The House of Representatives on Thursday accepted the request for a public hearing on jumbo pay of its members by a former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili. Ezekwesili, who spoke at a dialogue on Monday, lamenting the “cost of Governance in Nigeria”.
According to her, the National Assembly consumed over N1 trillion since 2005.
But the lower chamber on Thursday said it was set to face madam Due Process on a debate for the benefit of Nigerians.
Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene, said the attack was “anchored on wrong deployment of figures, weird generalizations and outright falsehood”.
The green chamber wondered why Ezekwesili quoted the Economist rather than the nation’s Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
The statement further reads: “There appears to be no let-up in the crave by former Education Minister, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, to get back into national consciousness, simply by randomly throwing pot shots anchored on misplaced aggression, in the ardent hope that such mudslinging would elevate her to the status of a moral crusader.
“Nigerians would remember that in the course of a similar misadventure, in January 2013, Mrs. Ezekwesili had made wild claims bordering on the alleged frittering of $45 billion of the country’s external reserves, and $22 billion in the excess crude account.
“While she is yet to fully justify those allegations, the former Minister is this time seeking a fresh sparring partner in the Legislature.
“If it were not so, why would an address which centered on a ‘cost of governance in NIgeria’ be curiously limited to an inquest into the operations of the National Assembly, leaving out the other two arms and arriving at the rather simplistic suggestion of the introduction of a unicameral or part-time legislature as the panacea of all Nigeria’s problems.
“What is the percentage of the National Assembly’s N150 billion allocation in a budget of N4.9 trillion? Is it right to insinuate that the budgetary allocation for the National Assembly is for “members salaries and allowances”, while deliberately leaving out capital projects component, salaries of legislative aides and the bureaucracy, as well as allied institutions such as Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS?
“What is the total disbursement to the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government over the same eight-year period? If she was not mischievous, why would she elect to believe The Economist, rather than the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC over the issue of salaries of Nigerian public officials.”
The lawmaker added that the House “wholeheartedly welcome her request for a public hearing on the stated ideals,” adding that she must be ready to comply with some basic ground rules, “so that we may all not be fooled by the guerrilla tactics of someone plagued by an out-of-office syndrome”.
“Since it is public knowledge that whoever wishes to go to equity ought to do so with clean hands, we restate our earlier posers which Mrs. Ezekwesili conveniently glossed over in her latest statement on this issue, to wit: What is the percentage of the National Assembly’s N150bn allocation in a budget of N4.9tr?
Continuing, Ogene said: “What percentage of the public fund was expended by her as recurrent cost? Indeed, answers to these posers are necessary in the build-up to Mrs Ezekwesili’s anticipated incarnation as an activist, else she would once again embark on spontaneous flight of fancy, whose major destination is mere ruffling of feathers.”
“For an ex-official of government, who between the 2006 and 2007 federal budgets, super intended over a total of N422.5bn as Education Minister, what percentage of the public fund was expended by her as recurrent cost?”
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