It is no longer news that there’s no love lost between the federal lawmakers and former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The animosity dates back to the latter’s time as president.
All through his eight years tenure as president, Obasanjo and the parliament were at variance on many issues, which was summed up in the legislature’s determination to assert its independence as an institution and Obasanjo’s resolve to control the legislature by imposing candidates to occupy leadership positions; an act lawmakers viewed as unnecessary interference into their affairs as an arm of government.
The Ex-President’s quest to have control over the legislative arm first manifested during the inauguration of the 4th Republic National Assembly in 1999 when he put forward and ensured that his “anointed” candidates, late Sen. Evan Enwerem and Salisu Buhari emerged as president of the president and speaker of the House respectively as opposed to the legislators’ preferred candidates, Chuba Okadigbo and Sadiq Yar’adua.
Things however did not pan out as envisaged by the President as his candidate, Enwerem was soon booted out and replaced with Okadigbo by the Senators which earned them Obasanjo’s wrath. He consequently put in place machinery which saw to the impeachment of Chuba Okadigbo and the emergence with Adolphous Wabara, a man observers believed was also Obasanjo’s candidate. Sooner than later, Wabara was soon replaced with the immediate Secretary of Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.
Similarly, it was reported that the hand of Obasanjo was seen in the impeachment of Hon Umar Ghali Na’abba as Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as the emergence of Hon Aminu Bello Masari.
Since leaving office, Chief Obasanjo has repeatedly referred to the legislature as a bevy of corrupt persons. However the cold war between both parties took a different dimension when he recently labeled the legislature as a den of corruption, that stinks worse than the judiciary. The former president stated this while delivering a lecture at the First Akintola Williams annual lecture in Lagos with the theme “Nigeria yesterday, today and tomorrow, governance and accountability”.
He called for the cleansing of the institution noting that it was more corrupt than the judiciary. “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 N15 million a month for a senator and N10 million for a member of the House of Representatives.
“If the judiciary is being cleaned, what of the National Assembly which stinks much worse than the judiciary? 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 said.
It would also be recalled that in 2014, Chief Obasanjo declared that the parliament was shrouding its corruption in the opaque nature of its budget even as it has no moral rights to oversight the executive while speaking at the public presentation of the autobiography of Justice Mustafa Akanbi in Abuja.
He said: “Besides shrouding the remunerations of the national Assembly in opaqueness and without transparency, they indulge in extorting money from departments, contractors and ministries in two ways.
“They do so during visits to their projects and programmes and in the process of budget approval when they build up budgets for Ministries and Departments, who then agree to give it back to them in contracts that they do not execute. They do similar things during the inquiries”, Obasanjo alleged.
The Ex-President had in last January, also written to the Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, accusing the lawmakers of fixing and earning salaries and allowances far above what the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) approved for them and alleged that most of the lawmakers were paid constituency allowances without maintaining constituency offices as required by the law.
In July, he was also reported to have stated that the budget padding revelations that trailed the House,” confirmed his stance that the National Assembly is host to corrupt people”.
Chief Obasanjo’s recent tirades has not only set off a barrage of reaction but ruffled the feathers of members of the House of Representatives who swiftly dethroned the chief from the high horse of incorruptness by terming him the “grandfather of corruption and a serial blackmailer” whose list of corrupt acts is endless.
Speaking through its spokesman, Hon. Abdulraza Namdas, the House posited the former president’s outbursts was borne out of bitterness and longstanding anger due to the institution’s role in thwarting his third term ambition despite the bags of money he offered lawmakers adding that he introduced corruption to the parliament and lacked moral ground upon which to accuse the anyone of corruption.
Namdas also alleged that Obasanjo was on his familiar terrain as he was out to bring down the government of President Muhammadu Buhari like he did previous governments adding that he (Obasanjo) sounded like a leader of an opposition.
“The list of his corrupt acts while in office is endless. Unquestionably, he is the greatest corrupt person ever to hold office in Nigeria. He remains the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria and lacks the moral authority to discuss corruption or indeed abuse of office in Nigeria as he remains the most corrupt Nigerian on record.
“Undoubtedly, the former President Obasanjo is understandably angry with the National Assembly as an institution having foiled his ambition for a third-term in office even after trying to corrupt the members with a bribe of at least N50m each.
“Lest we forget, the person who introduced corruption to the National Assembly is Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He birthed the 4th Republic National Assembly with corrupt practices from day one; indeed the first day of the Republic. He bribed PDP, APP and AD legislators on their inauguration in 1999 to vote against the majority candidate of PDP, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That was how Senator Evan Enwerem became Senate President.
“Have we forgotten the sacks of money displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives being bribe money paid by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to some Honourable members to impeach Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ghali N’abba? Again, have we forgotten that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his position as President to extort money from businessmen and contractors with his government to build his presidential library?”
He continued: “It is unfortunate that he has started his very familiar method of bringing down governments. He did it to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he did it to Gen. Buhari, he did same to Gen. Babangida, he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he made frantic efforts to derail the government of President Ya’ardua when he couldn’t use him. “He supported President Goodluck Jonathan but when he refused to take dictation, he turned against him. He supported President Buhari, but since he has sensed that Nigeria is having economic difficulties under him, he has pounced to derail his government.
“The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the impression that he is a lifetime opposition leader who has never held any office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his 8 years as President? This is a man with unlimited access to President Buhari. Or is it because he has not appointed all his cronies as requested? We may never know. His stuck in trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery”, Namdas stated.
The lawmaker who said the House’ response had become necessary owing to the innuendo, lies and falsehoods contained in the elder statesman’s statement as well as the need to correct him, reiterated that the 2016 budget was not padded.
“The House of Representatives would ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office that deserves respect and reverence. However, because of the material misstatement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo introduced in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.
“It is also unbecoming of a former President to quote figures of sums of money that are factually incorrect. No member of the House of Representatives receives N10m every month. The salaries and allowances of members of the House are as determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). Of course further sums of money are spent as running costs, that is, the cost of running the office of a member.
“The National Assembly is grossly underfunded and is hampered from effectively and legitimately carrying out its constitutionally assigned functions. The National Assembly Budget funds a bureaucracy of about 5,000 civil servants. It has some other agencies under its preview such as the National Assembly Service Commission with its own staff of about 500, even the Public Complaints Commission is now a parastatal of the National Assembly.
“The cost implication of running the National Assembly is high because of the nature of our Presidential democracy. Then of course, there are 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives that require proper equipment to function effectively. They require adequate travel and transport support to carry out legislative functions”, he explained.
While the longstanding antagonism between the former president and the parliament lingers, observers wonder which of the two has a higher moral justification to speak about corruption.
In a statement issued last week, The Coalition against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) noted that they lacked any moral right to speak on corruption. “To put is aptly, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo’s anti-corruption stance is pure hypocrisy and akin to the kettle call the pot black. We can say this even at the risk of sounding supportive of the gluttonous legislators.
“Both sides of the divide are indeed culpable in the infestation of corruption in the fabrics of our society. They are two sides of the same coin, actually”, CACOL said.
Since the House’ reaction, there has been utter silence from the Ogun born leader but those who are familiar with him, opine that the last has not been heard from him.
Leadership
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