In
the speech Namdas said the House 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 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 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 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. 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
stuck in trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery. We wish him
well.”