The National Assembly on Sunday said its members were
eager to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over the
President’s “claim” that the National Assembly planned to
spend over N47bn to buy exotic cars this year.

The House of Representatives, on its part, stated that a
meeting with Buhari would put the records straight on how
the President got his figure, since the legislature had not
contemplated “making such a mind-boggling” expenditure.

Buhari had, during his maiden Presidential Media Chat on
Wednesday last week, wondered that the National Assembly
planned to buy cars worth over N47bn, in addition to taking
car loans and generous transport allowances.

“I can’t see the National Assembly spending more than
N47bn to buy cars on top of transport allowance they collect.

“I have to revisit that story. The budget for their transport
allowance comes up to N100bn. With the kind of money that
goes into the National Assembly, we have to look at it
conscientiously and see how we can live within our means,”
he had said.

Buhari announced that he would hold a closed-door
meeting with the legislators to discuss the issue.

However, both the Senate and the House of Representatives
in their separate reactions less than 24 hours after the
media chat, denied that there was a plan to buy cars worth
the amount the President quoted.

Speaking with The Punch on Sunday, House Minority Leader,
Mr. Leo Ogor, said the members were prepared to meet
with the President, where the lawmakers planned to ask him how he arrived at the figure.

Ogor stated that since making the announcement last week,
there had been no communication from the Presidency on
when the meeting would take place. But he told The Punch
that members were willing to meet with the President to
address the “misinformation for the purpose of avoiding
needless crises.” He added, “There is no meeting fixed that I
am aware of for now.

“But, as a House, we welcome discussions with Mr. President to avoid unnecessary frictions.”

The minority leader also pointed out that the President
made “several assumptions” about his powers, especially in
relation to the power of appropriation. According to him,
Buhari, during the chat, seemed to assume that all the
proposals of the executive in the 2016 budget of N6.08tn
were sacrosanct and did not require any scrutiny by the
National Assembly.

“We advise that, in keeping with the principle of separation
of powers, he should read sections 4,5,6 and 80 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended) jointly for clearer understanding
of which arm of government has the power of appropriation.

“All that is contained in the entire budget remains a mere
proposal until approved by the National Assembly the way it
deems fit,” he added.

Ogor added that the National Assembly too would need to
be convinced why the Presidency proposed to buy cars
worth about N3.5bn this year.

He argued that while nobody raised eyebrows over the
Presidency’s budget on cars, a “non-existing” figure of N47bn was quoted for the National Assembly as its planned
expenditure on exotic cars this year.

The lawmaker stated, “The Presidency proposed to buy cars
for almost N3.5bn, there is electrical wiring of almost
N300m.

“There are so many proposals in the Presidency’s budget
that we think should be subjected to thorough discussions.
Some of the proposals in the Presidency’s budget may not
even stand.

“Where we are not convinced, we will remove and take some sub-heads to areas we think they are needed.”

He claimed that Buhari took the wrong step my starting a
“media war” with the National Assembly in his first media
chat. The lawmaker observed that the option of opening
discussions with the National Assembly on issues he might
not have been “adequately briefed on” should have
preceded the media war.

Also, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, said
the red chamber was prepared to meet with Buhari on the
proposed plan by the National Assembly to purchase official
vehicles for the 469 federal lawmakers.

Abdullahi told one of our correspondents on the telephone
that media reports on the issue, which quoted various sums
of money being the cost of procuring the vehicles, actually
misled members of the public on the issue.

He explained that the exact amount that the vehicles would
cost could not be determined by the National Assembly at
the moment because the contract for their procurement had not been awarded.

He added, “We in the Senate are ready and prepared to
meet with the President on the issue. There is no way we can exercise our legislative functions especially in the area of oversight, using our personal cars.

“We need official vehicles to move around the country
because we do not have to rely on government agencies
under our supervision for such logistics if we really have to
carry out an unbiased exercise.

“Nigerians should also note that we are not asking for too
much by requesting Sport Utility Vehicles as official vehicles
because there is no senator or member of the House of
Representatives that cannot afford one. So, to us it’s not a
luxury but a necessity to do our work better. “

Abdullahi appealed to Nigerians, especially the media, to
cooperate with members of the National Assembly in the
task of performing its constitutional roles of providing
necessary checks and balances for effective governance.


www.divineloveudorji..co.ke/2016/01/national-assembly-buhari-misled-over.html?m=1

We need to spill the beans more often to help these unrepentant greedy folks stay in line.