Tell Nigerians How Much Was Used To Maintain You As A Minister ..Reps Tell Ezekwesili

The House of Representatives has described the comments of former Minister of Education and Solid Mineral Resources Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili as a “simplistic and escapist way of addressing a problem”.

The lawmakers noted that being a former minister, she would have been more objective if she took time to tell Nigerians what the recurrent expenditure was during her tenure.

The lawmakers also challenged the former World Bank executive to disclose what it cost taxpayers to maintain her and her aides for a year.

The Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Victor Ogene, speaking with The Nation yesterday, regretted that the former Minister could not come up with simple calculation of what accrued to the National Assembly and the lawmakers in particular in the period under review.

Ogene said the National Assembly, comprising 109 Senators, 360 Representatives and the bureaucracy, which is the National Assembly Commission, began to draw its N150b annual budget from the first line charge in 2010.

According to him, the N150b was meant for legislators’ allowances, their aides, the civil servants, capital projects and allied institutions under the National Assembly, such as the Institute for Legislative Studies, among others.

“Going by the fact that the entire National Assembly began to get N150b in 2010, it means that before then we could not have got up to that amount.

“To now come up with a calculation that the lawmakers alone got over N1 trillion during the period, I think that person is jaundiced. What is the percentage of N150b in a budget of N4.9 trillion? she should tell Nigerians”.

Besides, Ogene noted that the Legislature has always been championing reduction in the cost of governance, adding that the National Assembly set a precedence by cutting its recurrent expenditure which the Executive has failed to do.

He said: “If we are truly talking about cutting cost of governance, it has to be across the three arms. If that is the case, how do you explain a fleet of 10 aircraft in the presidential fleet and how do you maintain them?

“Again, how do you defend N2b spent on air tickets by a minister, and that is just one Minister, what about the rest despite the fact that there is a presidential fleet. Why do we need up to 40 Ministers in the first place?

“The legislature and the judiciary have principal officers too and they have to travel as well; how many aircraft are they maintaining?”

Ogene said as an institution, the legislature will not descend low to addressing issues raised by individuals such as Mrs. Ezekwesili but would look beyond that to her tenure as a minister and a public official.

“She was part of several reform committees that ended up being reformed themselves. In view of this, the best way to go to equity is to go with clean hands.

“It would, however, suffice for Ezekwesili to tell us what recurrent expenditure was during her tenure and what it cost Nigerian taxpayers to maintain her and her aides for a year,” he said.

On Mrs. Ezekwesili’s suggestion that the federal legislature be reduced to unicameral, the deputy spokesman noted that the advice was in bad faith, adding: “I would rather say this is akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite the face.

“It is more like removing a child from a private school and placing him in a school without teachers or necessary infrastructure. The legislature is the hallmark of democracy and the National Assembly is always ready and willing to do the best for the Nigerian people.

“While they (executive) are shouting about cost-effective governance, we will not be blackmailed into accepting suggestions that tend to proffer solution for symptoms and not the actual cure.”

House Spokesman Zakari Mohammed said if it was the wish of Nigerians, the lawmakers would have no problem with that.

The chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jibrin, referred The Nation to the findings of his Committee on remittances of the Federal Government share of internally generated revenue (IGR) by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) that have always been subjected to manipulations.

He said: “We recovered N108b for government in six months, but the question is, where was the money going to before?

“When you look at the IGR of the country, say 10 years back, that sub head always carries a total sum of about N300b to about N450b year after year as projections for that category.

“But at the end of every year, when you go back and look at the performance of that sub head, we never had more than 5 per cent performance. So, even if the projection for a particular year is N100billion, we have never had not more than N2.5billion, and in most cases much lesser than 5 per cent?

Leader of Opposition in the House , Femi Gbajabiamila, said simple mathematics must have failed the former Minister.

According to him, Dr. Ezekwesili failed to comprehend the workings of the National Assembly before making her conclusion.

He said: “I think we should be objective and not dramatic about this obviously sensitive matter. From my simple mathematics if you divide N1 trillion over an eight year period, you will get an average of a little over 100billion per year.

“Now, this is for a whole and distinct arm of government and covers salaries of legislators, staff of both Houses, the National Assembly Commission, capital projects and over heads etc. When you compare this with the budget of just a single agency or Ministry which is not an arm of government, you begin to get a better understanding and a clear picture.

“I don’t think N100billion represents two per cent of our annual budget.

“If part time legislation is the panacea or antidote or solution to our myriad of problems in this country, I am all for it but something tells me it is not tenable for now,” he said.