A group of protesters under the auspices of the National Convener of Citizens’ Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) on Tuesday laid siege to the main entrance to the National Assembly Complex in Abuja to demand the resignation of President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
The protesters, in their hundreds, called for the scrapping of constituency projects, accusing members of the National Assembly of using the projects to siphon national wealth.
The inscription on some of their placards read, “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of loot via constituency projects”, “Dear legislators, to make laws is not to execute projects, legislators are not executives.”
The National Convener of CATBAN, Mr. Garba Wala, in his speech to journalists, accused the lawmakers of using constituency projects to siphon funds meant for Nigerians.
Wala recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, while signing the 2018 Appropriation Bill into law, raised concerns over the alteration made by the lawmakers to the budget.
He alleged that the President’s remarks showed that the National Assembly was “stealing the common patrimony of the people through constituency projects.”
He said, “It should be emphasised that in spite of the wishy-washy response of the National Assembly justifying its distortion of the 2018 budget, there is ample evidence to show that they indeed short-changed their constituents who elected them to make laws for the good governance of the country.
“We are aware, like the President confirmed two weeks ago, that during the consideration of the budget proposal by the National Assembly, the executive was approached by the lawmakers who indicated that they intended to increase the (oil) benchmark price by $5 – from $45 to $50. Out of the $5 increase, the National Assembly informed the executive that they intended to utilise $2, amounting to about N170bn, for projects selected by themselves. They asked the executive to suggest important projects that could be accommodated with the funds arising from the balance of $3.
“We are, therefore, surprised that with an additional sum of N170bn available for the National Assembly to spend on constituency projects, together with the sum of N100bn already provided for in the budget, that the National Assembly still went ahead to cut allocations to important national projects, thereby distorting the budget in order to further increase their allocation for constituency projects.”
He stated, “This to us is a grave offence against the sensibility of Nigerians!”
Wala listed the demands of CATBAN as including Saraki and Dogara’s resignation and the investigation of the alleged budget padding by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission.
He said, “CATBAN calls on the EFCC and the ICPC to wade into the matter and to do a thorough job of exposing federal lawmakers who are in the habit of ripping Nigerians off. It is necessary for such an action to be taken so as to save the National Assembly from public ridicule and prevent Nigerians from seeing every one of them as corrupt and self-serving.
“Finally, we call on the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to immediately step down from their offices as they have shown that they lack the requisite credibility and moral capacity to hold those positions of authority.”
The protest, however, turned violent when the protesters, who were shut out by security operatives manning the entrance, attempted to climb over the gate. Their grievance was that no official of the National Assembly addressed them.
The policemen responded by firing tear gas canisters at the crowd to disperse them.
However, the Senate dismissed the protesters as ignorant. Senator Barnabas Gemade (APC, Benue North-East), who raised a point of order at the plenary to call the attention of the Senate to the protest, alleged that the protest was sponsored by an unnamed governor and minister.
The lawmakers argued that the projects had ensured equitable distribution of Nigeria’s commonwealth, with some senators describing the projects as “the most federal character compliant” out of all other measures towards ensuring equity.
The lawmakers, therefore, called for the sustenance of the projects, with some asking that the volume should be doubled. – Punch.
Cash and Carry Senate is a sad commentary on this generation of lawmakers. It is self-destruct path that will see to the ruination of the legislature when they assume functions they are ill-equipped to handle. This represents reprehensible corruption since no studies worth its name are conducted prior to project concept, study and execution. It represents a decrescendo to democratic principles known to the civilised world and must boomerang on its originators and persuaded.