Members
of the National Assembly made up of the Senate and House of
Representatives are enjoying life as they await stock of new 496 cars
even as many Nigerians complain of the hard economy.
Senate President Bukola Saraki (Left), Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Reps (Right)
|
Four months after senators were given N8m naira each for car loans
in August this year, it has been revealed that the senators and house of
representative members will receive an additional 496 new cars all at
the expense of taxpayers.
According to Daily Trust, during the 7th Senate, the senators used
Prado jeeps but this time around, they have opted for more expensive
cars. Throwing more light on this, Senate spokesperson, Senator Aliyu
Sabi Abdullahi said the cars are for committee use. However, it was
exclusive gathered that the senators will get a car each.
It was also gathered that during the 7th Senate, the cars acquired for the committees were sold to the senators at N1m.
“To the best of my knowledge the cars we used at the 7th Senate
were monetised to us, I think, at N1m each and the money was deducted
from our severance package,” a senator who benefitted said.
He also confirmed receipt of the vehicle loan in August, saying, “we were given three allowances in August and they are car loan, housing and furniture allowances, all amounting to N18m”.
At the House of Representatives, a source revealed that in line
with the tradition of the House, vehicles would be bought for members to
use for committee assignments. Even during the immediate past 7th
House, the 360 lawmakers got a Camry XL car each, which our source said
was bought at the sum of about N12 million, including insurance.
Our source said: “yes, we learnt they want to do the same
thing that was done during the last Assembly, where each member got a
car, but they said it was for committee activities.”
The source said the Camry XL cars purchased for members during the
last Assembly were monetized at the end of their tenure in June and the
money was deducted from their severance packages, while few members
opted not to buy the cars.
“Initially, they valued the cars at N1.750 million, but members
protested, because most of the cars were not in good shape. In the end,
they settled at N900, 000, so those of us who wanted to go with our own
applied, and they deducted it from our severance, while a few members
returned their own,” the source said.
But House spokesman Rep Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) said
although leadership of the lower chamber plans to purchase cars to aid
members during committees’ oversights, they were yet to reach a decision
on the number and the brand of cars to buy.
“There’s no doubt that we’ll buy cars, but they will be for
committee use. We haven’t decided on any brand or units to buy yet until
we see our 2016 budget. We don’t want to do anything that cannot be
realised at the end of the day,” he said.
Namdas said already, management of the National Assembly had
advertised that it would purchase television sets, computers and
photocopiers for lawmakers’ use.
“We want to have a transparent process based on the Procurement Act,”
he said, adding that all the principal officers were completely
excluded from the deal in order for the management staff to do their
work. Asked if there is any plan to purchase new vehicles for Speaker
Yakubu Dogara and his deputy Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, the House spokesman
said he was not aware of any such thing.
However, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative
Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said as far as he was
concerned, the vehicles were being bought for fun and not for any
committee work. He said for them, it is part of the process of “sharing
national cake” that Nigerian politicians are known for, saying “it is
all largess,” describing it as a fraud.
“Agreed there should be a car for every committee, but to buy a
vehicle for every member out of the 360 legislators in the name of
committee work is wrong. It’s all as a result of lack of transparency
and accountability in the management of public funds,” he said.
Rafsanjani said so long as committees would be encouraged to do
their work diligently and be provided with relevant facilities to aid
oversight, individual lawmakers should only be given car loans, which
they would repay before the end of their tenure.
“In other parliaments that I personally visited around the world,
there’s nothing like vehicles for individual legislators to go for
committee work. They only provide them with facilities where necessary,
why should our own be different?” he said.
On auctioning the vehicles to the lawmakers at the end of their
4-year tenure, Rafsanjani insisted “it is a fraud” since they were given
car loans from the beginning of their tenure. The CISLAC director also
said that even the oversight being carried out by lawmakers was just to
“intimidate and harass government agencies” into succumbing to the
demands of the legislators.
“Oversight is supposed to be for corrective measures, but that
is not what they do. They only use it to intimidate and harass agencies,
although I’m sure there won’t be any loose fund for agencies to be
giving them under this administration.
“Most of the legislators don’t even understand what oversight
is because they’re new. The committees themselves are not independent,
so how do you expect them to perform their functions effective. So, for
me, there should be a complete overhaul of the legislative work in
Nigeria so that the legislators will understand what they are elected to
do,” he said.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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