Former President,Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has resumed writing his famous memos.....He has penned one to the senate and has strongly condemned the plan by members of the National Assembly to procure cars for themselves, describing such move as “insensitive.”
He made this condemnation in a letter dated January 13, 2016 which was addressed to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, TheCable reports.
Obasanjo, in the strong-worded letter, accused the lawmakers of perpetrating a culture of financial misconduct with the “opaqueness” in National Assembly budgets over the years, stressing that a pool cars would have been sufficient to do the committee work, given all the allowances the lawmakers have already collected since their inauguration in June 2015.
This is coming on the heels of a recent disclosure by President Muhammadu Buhari during a presidential media chat that he was opposed to the decision of the lawmakers to buy 469 cars with “N47.5 billion.”
While acknowledging that there are 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, making a total of 469 federal lawmakers, Obasanjo stressed that, “a pool of a few cars for each Chamber will suffice for any Committee Chairman or members for any specific duty.
“The waste that has gone into cars, furniture, housing renovation in the past was mind-boggling and these were veritable sources of waste and corruption. That was why they were abolished. Bringing them back is inimical to the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians,” he wrote.
The former President also accused the lawmakers of perpetrating constitutional breaches by not abiding by the emoluments fixed for them by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC.
According to him,
“By our Constitution, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission is charged with the responsibility of fixing emoluments of the three arms of government: executive, legislature and judiciary. The Commission did its job but by different disingenuous ways and devices, the legislature had overturned the recommendation of the Commission and hiked up for themselves that which they are unwilling to spelt out in detail, though they would want to defend it by force of arm if necessary. What is that?”
“By our Constitution, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission is charged with the responsibility of fixing emoluments of the three arms of government: executive, legislature and judiciary. The Commission did its job but by different disingenuous ways and devices, the legislature had overturned the recommendation of the Commission and hiked up for themselves that which they are unwilling to spelt out in detail, though they would want to defend it by force of arm if necessary. What is that?”
Obasanjo challenged the lawmakers to be transparent in their finances by publishing their recurrent expenditure and opening their books to an external auditor from 1999 till date.
He stressed that,
“The National Assembly should have the courage to publish its recurrent budgets for the years 2000, 2005, 20 10 and 2015. That is what transparency demands. With the number of legislators not changing, comparison can be made. Comparisons in emoluments can also be made with countries like Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and even Malaysia and Indonesia who are richer and more developed than we are.”
culled:dailypost.
MEMO TO THE SENATE -When Obasanjo writes a letter,make una take the matter serious oh.Saraki your matter never die down,dont let Baba re-open it...lol
Baba! Baba!! Baba!! Iyaboooooooooo you need rest.
ReplyDeleteBut he's right. They already have their personal cars, so they can make do with a few for each chamber and use between them. They won't be needing a lot of cars for official use. Not like they are marketers sent out by banks to look for clients na
DeleteGreedy people. Upon all d cars dey already have o. They are never satisfy.
ReplyDeletePeople are crying, no money to even eat and dey want to lavish dt amount on cars.
God is watching dem all.
Even that ever randy Dino melaya or whatever what's cars upon all d cars he has in his garage.these our senators are greedy and they are thieves.they are half the problem Nigerians have,sometimes I feel dey should demolish the house. Rubbish.
DeleteThe other problem is that there is no committee or an instituted body that can checkmate the Senate and the house of assembly members. Same way they checkmate the executive and judicial arm of the govt.
DeleteNo police to check on the police. Not unless the citizenry cries out.
Baba Iyabo hmmmmmmmm!
ReplyDeleteKinda made some points tho.
Baba has come with another open letter.
ReplyDeleteAll he wrote makes sense but trust our politicians to feel aggrieved.
Okay na them sabi. They know better than we do.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite disheartening reading this kinda shit.... The money is much
ReplyDeleteBunch of Greedy looters and retired looters, non of them love Nigeria. Even with the hard time faced by poor Nigerians these bunch of looters are bent on collecting more allowance and cars. Why waste money buying new cars when most of them are billionaires not like they lack cars in their garages. The best thing for Nigeria is to abolish senate retain only House of Rep it will save us trillions.
ReplyDeleteSDK, your memo to senate is your most unserious memo since 1913. Why are you LOL on a serious matter?
Yay...Jay Moore is here!...
DeleteNot until we do serious nationwide integrity overhaul, no way forward ooo and no true change!
Uberhautelooks.blogspot.com
OBJ na handsome man.
ReplyDeleteSee his sexy lips...hehehehe
www.ckjacob.com
Leave my baba alone oooo. Na one babe dey kiss that lips
DeleteHonnestly, its outrageous.
ReplyDeleteWhen I tell people not to kill themselves over any politician they think it's because am biased. This people don't have our interest at heart, imagine talking of allowance for new cars when they have so many already. I went to visit a friend some few days back whose husband is the boss of one agency at Abuja, I won't name so I won't be decoded, come and see exotic cars parts/ covered with tarpaulin, at my count there were seven of them for just the wife because he stays in Abuja. Most of their children are little,none can drive now so tell me why they needed so many cars at once? Greedy lots mtcheeeeeeeeeeeeeew.
ReplyDeleteGreedy senates and house of assembly. How i wish something bad happens to you guys. Too many sad stories people are going through but that is not your problem, is how to get another cars when you have up to 6 or seven cars at your home.
ReplyDeleteThis man should just keep quiet . He is in no position to advise anybody.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly did he achieve through out his tenure. when the price of oil was $145 per barrel?
The letter of Baba in Nigeria is a red alert of a politician downfall going by antecedents. Beware of OBJ.... letter.
ReplyDeleteBaba OBJ never get alert. He dey remind dem say him dey.
ReplyDelete