Obasanjo Remains The Grandfather Of Corruption – Reps

SAN FRANCISCO, August 18, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives has refused to issue a new itleait to the fresh label of ‘unarmed robbers’ pinned on federal legislators by former President Olusegun Obasanjo

THEWILL recalls that Obasanjo, speaking at a book presentation in Ibadan on Thursday had described the legislators as a bunch of unarmed robbers because,as he said, “they are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 70 per cent of our people living in abject poverty.”

The House said yesterday that its response to an earlier accusation in the heat of the budget padding controversy in 2016 is sufficient for the latest accusation by the former President.

House spokesman Abdulrazaq Namdas, when contacted to respond to the former President said its response to an earlier accusation in the heat of the budget padding controversy in 2016 was sufficient.

“There is nothing to say because the House has responded to the former President previously,” he said.

“The accusation this time is the same as before, so there is nothing to add. Our position has not changed from what we said in 2016.

“He is an elder and in my culture, you don’t respond to elders every time.

“You don’t banter words with your elders. Having responded once and he accuses you again and again, what you do is you keep quiet.

“Remember he is a former President and an elder statesman. I will not say more than that.”

So what was the response in 2016?

Namdas in responding to Obasanjo, on November 24, 2016, said:

“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 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.

“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 Natio