ABUJA-BARELY 24hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo
lampooned the President Muhammadu Buhari All Progressives Congress, APC led
government,Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazaq Namdas on
Thursday took a swipe at the former president describing
The House of Representatives would
ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office
that deserves respect and reverence. “However, because of the material
mis-statement 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 is a legitimate document 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 implications 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). Obasanjo ” 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 stationery
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. “The Budget of many agencies in the Executive
Branch are indeed higher than the current Budget of the National Assembly that
is an arm of government. Examples abound, CBN, NNPC, NCC etc. Allowances paid
to even junior staff of some of these government agencies cannot be compared to
what members of National Assembly enjoy. ” Undoubtedly, the former President
Obasanjo is understandably angry with the National Assembly as an institution
having foiled his ambition for a third-term in office even after trying to corrupt
the members with a bribe of at least N50m each. “Lest we forget, the person who
introduced corruption to the National Assembly is Chief Olesugn Obasanjo. He
birthed the 4th Republic National Assembly with corrupt practices from day one;
indeed the first day of the Republic. He bribed both PDP, ANPP and AD
legislators on their inauguration in 1999 to vote against the majority
candidate of PDP, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That was how Senator Evan Enwerem became
Senate President. Have we forgotten the sacks of money displayed on the floor
of the House of Representatives being bribe money paid by Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo to some Honourable members to impeach Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ghali N’abba?
” Have we forgotten that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his position as President
to extort money from businessmen and contractors with his government to build
his presidential library? “The list of his corrupt acts while in office is
endless. “Unquestionably, he is the greatest corrupt person ever to hold office
in Nigeria. He remains the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria and lacks the
moral authority to discuss corruption or indeed abuse of office in Nigeria as
he remains the most corrupt Nigerian on record. “It is unfortunate that he has
started his very familiar method of bringing down governments. He did it to
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he did it to Gen. Buhari, he did same to Gen. Babangida,
he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he
made frantic efforts to derail the government of President Ya’ardua when he
couldn’t use him. He supported President Goodluck Jonathan but when he refused
to take dictation, he turned against him. “He supported President Buhari, but
since he has sensed that Nigeria is having economic difficulties under him, he
has pounced to derail his government. The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the
impression that he is a lifetime opposition leader who has never held any
office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his 8 years as President?
“This is a man with unlimited access to President Buhari. Or is it because he
has not appointed all his cronies as requested? We may never know. His stock in
trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery.
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