Corruption: Senate, Reps Reply Obasanjo.....LEADERSHIP The Senate yesterday denied the allegations of corruption levelled against the National Assembly by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as unfortunate and a deliberate attempt to denigrate the institution. According to the Senate, the former president would not have tolerated such a legislature for the period he was the president of the country. LEADERSHIP FRIDAY recalls the former president, at a public presentation of two books in Abuja during the week, accused members of the seventh National Assembly of promoting corruption and poor governance in the country. He specifically accused the lawmakers of siphoning public funds through ‘constituency projects’. But reacting to the allegations via a statement by its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senate said it was unfortunate that the former president would distort the issue of constituency projects as meaning a direct monetary advance to lawmakers and thus amounting to the “promotion of corruption” by the National Assembly. Abaribe said the most unfortunate in the deliberate criticism against the National Assembly was President Obasanjo’s allegation that the lawmakers were siphoning public funds through constituency projects. “President Obasanjo, for the avoidance of doubt, was the initiator of the constituency project in the year 2000 as a means of ensuring that projects were fairly spread across the country using the senatorial zones as the spring board. “To ensure execution of the projects, President Obasanjo again factored the constituency projects into the annual budgets to be implemented by the executive depending on availability of funds. That is to say that no lawmaker ever comes close to the funds or even determines the contractor for the said projects or when the said contract would be awarded. “So, it looks curious and surprising that President Obasanjo would turn around after over 10 years of initiating such a project to allege that the National Assembly is performing the function of both the executive and the parliament. “Is it not preposterous for anybody to believe that members of the National Assembly would, against the provisions of the constitution with regards to application of separation of powers, award contracts ‘to their agents to execute’ and expect the presidency under a President Obasanjo or any other president for that matter to pay for what they are not part of? “Such allegation stands logic on its head, as it amounts to an indictment of the presidency for wilfully contravening the budget laws by ceding its power to execute to the National Assembly, if it was the case”, said Abaribe. The Senate, therefore, challenged the former president to go a step further to furnish Nigerians with details of how the National Assembly members became executors of the national budget rather than being lawmakers. “It will also help to clear the allegation once and for all, if any presidency official, not only from the time past but currently, could come forward and explain the true position of the so-called constituency projects. Doing so would at least set the records straight”, he said. Abaribe cautioned political leaders to be wary of the consequences of dragging the revered institution of law making to public odium just to score some political points. We Won’t Join Issues With Obasanjo – Reps Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comments tagging the National Assembly as an assemblage of looters and thieves has been condemned by the House of Representatives. House spokesman, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, said the House was constrained from “joining issues” with Obasanjo over his scathing comments on account of his age, officially 76. Obasanjo made the remarks on Wednesday at the public presentation of the autobiography of Justice Mustapha Akanbi, in Abuja. LEADERSHIP FRIDAY recalls that in 2012, Obasanjo was quoted as saying: “Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly.” But responding to the former president’s recent diatribe, the House spokesman described Obasanjo’s comments on the National Assembly as both unfortunate and regrettable but that the House will not be drawn to respond in kind. “The House of Representatives will not join issues with Obasanjo,” Hon. Mohammed (Kwara/APC) told LEADERSHIP FRIDAY on phone yesterday. “Obasanjo is our father, so if he decides to call his children thieves, I guess he is a father of thieves. As Africans, we respect our elders. We respect his age, his office and his role as an elder statesman.” LEADERSHIP FRIDAY recalls that in April 2008, Obasanjo’s daughter, Iyabo (a former senator) came under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a bribery allegation involving the Ministry of Health and the Senate Committee on Health which she chaired. Also reacting to Obasanjo’s comments, Hon. Aro Samuel Bamidele, who was member of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011, said the allegation of corruption against the members of the National Assembly was not enough without necessary facts to substantiate the former president’s claims. He challenged Obasanjo to specifically name persons involved in siphoning public funds through constituency project claims. “The truth about the matter is that I won’t join in accusing any legislator of encouraging corruption. Let him come out with his facts. If you are accusing somebody, there must be evidence to that effect. The law of the land does not live on mere allegations; let him come out with details,” Bamidele said.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 04:41:24 +0000
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