Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The controversy began with a social media post. TrackNG, a civil society organisation that monitors constituency projects, published findings about an ultra‑modern conference and e‑learning facility listed in Nigeria’s 2024 Federal Government budget. The project, valued at approximately ₦1.5 billion, was described as being constructed at Bende Secondary Grammar School in Bende Local Government Area, Abia State – the home constituency of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.
TrackNG claimed that no meaningful work had been done on the site. The organisation further alleged that a contractor had been paid ₦265.3 million since December 2025, while the school itself told monitors that it was completely unaware of the project. The implication was clear: public funds were being disbursed for a facility that might never be built where it was meant to be, with the lawmaker who attracted the project appearing in the photographs accompanying the report.
In a forceful statement issued on Saturday, 16 May 2026, the Deputy Speaker’s Special Assistant on Press Affairs, Udora Orizu, dismissed the TrackNG report as “misleading and politically motivated.” The statement argued that Kalu’s only constitutional role in the project was to attract it to his constituency. “The legislature neither serves as the procuring agency nor supervises the execution of such projects,” the statement read. “Implementation remains strictly the responsibility of the executive arm of government and its relevant agencies.”
Orizu accused the civic group of being “curious and mischievous” for using the Deputy Speaker’s image in connection with a project he had no authority to implement or supervise. She noted that the office would ordinarily have ignored the publication but decided to respond in order to prevent unsuspecting members of the public from being misled. She also called on the appropriate procuring agency to investigate the matter and hold the contractor accountable “in line with the law.”
But the most striking clarification concerned the location. Orizu acknowledged that the budget line initially named Bende Secondary Grammar School as the beneficiary. However, she explained that this was an error: the school already has an ICT centre. The project was originally intended for Onuinyang, and a formal corrigendum had been issued to correct the location well before TrackNG’s public call‑out.
TrackNG has not yet issued a counter‑response to the clarifications provided by the National Assembly leadership. However, the organisation’s initial post had already triggered widespread concern on social media about accountability in constituency project implementation.
The controversy cuts to the heart of Nigeria’s budget implementation challenges. While lawmakers may facilitate the inclusion of projects, the actual execution – contract awards, financial disbursements, supervision, and delivery – rests with executive agencies. The public often sees a project’s name and a lawmaker’s photograph, and then a piece of abandoned infrastructure, without distinguishing between the different arms of government.
For Benjamin Kalu, whose Bende Federal Constituency has seen a series of commissioned projects in recent years, including school buildings, roads, and boreholes, the TrackNG report came at a sensitive time. In April 2025, Kalu had personally commissioned several development projects across the constituency, showcasing completed classrooms, renovated facilities, and new infrastructure. The Deputy Speaker’s office has consistently portrayed him as a facilitator, not a procurement officer.
The TrackNG case now becomes a test of how both civil society and the legislature navigate the gap between budgetary provisions and actual delivery. By calling for an independent probe, Kalu’s office has effectively thrown the ball back into the court of the executive arm. The appropriate procuring agency is now under pressure to explain how ₦265.3 million was disbursed, why the location error occurred, and whether the project will ever be completed.
For the people of Bende, the immediate concern remains the facility itself: will the conference and e‑learning centre be built, and where? The Deputy Speaker’s office has insisted that its primary interest is the delivery of the project for the benefit of the constituency. Until the contracting agency provides answers, the controversy over the abandoned school project is likely to linger – a cautionary tale of how a budget line, a naming error, and a social media post can collide in Nigeria’s fraught public finance landscape.
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