The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that Nigerians often demand basic amenities like roads, schools, and electricity from federal lawmakers, despite such responsibilities falling outside their constitutional roles.
Speaking on Tuesday at the opening of the 2025 Open Week of the House of Representatives in Abuja, the former Speaker of the House said this mismatch between public expectations and legislative duties is a major threat to the nation’s democracy.
Gbajabiamila explained that lawmakers frequently resort to inserting constituency projects into the national budget because constituents expect them to deliver social services, a duty constitutionally meant for the executive and local governments.
“A legislator who does not construct roads, build classrooms, provide water or offer empowerment risks losing re-election,” he said.
He noted that the failure of local government administration has created a vacuum that lawmakers now feel pressured to fill, even though the Constitution did not assign such roles to them.
His comment comes amid criticism following a report by BudgIT, which revealed that 11,122 projects worth N6.93 trillion were inserted by lawmakers into the 2025 national budget.
Gbajabiamila, however, defended the practice, saying it was driven by political necessity and constituents’ expectations, not corruption.
He warned that the growing confusion about the roles of legislators is causing dysfunction, with lawmakers being blamed for not delivering services they are not legally mandated to provide.
“When lawmakers are expected to carry out executive functions without the tools or frameworks for sustainability, the system suffers,” he said.
He added that the Tinubu administration is working to restore functional and autonomous local government systems through improved funding and transparency, so they can handle responsibilities like education, healthcare, and waste management.
Once local governments are strengthened, he said, lawmakers can refocus on their core functions of lawmaking, oversight, and policy development.
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