Our constituency project tracker follows projects that members of the National Assembly nominated for their constituencies in the federal budget, and records what has happened to them. This page explains where the data comes from, how we decide a project’s status, and how we keep it fair.
What a constituency project is
Each year, senators and members of the House of Representatives nominate projects for their constituencies, such as a borehole, a classroom block, a road or solar streetlights. These appear in the federal budget as Zonal Intervention Projects, commonly called constituency projects.
Lawmakers nominate these projects, but they don’t carry them out. Each project is assigned to a federal ministry, department or agency (MDA), which awards the contract and is responsible for delivery. On every project page we name both the lawmaker who nominated it and the agency responsible for executing it.
Where the data comes from
- The project list comes from the published federal budget for each year. Every project page shows its budget year, amount and budget line where available, with a link to the source.
- Evidence of progress comes from site visits by our reporters and contributors, official documents, credible news reports, and the published work of civic organisations that track public projects, such as BudgIT’s Tracka. When we use another organisation’s findings, we credit and link to them.
What each status means
- Not yet verified: the project is in the budget, but we haven’t yet found reliable evidence of its progress. This is where every project starts. It says nothing about whether the project was delivered.
- Not started: we visited or confirmed the stated location and found no sign of work.
- Ongoing: work has visibly begun but is not finished.
- Completed: the project exists at the stated location and appears to do what the budget describes, for example a borehole that produces water.
- Abandoned: work started, then stopped, with no sign of activity for a sustained period.
- Location not specified: the budget doesn’t say where the project is, so it can’t be verified on the ground. Grants, training and “empowerment” items often fall here.
Our evidence standard
- We change a status only when we have evidence we can show you: a dated photo taken at the location, an official document, or a credible published report.
- Every change is recorded on the project page with the date, what we found, and a link to the evidence. Earlier findings stay visible.
- Each project shows when it was last checked. Projects change over time, so a status reflects what we found on that date.
- Before we mark a project Not started or Abandoned, we ask the nominating lawmaker’s office and the executing agency for comment and include their response.
How we keep it fair
- Every lawmaker is held to the same statuses and the same standard of evidence, regardless of party, region or chamber.
- Completion rates count only projects we have checked. A lawmaker with few checked projects has less evidence, not a worse record, and we show how many were checked next to every rate.
- We don’t rank lawmakers against each other. Constituencies differ in size, terrain and security, and a rate built on a few projects can mislead.
- We choose which projects to check based on where our contributors can safely reach and where readers send tips, not on who nominated them. We report where our coverage is thin.
Help us check
If you live near a project on our tracker, you can help. Send a photo, the date you took it, and the project name or link to tips@naijavote.tech. Please don’t put yourself at risk to get a picture. We verify every submission before it changes a status, and we won’t publish your name unless you want us to.
Lawmakers’ offices and agencies can send updates or corrections the same way. If we got something wrong, see our Corrections page.
Last updated: [date].