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Tag: Legislators

  • Legislators suspend Ogun council chair Adedayo over 15 allegations

    Legislators suspend Ogun council chair Adedayo over 15 allegations

    Elected councillors of Ijebu East Local Government of Ogun State yesterday suspended the embattled Chairman, Wale Adedayo, barely 24 hours after 18 of his colleagues joined him at the Governor’s Office, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, to ask for Governor Dapo Abiodun’s forgiveness over his “zero allocations” allegation against the governor. 

    The seven councillors – Fasheyi Akindele Adesuji, Leader of the House (Itele Ward 7);  Bolutife Osunfisan, Deputy Leader (Imushin Ward 2); Kemi Aliu (Chief Whip, Imobi Ward 10);  Adeniyi Adenuga (Imusin Ward 1); Abass Sidikat (Owu Ward 5); Biyi Oguntubo (Imobi Ward 9) and Rotimi Olubode Williams (Ajebandele Ward 11) suspended Adedayo for three months, citing maladministration and financial mismanagement as reasons. 

    The legislators, during plenary, said they received allegations that needed to be investigated and passed a resolution directing Mr. Adedayo to first step aside and then to appear before it at its next sitting on September 14.

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    Fifteen allegations were levelled against him. They include: withdrawal of N4million from council account for empowerment in 2022, which never took place, wastage of N2million on Isese day on August 20, 2022, collection of duty tour allowance for the chairman and other top functionaries, N260,000, in June 2023, another duty tour allowance for the chairman and other top officials engagement in Abeokuta to the tune of N250,000, also ratified in June 2023 as well as N426,000 purportedly spent on the production of report on 2020 Jigbo festival Ijebu East, while the council government was even yet to be elected.

    He was also accused of claiming N350, 000 for the inauguration of Women in Politics in Ijebu East in 2022, but the money was not released to the group in 2022, entertainment and other logistics expenses during the inauguration of Legislative Building totalling N350,000 on April 18, 2023 and another entertainment on that same inauguration of the Legislative Building at N295,000 same day, April 18, 2023.

    Inability to account for over N2.5million left in the Project Account of the council by previous administration for the completion of a school at Kajola, Ogbere, using N8.2million to build 20 pieces of school chairs, not accounting for N20million allocation from the state and another N15million sent from the state without any project to show for it.

  • Ex-SMEDAN DG gave N50m to four legislators, witness alleges in court

    An Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) investigation officer, Mr Taiwo Olorunyomi,  on Friday  told an FCT High Court, Apo, Abuja,  that Bature Masari, Director General, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN), gave N50 million to some members of the  House of Representatives.

    The witness, Olorunyomi, made the allegation while testifying in the ongoing case of contract fraud filed against Masari.

    Masari is charged with 27 counts bordering on fraudulent award of constituency project contract worth N184.5 million.

    The witness informed the court that based on a petition written by one Jubril Usman against Masari, the ICPC began investigating the award of contracts by Masari.

    He reported that in the course of investigation, the anti-graft commission requested for the defendant’s bank statements from Guaranty Trust Bank, Diamond Bank and First bank.

    While analysing the bank statements, he said the ICPC discovered that some contractors made several payments into the defendant’s account.

    Olorunyomi informed that one of such payment was N50 million deposited into the defendant’s Diamond Bank account by one Hamshaki Ventures.

    Hamshaki Ventures is one of the contractors that collected contracts from Masari during his tenure as DG.

    The witness also alleged that the money was shared to four members of the National Assembly, representing Benue.

    He alleged that N9 million each was given to Heman Hembe, Benjamin Aboho, Orker Jev and Emmanuel Memga for contractors to execute their constituency projects.

    “We discovered in the course of investigation that Hamshaki Ventures, a company which had got several contracts with SMEDAN, lodged about N50 million on November 27, 2014, through the Diamond Bank account of the defendant.

    “The bank statement indicated that this N50 million was distributed to the aforementioned honourable members.

    “These honourable members of the National Assembly, representing Benue State, had constituency projects and these contractors carried the projects out,” he said.

    Olorunyomi further said that they discovered that the defendant gave another N3 million each to Anthony Madwatte and Mahmud Wambai of Adamawa State to give constituency projects out.

    He also reported that when the defendant was questioned in regard to the purpose of the payments, Masari said the money was payments for farm produce supplied to contractors.

    The witness also said that Masari promised to produce the receipts of the payments but failed to do so.

    Olorunyomi tendered evidence that included the bank statements, Masari’s written statement and payment vouchers to support his claim and were marked as exhibits.

    The counsel for the defendant, Etim Okoye, prayed the court for an adjournment to enable him to prepare for cross- examination.

    Justice Olukayode Adeniyi adjourned the case until June 25 for further hearing.

  • For the abolition of our predatory legislature: let the campaign start now, before the next cycle of elections (3)

    With or without the involvement of our legislators. This sentence, this declaration has resounded throughout the discussion in this three-part series. In our concluding piece in the series, it is best to start with a brief clarification of the declaration. Thus, I suppose that it would be readily accepted by all who have been closely following the series that in asking for an end to our predatory legislature, I have tilted far more heavily on getting the task done without the involvement of the legislators themselves. Indeed, I have indicated clearly that all attempts so far made to convince or shame our lawmakers into ending their unregulated jumbo pay packages have failed. If that is the case, why do I still apparently leave open the possibility that, somehow, our legislators can be made to get involved in the task, the project of ending their legalized and institutionalized predatoriness? Have I forgotten that all attempts by any legislators to blow the whistle on the outrageous size of their pay packages have been met with fierce, crushing backlash by both the leadership and the rank-and-file membership of the National Assembly?

    No, I have not forgotten, compatriots. And so, I say yes, our lawmakers have never shown the slightest interest in making a deep and significant reform of their unjust and decadent system of self-remuneration. But I also say, now, that though we have pleaded with them, we have remonstrated with them and we have even tried to shame them into doing what is right and honorable, we have never really done anything of consequence or significance to back up our words, our remonstrances and our protests with any actions. Permit me to put concrete flesh on this abstract claim.

    Many are the Nigerians from all walks of life, all parts of the country, all faith communities and all locations on the political and ideological spectrum that have roundly condemned and asked for something, anything at all to be done to end the humungous pay packages of our lawmakers The list and the range of such Nigerians cannot but impress us: Olusegun Obasanjo; Chief Segun Osoba; Emir Sanusi of Kano (when he was the Governor of the Central Bank); Dino Melaye: Shehu Sani; Femi Falana; Itse Sagay. And as I mentioned last week, many organizations have also called for an end to the legislative greed and sleaze. Falana, Sagay and Emir Sanusi have been particularly trenchant. But even they, whose statements have been uncompromising, have not backed their opposition with any action that could have made the legislators sit up and take notice – and act.

    In case anyone is prompted by the preceding observation to think that I am unproductively downplaying what compatriots like Falana, Sagay and Emir Sanusi and others like them have done in drawing attention to the injustice and wastefulness of our lawmakers’ predatoriness, let me quickly douse the flames of such a critique by openly and loudly including myself in the critique. I have lost count of the number of times in this column that I have made this issue the object of my withering critique and protest. Indeed, my critiques, my protests began when this column, under a slightly different title, was being published in The Guardian. But what have my and other compatriots’ critiques over the years and decades amounted to? What will be achieved by yet more protests and critiques by me and others in our commentaries and columns in newspapers and the social media? The answer to this question has a crystalline clarity and simplicity: Nothing. From the epigraph to this piece, a celebrated observation of  Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th American President: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing is the wrong thing; and the worst thing you can do is nothing”.

    In the present context, I shall make no commentary on this famous observation of Teddy Roosevelt beyond a deliberate focus on the conclusion of the observation: the worst thing you can do is nothing. We have written things, a lot of things, to and about our legislators; but we have done nothing to make them sit up and recognize, in Roosevelt’s words, that we are in a moment of decision. This is somewhat similar to the common saying, “your bark is worse than your bite”. We must face the truth, compatriots: all of us who have relentlessly protested against the predatoriness of our current legislative order, our barks have been worse than our bites. Indeed, to our legislators, we probably seem to be completely toothless. Well, if the metaphor of barking and biting seems too sanguine, then let us use the agricultural metaphor of blunted hoes that are useless for the task of weeding and preparing the national farm or vineyard for seeding, growing and eventual harvesting.

    But what if we presented a petition signed by a million plus signatories making very specific demands for the end, the abolition of legislative predatoriness in our country, now and forever? Would the honorable lawgivers be able to ignore us then? And what would that action do to and for us, that is to say, the action of drafting the petition, translating it from English into around the twelve to fifteen major languages of the country and going on the massive drive that would get a million plus signatories? Is it possible that we may well exceed a million signers of the petition? Wouldn’t the people, wouldn’t Nigerians in the process discover that they can and should have a say in the matter of their country being the nation, the economy with the most unjust and lopsided pay structure in the world? And what if we deposited certified copies of the petition to such organizations and bodies as the UN, ILO, WHO, UNESCO, AU, EU, ECOWAS and WEC and the WSF? Is it possible that the poor and the super-exploited majorities of other countries in our continent would be inspired by our example? Simply, simply, compatriots, is this something that we can do, that we should do?

    In the petition – which from this point on I will refer to as The Petition – we should make two or three things absolutely clear and unambiguous. First, we should let it be known that we the people, are not asking only or merely that the pay packages of our legislators be greatly reduced. Far beyond this, The Petition will ask that, like the salaries and wages of every other Nigerian worker in public or private employment, the pay packages of our legislators must be regulated by an agency or body outside the legislature itself. Currently, this function is supposed to be exercised by the so-called Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), but several times in the past few years, the Chairman of that body has complained that the Commission has been effectively blocked by the National Assembly from exercising its statutorily sanctioned regulatory functions over the determination of the wages, salaries and allowances of our legislators. There is no other legislature in the world which, like our own legislature, determines and regulates its own salaries, allowances and remunerations. The Petition will  be absolutely clear and uncompromising in this demand. The slogan here is: There is no other name for self-regulation in a democracy than plutocratic dictatorship!

    The Petition will  also insist that the regulation of the salaries and wages of our legislators will have its frame of reference located in Nigeria, not in the United States, not in the developed economies of the Western world in Europe and North America, and certainly not in a netherworld somewhere without location on planet earth. Remember, compatriots, that the present payment and remuneration package of our legislators was borrowed from the United States; however, unlike the Congress of the United States, it is not regulated by any organ of the state and the nation outside the legislature itself. All Nigerians who live and work in Nigeria get remunerated in alignment with economic and social conditions in Nigeria. The exceptions are the few dozens of Nigerian citizens that work for Nigerian branches and franchises of multinational corporations doing business in Nigeria – and of course, the less than 500 members of the National Assembly. Specifically, this item in The Petition will focus on the extreme anomaly by and through which our legislators receive 116 times the per capita GDP of the average Nigerian. What should it be? Like South Africa’s 14.5 times of the GDP? India’s 7.5 of the country’s GDP? Italy’s 5 times?

    The Petition will need to draw upon the provisions and principles of Chapter 2 of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999, by far the most progressive, egalitarian and humanistic section of our Constitution. Yes, most of the provisions and principles of this Chapter of our Constitution belong to the order of  so-called “non-justiciable” instruments of state policy. The term “non-justiciable” refers to provisions and entitlements of the Constitution whose enjoyment, though ethically desirable and noble in intention, cannot be secured in the law courts. They include social welfare rights, employment rights and economic opportunities for all without deference to considerations of birth, status and wealth. All told then, the present pay packages of our legislators constitute the greatest violation of and affront to Chapter 2 of our Constitution. The Petition will once and for all take care of this anomaly!

    The Petition seems to be conceived as a sort of Charter of Demands: will it be a Charter of Demands? In responding to this question, we come back to our initial starting point in this concluding piece in the series: with or without the involvement of our legislators. If The Petition, its implications and its impact grow beyond the limited scope of reform of the legislature, what we will ultimately have will be a Charter of Demands. But if some members of the National Assembly come onboard to endorse many of the principles and objectives of The Petition, the whole movement might not grow into a conjuncture, a crisis that would give birth to a Charter of Demands.

    To many reading this piece, it will perhaps seem counterfactual to expect, or even to think that a significant number of members of the National Assembly would endorse the provisions and principles of The Petition. But since this has never been tried in our country, we do not know just what will happen. A million plus signatories? Perhaps signatories or signers numbered in millions and from virtually all the ethno-linguistic and geopolitical zones of the country? It has never happened before. And it will bring forth developments that we have never allowed ourselves to contemplate. Like a parliament of the people and for the people. Like ruling class politicians and political parties taking up reform of our predatory legislature as a matter of primary ideological and political reorientation. Like seeing the new and younger politicians and political parties actually campaigning for reform of the predatory legislative order long before and in between the recent and next cycles of elections. What do the following legislative bills already passed in some of the National Assemblies of the Nigerian 4th Republic have in common: The Freedom of Information Act; The Adjudication of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA); The Minimum Wage Act; The National Human Rights Commission Act; The Pension Fund Act; and the UBE Act? They are all laws  that you might expect from a reformist legislature that, in the right context and under special circumstances, could be prompted to act in the interest of the people.

    With or without the involvement of the legislators themselves. And without a military coup, thank you very much. Expect to hear and read more of this issue beyond the confines of this medium in the coming weeks and months. A comprehensive, peaceful, life-affirming movement, compatriots. The cheating, the thieving, the wuruwuru, the suffer-suffer done do, compatriots!

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Lagos budget: Executive, legislators meet to find common ground

    The face-off between Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the Lagos State House of Assembly over the 2019 budget of the state may soon be resolved as efforts have commenced by both parties to find a common ground for the impasse.

    Sequel to this, an assembly committee headed by the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, met the executive team led by the Deputy Governor, Idiat Adebule, at the Assembly premises, on Friday for a meeting to resolve the on-going crisis between  the executive and the legislature amicably.

    Other members of the committee are Moshood Oshun, Dayo Saka Fafunmi, Lanre Ogunyemi, Mojisola Lasbat Miranda

    The State House of Assembly had recently given Governor Ambode, a seven-day ultimatum, to appear before it and answer to allegations of misconduct and infractions in relation to the 2018 and the 2019 budgets.

    The House has also warned, that, if the infractions on the budget continues, the House would be forced to impeach the governor.

    The threat, however, led to a massive protest by supporters of the governor, to the assembly complex, on Thursday, calling on the lawmakers to shelve the impeachment plan and let Ambode be.

    The committee, it was learnt, met with some commissioners on Thursday.

    “Our people have also met with the deputy governor over the current friction. The meeting is just to find an amicable ground.

    “We know the executive arm actually committed the infractions, but for the interest of the state and to keep it safe ahead of the election, we have to look for a soft landing for them,” the source said on Friday afternoon.

    It was learnt that the outcome of the meeting may be deliberated at a parliamentary session when the lawmakers reconvene.

    The lawmakers alleged, that, the governor had started spending the 2019 budget, which is yet to be presented to the House as demanded by the constitution, while accusing the governor of spending outside the 2018 budget, without recourse to the House.

    Meanwhile, the APC governorship candidate for the 2019 elections, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and his running mate, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, have said the push for realisation of special status for Lagos is non-negotiable.

    They said they would support restructuring, that, will grant financial autonomy to Lagos as a former federal capital of Nigeria and economic nerve centre of the country.

    Sanwo-Olu said Lagos remains the highest source of non-oil revenue accruing to the Federal Government, pointing out that it was time for the state to earn its fair share of the revenue generated within its jurisdiction.

    The APC candidate and his running mate made the assertion during a meeting with the Friends’ Club, an elite social group, comprising senior citizens and professionals. The club members posed various questions to the candidates.

  • Enslaved state legislators

    The crisis of dependence of state legislators is manifesting in Akwa Ibom and Ondo state houses of assembly in the past few weeks. In both cases, the state governors are accused of seeking to foist their imprimatur on an arm of government that ordinarily is superior to the one they head. The reason for this anomaly is because the governors hold the financial-apron-strings of their states, such that they can use it to chastise the state legislature.

    In Akwa Ibom, the governor, Emmanuel Udom, invaded the house of assembly with armed men, allegedly to stop the attempt by few members of All Progressive Congress (APC), from dubiously sacking the majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, and further sacking the governor,once they gain a dubious control of the house leadership. In a broadcast, the governor blamed the police, for giving cover to the attempted illegality. He also cited the police for seeking to destabilize the state, so that elections in the state will not hold with other states, in 2019.

    To escalate the crisis, the governor reminded the country that Akwa Ibom is among the producers of the crude oil, with which the nation oils its developmental plans, and threatened consequences, if the police refuse to back off. With the general elections few weeks away, it is understandable that the governor appears paranoid, especially with his immediate successor, Senator GodswillAkpabio, threatening to scuttle Udom’s re-election bid in 2019. Borrowing Governor NyesomWike’s archetypal script, Governor Udom has resorted to propaganda and strong-arm tactics, to checkmate the national government, from overawing his state.

    In Ondo State, Governor RotimiAkeredolu, who inherited an unfavourable state house of assembly is accused of taking steps to torpedo the stability of the state assembly. Taking over from a PDP governor, in between the electoral life of the assembly, his party the APC has minority members in the house. Perhaps, being afraid that because he has no control over the house, mischief makers could engineer the assembly to make things difficult for him until the next general elections, he seems to have resorted to self-help.

    His tactics according to commentators is the use of the road transport union, NURTW, who have invaded the state assembly at-will, to cause commotion and ensure that things are made difficult for members. With members afraid for their lives, majority of them have abandoned their duty post, with some abandoning the state, as they seek refuge in neighbouring Oyo State from where they are throwing tantrums like refuges.

    While on the face of it, there is the possibility that external influences are aiding the crisis in the two state assemblies, what is worse is the total absence of confidence underpinning state houses of assembly, across the country. Because most governors seethe legislature as mere nuisance, members are prone to external influences. A history of the performance of state legislators since 1999 will show that most governors treat legislators like slaves. For instance, in Imo State, under Governor RochasOkorocha, the state House of Assembly reportedly meets at the pleasure of the governor.

    They only meet when there is a matter for them to rubber stamp. Once they are through with that, they adjourn sine die, until his excellency wishes them to reconvene. In fairness to Okorocha, the only difference between his practice and that of most other governors is that he doesn’t pretend the legislators are independent. While President Olusegun Obasanjo held sway, the interferences from the national government, came by way of intimidating minority members of the state assembly to impeach their governors.

    Of course, all the so-called impeachments were declared invalid by the courts, whether in Plateau, Oyo, or elsewhere. So, while President Muhammadu Buharihas better credential in this regardthan Obasanjo, he has not bought into granting the state assemblies the autonomy that could stave-off the crisis of our democracy at the state levels. An amendment of the 1999 constitution to grant the state assemblies financial autonomy is most likely a better antidote to the slavery of the state assemblies, to the state executives.

    Unfortunately,President Buhari appears uninterested in that, and other new laws, that could change the way we do things. What with his delay to consent to the new electoral law, which no doubt, would improve the credibility of the 2019 elections as late as it is? Even as he plays politicswith state governors who appear opposed to his re-election plans, the president should support the grant of autonomy to state assemblies. As the courts have held, in the case of Peter Odili against the EFCC, it is the state assembly that is better placed, to checkmate the excesses of state governors.

    While the federal government may prefer to dictate to the state governors, through the instrumentality of coercive powers of the federal agencies, like EFCC, it should note that democracy will not stabilize at the centre, without it stabilizing at the state levels. Even the undue influence, which the governors exercise during elections, whether at the party primaries or the election itself, is borne out of the excessive powers it has over the control of state purses. So, instead of fighting or cajoling governors during elections, the president should make them more accountable to state legislators.

    Even corruption at state levels, will be dealt a blow, if the state assemblies are granted financial autonomy. Most state governors suffer the consequences of their excessive, albeit unlawful control of state resources, with their naïve feeling that once they have overrun the state assemblies, they are free to ride roughshod over state finances. So, effectively providing the state assemblies with the power and influence that the 1999 federal constitution (as amended), had in mind, the governors will cut their political coat, to fit their constitutional size.

    Of course, one must note the unlawful conducts of the national assembly, which in pretence to exercising financial autonomy, has ingrained their earnings with all manner of illegal paddings. As I argued here last week, a day of reckoning will surely come their way. But as Nyame’s case, also mentioned last week, showed, the governors, who also live in pursuit of absolute power deserves to be helped to live within the laws. A governor un-checkmated by the state assemblylives dangerously as he equates the state resources to personal resources.

    Between a governor who projects the power as a tin-god, and an enhanced state assembly, that may mimic powers and principalities, I think the latter, is a lesser evil. Moreover, with both contending each other, if state legislators are granted financial autonomy, a balance of forces may be created, to gift states the much needed democratic licence to breathe better. I have no doubt that an enslaved state legislature, is a threat to our democracy.

  • Legislators hailed for passing tourism bill

    The Managing Director (DM) of Jumia’s Hotel & Flight Marketplace, Mrs. Omolara Adagunodo, yesterday hailed the Lagos State House of Assembly for passing a bill to establish a tourism promotion agency.

    Adagunodo, in a statement, said Lagos was a tourism hub, adding that it was high time the state had a robust agency to promote tourism.

    The assembly on November 5 passed a law to establish the Lagos State Tourism Promotion Agency.

    The agency is being put in place to promote the tourism industry and achieve international best practices in the delivery of tourism products and services.

    Adagunodo said the law came at the appropriate time, with tourism’s contribution to the national economy evolving.

    She urged other houses of assembly to copy Lagos and establish tourism promotion agencies.

    The MD said dedicating an agency to the promotion of tourist hubs in Lagos would increase tourism’s contribution to the economy.

    “The bill will boost the state’s status as a one-stop destination for local and international tourists.

    “It will help in the promotion of destinations and attractions in the state, including the National Theatre, Lekki Conservation, Badagry and Takwa Bay beaches, among others,” she said.

    Adagunodo said the 54-section bill spelt out some of the objectives of the agency, which included promotion, marketing and developing the state domestically and internationally as a major tourist destination by highlighting its uniqueness.

    She said it would develop and promote the state as a premier travel and tourist destination.

    “It will also attract and increase tourist arrivals, direct tourism investment, identify and develop potential tourism destination in the state,” Adagunodo said.

  • Again, this our 8th Assembly

    Yes, they showed their hands again this past week and Nigerians now know exactly why it took the National Assembly over six  months to complete work on a national budget upon which the Buhari government had hoped to leapfrog a post recession economy on the path of  growth and development. This meant nothing  to our  legislators who are least bothered by either,  as long as enough money could be made, whichever way, for the next election.

    For them, it is of  no moment, whatever, unlike the Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which  observed that:   “cutting funding for essential public services such as health, education and security, constitutes a serious human rights violation which potentially rises to the level of crimes against humanity, against the Nigerian people,  which amply deserves to be taken to the Internal Criminal Court (ICC).”

    You can bet your last dime that  not even this scares the gluttons who will always argue, forgetting that their individual mandate represents only a microcosm of the president’s, that “the reason the constitution directs the bill to be submitted to the national assembly is that it expects it to vet it and make inputs before passing it in readiness for appropriation Act”,’ as if the letter and spirit of the constitution ever envisages that a time would ever come when those revered chambers would  be populated by a bunch of self seekers who would rather hijack appropriations to their farms and bore holes, rather than make them serve the needs of the poor masses of  Nigeria .

    But as our people would always say, it is every day for the thief but one day for the owner. Nigerians can gloat,  this time around, that the greed which has always united the national assembly leadership,  year in, year out, emboldening their padding propensity, has scattered them as I shall proceed to show below, quoting  some of their own members who I know Senator Bukola Saraki would now be eager to haul before their overly misused  Ethics committee.

    Hear the Southeast caucus in a senate where their man, Ike Ekweremadu, who in his own eyes is the waiting Igbo choice for 2023,  is number 2, after discovering that  a N2B allocation sustained  by the two  aviation committees of  the senate, and the House,  had been shredded to a mere  N500M wondering  that: “a region that hardly receives a fair share of the national patrimony, the little that came it’s way could be reduced as to make nonsense of the entire budget for the Enugu Airport Terminal.”

    Rather than own up to his role in this thoroughly ungamely act, but to cover it instead, a clever Ekweremadu is pleading that the measly N500M their lordships allowed should be “released immediately”, saying through one Uche Anichukwu: “I am happy that the presidency has indicated that he would send a Supplementary Appropriation Bill so by the time we are briefed by the relevant committees, we will work with our colleagues in other zones to ensure adequate provisions for the airport.”

    If only Ekweremadu knows he is about the least wise Igbo!

    It will be nice, if for once, Buhari – loathing, Igbo army of e-rats would now know exactly where to fix their gaze. For additional help, I plead they go read the inaugural speech of Chief John Nwodo, as Chairperson, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, concerning how Igbos are their own worst enemies, who share funds meant for infrastructural development in their region.

    For me, personally, the item that gladdens me the most is this, and not to be misunderstood, I shall quote newspaper reports directly.

    “Abaribe, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Mettalurgy, said that a humongous N30B was smuggled into the Power budget “without his committee’s knowledge”. According to him, the N30B was listed for expansion and reinforcement of infrastructure in the distribution companies to reduce stranded firms. The amount, he said, “never passed through the Senate Committee on Power.” Now if a ranking senator of Abaribe’s ilk, and chairman of the Power Committee to boot, can be treated this shabbily, two things become obvious: both Minister Tunde Fashola SAN, and his former cabinet colleague, Dr Kayode Fayemi, could never have been a darling of the vicious small cabal manipulating and orchestrating the scientific padding of the national budget. How Fayemi fought back an attempt to use his then ministry’s budget to launder 500Million dollars even after they had earlier appropriated N2B in the 2017 budget for concessioning feasibility studies, readily comes to mind. And what spurious lies didn’t they tell against him?

    It is fascinating that, for once, critical segments of the Nigerian society are getting to know what manner of people they call honourables, and distinguished. It is great to know that the Nigerian Labour Congress, The Ijaw Youth Congress, the ever perspicacious Nigerian Manufacturers Association, would soon be joined by bodies like NANS and others to deprecate these heinous actions of people we, no doubt, wrongly dashed our mandate.

    But if anything fascinates me the most, it is the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to come forward to make a full disclosure to Nigerians. What name has this man of integrity not been called by some myopic,  ethnicity and religion – clutching bigots, even if the latter worked in cahoots with a President Goodluck Jonathan during whose administration Nigeria was nearly stolen off the face of the earth.

    The president bared it all: how a small crowd of  less than 500, very selfish Nigerians, misused their office, cutting  off 4,700 people – impacting projects amounting to N347B from what he proposed,  to accommodate 6,403 of their own , at a cost of N578B which their constituents know they ALL come round to corner, where executed, at all.

    Among the president’s projects substituted for things like bore holes and sewing machines are: Lagos – Ibadan Expressway, the East-West road which PDP turned go a sink hole in its 16 years, the Enugu Airport, Itakpe – Ajaokuta road, Mass transit and major arterial road in the FCT where they all own eye popping mansions, as well as  funds for  the very sensitive and crucially important Maritime University in the Niger- Delta area where the funds they’ve turned to the object of their infatuation comes from.

    In conclusion, no less fascinating, indeed  more invigorating, is President Buhari’s decision not to engage in any discussions with the nPDP people whose members, incidentally, constitute the leadership of the National Assembly, and who, for a very long time, you could not distinguish from PDP members given their iron cast opposition to anything coming from the executive branch.

    You would most probably think the  president was reading this column in which, on Sunday, 13 May 2018, I wrote as follows: “it is, however, absolutely  nauseating, if not puke inducing, that it is the nPDP, which has constituted the greatest  enemy to Buhari’s government,  especially at the National Assembly, that would now come out, sabre rattling, and giving ultimatum. Were I President Buhari, I would,  even at the expense  of losing the forthcoming election, which God forbid,  tell them to just go do their very worst. Let them head back to their vomit, the  PDP, and let Nigerians decide as to whether they want their very lives stolen all over again.”

  • Legislators on the cross

    You may revile them. You may deplore them. You may despise them. You may abhor them. And there is indeed just cause for a substantial number of Nigerians to be utterly disgusted with members of the 8th National Assembly.  The humongous illegitimate allowances of N13.5 million monthly in addition to the legitimate earnings of N700,000 received by each legislator is simply outrageous. And the pecuniary racket that the constituency projects have allegedly become is condemnable. No less irritating to many Nigerians is the seeming sleight of hand that characterized the emergence of the current National Assembly’s leadership.

    No matter the revulsion that the gross ethical deficits of the National Assembly evokes, however, it is still important that the sanctity and institutional integrity of the legislature as an arm of government is respected and preserved. Attempts to demonize, demean, devalue and irredeemably discredit this critical arm of government for its shortcomings are shortsighted and ill advised. I find it alarming when highly respected opinion moulders and public analysts give the impression that they would not mind if the National Assembly is disbanded altogether presumably for the puritanical executive to govern unencumbered. Nothing could be more dangerous.

    For all its weaknesses and failings, the National Assembly has served as an important check on the excesses of the executive in this dispensation. In some ways, the National Assembly has been the saving grace of our democracy particularly under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Let me explain. Buhari is restrained, mature, cautious and hesitant in the use of power as well as abstemious and ascetic in his disposition to material acquisition. Not so many members of his trusted inner circle.

    Many of them have exhibited traits of incurable avariciousness. This is why we have had such embarrassing and avoidable incidents as Mainagate, the Babachir Lawal grass cutting contract scam, the mysterious and still unexplained discovery of humongous amounts of money that led to the removal of the former DG of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke and the controversial reinstatement of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Yusuf Usman, in inexplicable circumstances to name a few. None of these grievous matters with serious ethical implications have been brought to closure.

    And even worse, some members of the President’s inner circle have shown a capacity for ruthless deployment of power and total disregard for due process and the rule of law. In this context, it would have been a great tragedy indeed if the relationship between the legislature and the executive at the national level had been one of servility and supineness as is the case in most states of the federation.

    In any case, in their justified umbrage and obsessive preoccupation with the perceived excesses of the current National Assembly, many analysts are distracted from discerning the more fundamental dimensions of the problem of primitive accumulation confronting the polity.  The difference in reality between the 8th National Assembly and the preceding ones since 1999 has been one of degree and not of kind. The present crop of legislators is not necessarily any more corrupt than previous sets; it is only that the magnitude of largesse at their disposal has grown more humongous. This is less a function of a supposed virulent strain of greed peculiar to the legislators than it is a manifestation of the deepening problem of corruption in the society, President Buhari’s best efforts notwithstanding in this season of presumed change.

    Indeed, if we go further back in time, we will discover that complaints as regards the excessive consumptive propensities of the National Assembly were no less vehement in the Second Republic. In their book, ‘The Rise and Fall of Nigeria’s Second Republic’, for instance, Professors Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere note that “In 9 months in 1980, the members of the National Assembly (545 in all) obtained as salaries and allowances an astronomical sum of N44,309,300. This amount increased the year after”. (Page 109). It would be the height of superficiality in analysis to portray members of the 8th Assembly as some peculiarly morally defective specie irredeemably infected with the virus of venality while the rest of us are saints. In reality, how many of those who are most vocal today in condemning the outrageous allowances of the federal legislators would decline to collect their own share if they found themselves in the legislators’ ‘lucky’ shoes?

    Yes, there has been more restraint and discipline in the husbandry and utilization of public funds under Buhari. In many ways, the fear of Buhari is still the beginning of fiscal discretion and wisdom despite his own inevitable human foibles. As a result of greater transparency and accountability in the management of public funds under the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government, many federal agencies have been remitting more funds to the Federation Account. Huge amounts of stolen funds in local and foreign currencies including myriad physical assets have been retrieved from looters of our commonwealth. Yet, it would appear that public office holders have only devised cleverer, more subtle ways of looting public funds ‘in accordance with due process and the rule of law’ (apologies to Sam Omatseye).

    Nothing proves this more than the indescribable acrimony, chaos and violence that have characterized the APC congresses across the country. Parallel congresses have been held in at least 26 of the 36 states. The struggle for the control of party structures has been vicious unrestrained and unstructured. Of course, this is because those who have the party structures in their grip will have easy access to become party candidates for state power either in the legislature or executive. All of this confirms the great political economist, Professor Claude Ake’s characterization of Nigerian politics over two decades ago as one “in which power is sought without restraint and used without restraint and the struggle for power is so intense that political competition escalates to a form of warfare”.

    But why do we have this kind of overvaluation of political power? Ake explains: “Lacking economic base, the Nigerian ruling class is thrown back on what it has, namely, political leverage. It has used political power particularly the control of state power, to amass wealth in an attempt to consolidate its material base to the extent that political power is now the established way to wealth”.  The intense and desperate struggle for control of party structures as a stepping stone to state power within the APC can certainly not be as a result of so much love for the Nigerian people. It is because access to state power still remains the easiest route to material accumulation.

    Thus, beyond flaunting Buhari’s undeniable personal integrity, retrieving stolen funds and assets from plunderer’s of the public till, undertaking the tedious prosecution of indicted persons on a tortuous judicial terrain and the episodic publishing of the list of alleged looters of Nigeria’s resources,  the APC has shown little evidence of deeply studying the problem of corruption in all its multifarious dimensions – economic, sociological, cultural, psychological, political, bureaucratic etc – with a view to meaningfully working to achieve enduring and fundamental value re-orientation and sustainable social change.

    My perceptive and cerebral colleague, Olakunle Abimbola, has been waging a valiant and relentless campaign for the electorate to vote out errant and thieving legislators at the next elections. That endeavour is certainly most patriotic and welcome. But until that is achieved, the current crop of legislators remains our legitimate representatives and the legislature as an institution should not be destroyed on account of their foibles.

     

    Who is afraid of Kayode Fayemi?

    It certainly cannot get more comical.  I refer to the attempt by some amorphous group to get the Ekiti State APC governorship candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi’s right to contest the July 14 election judicially truncated on the basis of the report of some farcical judicial panel of inquiry set up by an obviously inquisitorial and adversarial Ayodele Fayose PDP administration deliberately bent on discrediting its predecessor in office.  If any court entertains this kind of frivolity, it would have opened the flood gates for vengeful incumbents to prevent their predecessors from ever seeking public office again.  A good example is the Nyesom Wike/Rotimi Amaechi saga in Rivers.

    Kayode Fayemi
    Fayemi

    I recall that in the second republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s political foes attempted to get him disqualified from contesting for office on the basis of the spurious Coker Commission of Inquiry, which was utterly lacking in credibility. In the same vein, an attempt was made to get Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe disqualified on the ground that he did not fulfill the requisite tax obligations. Of course, such devious and manipulative legal subterfuges could not fly.  It is unwise and unlikely that the judiciary will allow itself to descend into the partisan arena in this case. The consequences could be deleterious. Let all legitimate party candidates test their popularity at the polls.  Or is somebody afraid of Kayode Fayemi?

  • Falana seeks stoppage of jumbo salaries for legislators

    Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop  the jumbo salaries and allowances  of federal legislators.

    Falana, in a statement yesterday, said:  “According to the  Senator (Shehu Sani), the running cost of each Senator is  N13.1 million in addition to a consoldated salary of N750,000 per month. Apart from the monthly package of N13.8 million, each Senator is given the opportunity to execute  constituency projects to the tune of N200 million per annum. However, the disclosure made by Senator Sani does not cover the allowances for cars, housing, wardrobe, furniture etc running to several millions of Naira approved for each Senator”.

    He went on: “The revelations  by Senator Sani should therefore provide an opportunity for the Nigerian people to review the entire costs of governance under the rickety democratic dispensation.

    “The Buhari administration owes the nation a duty to ensure that no political officer is paid salaries and allowances that have not  been approved by the Revenue Mobilization. Allocation Fiscal Commission.

    “The members of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission empowered by section section 70 of the Constitution to approve the salaries and allowances of the legislators have always washed off  their hands like Pontius Pilate while the Budget Office has never questioned the payment of unauthorised salaries and allowances to federal legislators”, Falana stated.

    The activist lawyer recalled that last year, the legislators also illegally purchased exotic cars of N4.7 billion for themselves at a time when  workers were owed arrears of salaries and the masses  were groaning under a recession caused by the profligacy and mismanagement of the national economy by the ruling class.

    “While we commend Senator Shehu Sani for exposing the secrecy which had enveloped the salaries and allowances of  federal legislators in Nigeria before now,  it is crystal clear that the statement credited to Professor Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council not too long ago to the effect that Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world cannot be faulted.

    However, the federal legislators cannot be blamed alone for paying themselves skyrocketing salaries and allowances outside the ambit of the wages approved for all political office holders in the country,” he noted.