“Our lawmakers are unarmed robbers” – Again, Obasanjo takes National Assembly members to the cleaners
Former President of the Federal Republic, Olusegun Obasanjo has once again, taken the National Assembly to the cleaners, accusing the lawmakers of being as corrupt as the judiciary, if not worse.
Obasanjo was speaking during a lecture he delivered at the first Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos titled, ‘Nigeria yesterday, today and tomorrow: Governance and accountability’, where he expressed many of his concerns about the current happenings in the country.
The political stalwart chided the lawmakers for being riddled with corruption, blatantly calling them “unarmed robbers” who are worse than the judiciary.
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“Once you are a member, you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and corruption that you cannot opt out as you go home with not less than N15m a month for a senator and N10m a month for a member of the House of Representatives. The National Assembly is a den of corruption by a gang of unarmed robbers,” Obasanjo said.
“If the judiciary is being cleaned, what of the National Assembly which stinks much worse than the judiciary? Budget padding must not go unpunished. It is a reality, which is a regular and systemic practice. Nobody should pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians. Ganging up to intimidate and threaten the life of a whistle-blower is deplorable and undemocratic.
He also accused the National Assembly of using so-called constituency projects as a conduit for corruption.
“These constituency projects are spread over the budget for members of the National Assembly for which they are the initiators and the contractors directly or by proxy and money would be fully drawn with the project only partially executed or not executed at all. The National Assembly cabal of today is worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national governance system at any time,” he said.
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Obasanjo was not done with the lawmakers, as he further accused them of sporting a degree of arrogance in discharging their duties, thereby positioning themselves as being above the law.
“Our lawmakers are lawbreakers. They are the accused, the prosecutor, the defenders and the judge in their own case. Most of them conduct themselves and believe that they are not answerable to anybody. They are blatant in their misbehaviour, cavalier in their misconduct and arrogant in the misuse of parliamentary immunity as a shield against reprisals for their irresponsible acts of malfeasance and/or outright banditry,” he blasted.
Elsewhere in his no-holds-barred speech, Obasanjo tasked President Buhari to get to work on fixing the country’s economic mess as he promised during his campaign, rather than continuously lay blames at the feet of the past administration.
He also expressed reservations over the President’s proposal to secure a foreign loan of $30 billion.
