Olusegun
Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria
is the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria, so says the house of representatives.
This ‘honour' was conferred on
Obasanjo Thursday in response to his statement that “the national assembly
stinks to high heavens and therefore needed to be purged.”
The former president told the
participants at the first Akintola
Williams annual lecture in Lagos that a cabal “worse than any cabal that
anybody may find anywhere in our national governance system at any time exists at
the national assembly”
But, the national assembly
on their own part, stated that Obasanjo introduced corruption to the national assembly
on its first working day in 1999.
While addressing journalists, the Chairman, House Committee
on Media & Publicity, Abdulrazak
Namdas maintained that Obasanjo has no moral authority to discuss corruption,
adding that he wants to bring down Buhari’s government and that he is “acting
as lifetime opposition leader, blackmailer”.
His words: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former
President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his
characteristic manner accused everybody but himself of corruption.
“He ventured to accuse the
National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities
of threatening the life of a “whistleblower”, lampooned constituency projects
which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National
Assembly which is highly underfunded?
“However, because of the material
misstatement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo
introduced in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.
“We have repeatedly maintained
that there was no “padding” of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which a legitimate
document is passed by the national assembly authenticated by the Clerk to the
National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by
Mr. President.
It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo’s
stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked and procured by a renegade member
of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was
removed from office.
“For the avoidance of doubt,
there is no crime that was committed by the National Assembly by exercising its
constitutional function of appropriation.
If Chief Obasanjo has an issue
with the execution of the 2016 Budget or indeed other Appropriation Acts, he
should direct his anger elsewhere.
"He claimed that the
National Assembly Budget is very high, when by all standards, the National
Assembly is grossly underfunded and is hampered from effectively and
legitimately carrying out its constitutionally assigned functions.
The National Assembly Budget funds a bureaucracy of about 5,000 civil
servants. It has some other agencies under its preview such as the National
Assembly Service Commission with its own staff of about 500; even the Public
Complaints Commission is now a parastatal of the National Assembly.
“National Assembly Budget also
funds the National Institute for Legislative Studies, which is a legislative
think-tank and highly rated academic institution that serves both National and
State Houses of Assembly and even international legislators.
All these agencies also have
their capital budget including development of their headquarters, procurement
of office equipment, procurement of regular items for running their offices;
the National Assembly maintain legislative aides of about 3,000 in number, that
aid the work of the Assembly; it also conducts regular public hearings
involving the media and stakeholders and oversight activities, involving huge
sums of money.
“The cost implication of running
the National Assembly is high because of the nature of our Presidential
democracy.
Then of course, there are 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of
Representatives that require proper equipment to function effectively. They
require adequate travel and transport support to carry out legislative
functions.
The National Assembly also has buildings and offices to build and
maintain. National Assembly staff and members attend conferences, trainings,
seminars to keep abreast of legislative developments worldwide. The activities
are very encompassing and expensive.
“It is also unbecoming of a former
President to quote figures of sums of money that are factually incorrect. No
member of the House of Representatives receives N10m every month.
The salaries and allowances of
members of the House are as determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation
and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). Of course further sums of money are spent as
running costs, that is, the cost of running the office of a member.
“If a Minister, Chief Executive
or Director in a Ministry travels on official duties, for instance, do you include
the cost of his ticket and accommodation as part of his salary or allowances?
Does the cost of stationeries and maintenance of equipment like computers used
in their offices, form part of their salaries and allowances?
“These are some of the costs that
must be taken care of by the National Assembly and the media calls these costs
“jumbo pay”. For goodness sake, the National Assembly is an arm of government,
not just an ordinary agency of government.”
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