The House of Representatives on Thursday admitted
that it had a “very poor perception” before Nigerians and assured that
it would rebuild its image.
As a first step to achieving this, the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, said that the House “shall heed” the cry of the electorate to slash the prohibitive cost of running governance in the country.
The speaker spoke in Abuja when he received the national executive council members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on a visit to his office.
He said, “We are very conscious of our poor perception by members of the public and are determined to rebuild our image.
“As a first step towards this rebuilding exercise, we shall heed the cry of Nigerians for a review of the running cost of governance in Nigeria.”
The poor perception of the legislature had stemmed from the frequent squabbles among lawmakers over money and other personal gains to the detriment of Nigerians.
For example, each member of the Sixth House, took home over N28million every three months as official running cost, excluding salaries.
But, they further incurred the anger of Nigerians when lawmakers unilaterally jacked up the figure to N42m without recourse to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
In a bid to keep up with the expanded allowances, the House, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, took various loans totaling over N38billion from commercial banks.
The immediate Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, and his Deputy, Alhaji Usman Nafada, have already been charged to court by the anti-graft agency in connection with the loans and other alleged corrupt decisions of their leadership.
Only RMAFC is empowered under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to fix the emoluments of political office-holders, an indication that lawmakers acted in breach of the law by raising their allowances.
Late last year, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Lamido, had complained that about 25 per cent of Federal Government’s overhead budget was used in maintaining the National Assembly.
Tambuwal seized the opportunity of the visit of the NUJ officials to speak on how the House would redeem itself.
His comment also implied that the recurrent expenditure of all arms of government would be pruned down to place emphasis on higher budgetary allocations to capital projects.
The 2011 budget for instance, has a deficit of over N1tn, due largely to bloated recurrent funding of ministries, departments and agencies of government.
The speaker also asked President Goodluck Jonathan to set up a presidential task force on the “Speedy and Effective Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.”
By John Ameh, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch
As a first step to achieving this, the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, said that the House “shall heed” the cry of the electorate to slash the prohibitive cost of running governance in the country.
The speaker spoke in Abuja when he received the national executive council members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists on a visit to his office.
He said, “We are very conscious of our poor perception by members of the public and are determined to rebuild our image.
“As a first step towards this rebuilding exercise, we shall heed the cry of Nigerians for a review of the running cost of governance in Nigeria.”
The poor perception of the legislature had stemmed from the frequent squabbles among lawmakers over money and other personal gains to the detriment of Nigerians.
For example, each member of the Sixth House, took home over N28million every three months as official running cost, excluding salaries.
But, they further incurred the anger of Nigerians when lawmakers unilaterally jacked up the figure to N42m without recourse to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
In a bid to keep up with the expanded allowances, the House, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, took various loans totaling over N38billion from commercial banks.
The immediate Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, and his Deputy, Alhaji Usman Nafada, have already been charged to court by the anti-graft agency in connection with the loans and other alleged corrupt decisions of their leadership.
Only RMAFC is empowered under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to fix the emoluments of political office-holders, an indication that lawmakers acted in breach of the law by raising their allowances.
Late last year, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Lamido, had complained that about 25 per cent of Federal Government’s overhead budget was used in maintaining the National Assembly.
Tambuwal seized the opportunity of the visit of the NUJ officials to speak on how the House would redeem itself.
His comment also implied that the recurrent expenditure of all arms of government would be pruned down to place emphasis on higher budgetary allocations to capital projects.
The 2011 budget for instance, has a deficit of over N1tn, due largely to bloated recurrent funding of ministries, departments and agencies of government.
The speaker also asked President Goodluck Jonathan to set up a presidential task force on the “Speedy and Effective Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.”
By John Ameh, Abuja Courtesy Of: Punch
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