EXCLUSIVE: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HIDES N29.5 BILLION STREETLIGHT AND TRANSFORMER PROJECTS IN ENUGU COLLEGE’S 2026 BUDGET

A detailed review of the 2026 Appropriation Act has revealed that the National Assembly approved at least N29.59 billion for nationwide solar streetlight installations, transformer procurement, and rural electrification projects embedded within the budget of the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, Enugu State.

​Out of the total N226.77 billion allocated to the tertiary institution in the approved budget document, N225.63 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure. Further scrutiny showed that N29.59 billion of this capital expenditure was assigned to constituency-style infrastructure projects across virtually every geopolitical zone in the country.

​Official documentation from the Federal Co-operative College confirms that its primary statutory purpose is to deliver academic and professional training in cooperative education and management. The institution possesses no legal mandate or technical capacity to execute civil electrification, transformer distribution, or public infrastructure contracts nationwide.

​Despite these legal boundaries, the 2026 federal budget assigns the academic institution responsibility for power projects stretching across states such as Lagos, Cross River, Sokoto, Adamawa, Rivers, Katsina, Imo, Ogun, and Taraba.

​"The practice of inserting numerous constituency projects into the budgets of tertiary institutions that lack statutory mandate and technical capacity weakens public accountability, complicates institutional oversight, and creates significant loopholes for contract inflation and the misuse of public funds."

​Public finance analysts and civil society organizations have raised grave concerns regarding the persistent insertion of constituency projects into unrelated departmental budgets. Governance experts emphasize that forcing academic institutions to supervise large-scale utility projects severely undermines fiscal discipline and creates systemic risks for project abandonment.