that the lawmaker claimed she facilitated the construction of a 1.5 km road in Phase 1.

As he rode to the location mentioned in the claim, he narrated how he had an accident on the road about a year ago and was hospitalised for three months. After we arrived at the road, he explained that the streets at the other phases of Jikwoyi had been tarred more than two years ago, but Phase 1 was only graded in anticipation of the construction of erosion control.

“For more than a year, I haven’t seen a road construction machine on this street, let alone construction, except if grading now means construction,” he said in pidgin.

The road at Jikwoyi Phase 1 has been eroded. Nothing on the road suggests construction work had been done in the past year when DUBAWA visited in August 2024. In contrast, DUBAWA noticed that the road bears a signpost at the entrance: “Erosion construction works at God of Elijah road, Jikwoyi FCT Abuja Senatorial District.”

Jikwoyi Phase 1. Photo credit: Phillip Anjorin)

DUBAWA confirmed that the other roads she mentioned are tarred already, apart from the road at Jikwoyi Phase 1. However, her predecessor, Philip Aduda from the All Progressive Congress (APC), facilitated them in the 2023 Appropriation Bill, which was signed into law on 3 January 2023. We obtained data from Tracka, a grassroots platform for tracking community projects, to validate our findings.

The Jikwoyi Phase 1 road was also facilitated by Mr Aduda and not Ms Kingibe. In the 2023 federal government constituency and consolidated capital projects for the FCT, N90 million was budgeted for the Jikwoyi Phase 1 road with project code ERGP202301237 during Mr Aduda’s era. The agency in charge, Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority (RBDA), disbursed N7.6 million (N7,616,744.18) on 14 August 2023, to commence the road construction and asphalt design, as seen on GovSpend, a civic tech platform collating data on federal government expenditures. Though Ms Kingibe was already the senator then, Mr Aduda influenced the insertion of the project in the budget.

A similar issue happened with the roads and drainage at Kpaduma 1 and 3, which she claimed to have facilitated. N100 million was budgeted for the construction in 2023 with project code ZIP20231339, and it has been ongoing since 29 December 2022, when N45 million (N45,469,767.45) was released. DUBAWA went to the location and found the roads done halfway. The partial construction doesn’t look recent. Also, the signpost at the entrance to both roads attributed the project to Mr Aduda.

Signpost at Kpaduma 1 & 3. Photo Credit: Phillip Anjorin)

Although we found no record of funds disbursed for Pai in Kwali on GovSpend, we discovered that N100 million had been budgeted for the road and drainage construction in 2023 with project code ERGP202301236 on Tracka. At the time, Mr Aduda was the senator, and it was described as “ongoing.” After journeying to the location, we confirmed this, where the construction was done halfway.

Signpost of road construction at Pai, Kwali. Photo credit: Phillip Anjorin)

Ms Kingibe made the claims about the new Consultant Office Block being constructed at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, but did not state that it was ongoing.

However, available records revealed that Mr Aduda facilitated the project. As seen on Tracka, the project code is ERGP202301233, and the budget is N100 million. On 3 December 2023, GovSpend revealed that N72 million (N72,159,994.5) was released for the project, catering for the project’s tax, study design and construction. Six months later, N18.9 million (N18,893,874.92) was disbursed for the continuation. The total amount expended so far equals N91,053,869.42. As stated earlier, the ongoing project invalidated the senator’s achievement claim.

Consultant office block, UniAbuja Teaching Hospital. Photo Credit: Phillip Anjorin)

The senator also claimed to have facilitated the completion of Angwan Dodo Road. DUBAWA verified its completion. But before she became the senator, N150 million was explicitly budgeted for its completion with the project code ERGP202301239 on Tracka.

Infographic showing how funds were budgeted and released for the Angwan Dodo road completion. Designed by Phillip Anjorin)

Data obtained on GovSpend revealed that payment for the project had commenced on 12 December 2020, when N27 million (N27,065,861.61) was released to construct 1.3km of the road. To cover the expense for a 1.3 km distance on three different occasions in 2021, the federal government released N38.6 million (N38,649,234.10) on 25 March, N31.5 million (N31,544,509.22) on 4 October, and N25.6 million (N25,642,497.15) on 17 December. Another 1.3 km was covered with N30 million (N29,935,452.07) on 29 February 2022.

By 14 August 2023, the federal government had commenced disbursing funds for the design of the project’s completion, which cost N8 million (N8,030,697.69). More than N127 million was cumulatively released to complete the road on 20 March 2024, which were proceeds from the ERGP202301239 project code.

Breakdown of constituency projects fact-checked. Designed by Phillip Anjorin)

Constituency project explained

Constituency projects in Nigeria are proposed by lawmakers and inserted in the budgets of either the federal or state governments. They are government-funded initiatives that provide public goods and services to specific electoral districts to improve the constituents’ quality of life. Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, billions of Naira have been allocated to these projects to ensure that citizens benefit directly from government spending.

The project’s primary goal is to extend governance benefits to local communities by addressing various needs, including infrastructure development, healthcare, education, and agricultural support, which lawmakers annually nominate for the appropriate government agency to execute. Although reports indicate that over N2 trillion has been allocated to constituency projects from 2003 to date, covering more than 18,000 projects across Nigeria, many of these projects remain unexecuted or poorly implemented, leading to significant waste of public funds. All past presidents in Nigeria, including its progenitor, Olusegun Obasanjo, except Umaru Yar’Adua, have criticised the initiative.

However, Lukman Raji, a lawyer and the director of legal services at the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), disclosed that the project – also called the Zonal Intervention Project (ZIP) – is not for the benefit of lawmakers but a collaborative arrangement between the executive and legislature. He said, “They are arrangements made for convenience’s sake, to ensure that the dividends of governance reach every constituency.”

Although the concept of constituency projects is not explicitly written in the constitution, Mr Raji noted that how lawmakers present them – as though they are personal achievements – can be misleading. “The legislature presents it to people as if they did it, sometimes to spite, which is not the case. The intent is to channel development to a particular constituency, not for lawmakers to claim personal credit. This is why, over time, the idea of a constituency project has come to be seen as a political tool rather than a development initiative,” he added.

Ijeoma Okereke, a project manager at UDEME Africa – the social accountability project of the CJID- provided further insights into Nigeria’s zonal intervention project’s execution. She clarified that even after a lawmaker’s tenure ends, projects they facilitated in the budget may proceed if the funds have already been released.

“If a lawmaker’s tenure ends, the projects may still be executed because the funds may have already been released for those projects by the budget and finance ministry to the responsible departments or agencies,” she explained.

She said that a succeeding lawmaker oversees previously nominated projects while introducing their own only if the lawmaker felt they were necessary.

“We need them” – Residents

The five communities Ms Kingibe mentioned at Mpape have deplorable roads that would have been easier for bike riders to navigate, especially at night, if the streetlights truly existed. Eunice Adelabu, a POS operator at Ajegunle, said she stopped staying late on the street after getting robbed in April.

“Bike riders stopped coming down the road at night because of the poor road, and I understand them. If the streets were illuminated, they would easily avoid potholes that discourage them. I wouldn’t have become a victim of the incident since a bike would have conveyed me off the street on the day,” she said.

State of selected road infrastructure in Mpape community. Collage made by Phillip Anjorin.)

Yakubu Aliu, a farmer at Ledi, said the ongoing hospital at Dobi would be helpful in their healthcare needs if completed quickly. “If it can be adequately staffed, [the new hospital] would reduce the pressure on the existing Dobi health centre, especially from other communities that can access it here before going to the Gwagwalada teaching hospital.”

Despite his initial reaction, Mr Udeh hopes to witness Jikwoyi Phase 1’s road construction someday to ease his movement on the route.

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Aduda takes credit, Kingibe keeps mum

In a phone call with DUBAWA, Mr Aduda said the claimed projects were part of the earlier budget cycle, which he and his colleagues in the National Assembly approved. “The 2023 budget had already been passed when the new administration resumed in June. As a principal officer at the time, I can confirm that the budget was operational before her tenure began,” he said.

Multiple phone calls and WhatsApp messages to Ms Kingibe went unanswered. We also messaged her on Twitter and email but received no response before this report was filed. When we presented our requests to her media aide, Kennedy Nwankwo, he promised to revert after contacting the project director on 2 October. We received no feedback before we filed this report.