Obasanjo,Grandfather of corruption- Reps
The House of Representatives on Thursday, took exception to the umbrage by former President Olusegun Obasanjo casting aspersions on the integrity of the National Assembly members by calling the two time ruler of the country a serial liar, blackmailer, grandfather of corruption in the country and of attempting to bring down the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, who gave the damning verdict at a press conference in Abuja, while reacting to Obasanjo’s accusation that National Assembly members padded the 2016 budget and that they were unrepentantly corrupt, said that the ex-president in his characteristic manner, accused everybody but himself of corruption.
He said it was uncharitable for Obasanjo to accuse the National Assembly of budget padding, accusing the House of criminal activities, including threatening the life of a whistleblower, lampooned constituency projects, which he approved as president during his administration and ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly in an attempt to denigrate the legislature as an institution in the minds of Nigerians because the National Assembly killed his infamous third term ambition.
“Undoubtedly, 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 Olusegun Obasanjo. He bribed the 4th Republic National Assembly and engaged in corrupt practices from day one. Indeed, the first day of the Republic, he bribed PDP, ANPP and AD legislators on their inauguration in 1999 to vote against the majority candidate of PDP, Senator Chuba Okadigbo.That was how Senator Evans 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 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 hasstarted 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. Ibrahim Babangida, he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he made franticefforts to derail the governmentof 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 decided to derail his government.
“The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the impression that he is alifetime opposition leader who has never held any office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his eight 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,” Namdas stated. Ordinarily, he said the House would have opted not to join issues with the former president because of his status as an elder statesman, but the House is forced to react based on the material misstatement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo that Obasanjo introduced in his statement about the National Assembly.
The lawmaker added that the House has repeatedly maintained that the 2016 budget wasn’t padded, asserting that the power of appropriation is the legitimate duty of the National Assembly. Moreover, Hon Namdas disclosed that the budget was authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided for in the 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 Act, he should direct his anger elsewhere,” he said.
Commenting on the over-bloated budget of the National Assembly, which Obasanjo alluded to, Namdas maintained that by all standards, the National Assembly is grossly underfunded and is hampered from effectively and legitimately carrying out its constitutionally assigned functions.
According to him, the NationalAssembly budget funds a bureaucracy of about 5,000 civil servants, apart from some other agencies under its preview, such as the National Assembly Service Commission with its own staff of about 500, the Public Complaints Commission, which is now a parastatal of the National Assembly. Also, he added that the National Assembly budget 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, just as he said these agencies have their capital budgets,
including the development of their headquarters, procurement of office equipment, procurement of regular items for running their offices while the National Assembly maintains legislative aides of about 3,000 as well as conducting 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 keepabreast of legislative developments worldwide. These activities are very encompassing and expensive. “It is also unbecoming of a former president to quote figuresof sums of money that are factually incorrect. No member of the House of Representatives receives
N10million 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. “The budgets 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 members of National Assembly enjoy,” Namdas concluded.
