THE House of Representatives has fired back at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing the former President as the grand father of corruption in Nigeria.



While addressing a press conference in reaction to the caustic remarks of Obasanjo at a lecture Wednesday, Abdulrazak Namdas, Chairman, House Committee on Media & Publicity said “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?

The lawmakers also accused Obasanjo of being the grand father of corruption in Nigeria

Namdas’ reply to Obasanjo reads thus: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his characteristic manner accused everybody but himself of corruption.

“He ventured to accuse the National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities of threatening the life of a “whistleblower”, lampooned constituency projects which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly which is highly underfunded?

“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.

“We have repeatedly maintained that there was no “padding” of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which is a legitimate document passed by the National Assembly, authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by Mr. President. It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo’s stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked and procured by a renegade member of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was removed from office. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no crime that was committed by the National Assembly by exercising its constitutional function of appropriation. If Chief Obasanjo has an issue with the execution of the 2016 Budget or indeed other Appropriation Acts, he should direct his anger elsewhere.

“ He claimed that the National Assembly Budget is very high, when by all standards, 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. National Assembly Budget also funds the National Institute for Legislative Studies, which is a legislative think-tank and highly rated academic institution that serves both National and State Houses of Assembly and even international legislators. All these agencies also have their capital budget including development of their headquarters, procurement of office equipment, procurement of regular items for running their offices; the National Assembly maintain legislative aides of about 3,000 in number, that aid the work of the Assembly; it also conducts regular public hearings involving the media and stakeholders and oversight activities, involving huge sums of money. The cost implications 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. The National Assembly also has buildings and offices to build and maintain. National Assembly staff and members attend conferences, trainings, seminars to keep abreast of legislative developments worldwide. The activities are very encompassing and expensive.

“ 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. If a Minister, Chief Executive or Director in a Ministry travels on official duties, for instance, do you include the cost of his ticket and accommodation as part of his salary or allowances? Does the cost of stationeries and maintenance of equipment like computers used in their offices, form part of their salaries and allowances? These are some of the costs that must be taken care of by the National Assembly and the media calls these costs “jumbo pay”. For goodness sake, the National Assembly is an arm of government, not just an ordinary agency of government.

“The Budget of many agencies in the Executive Branch are indeed higher than the current Budget of the National Assembly that is an arm of government. Examples abound, CBN, NNPC, NCC etc. Allowances paid to even junior staff of some of these government agencies cannot be compared to what members of National Assembly enjoy.

“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 Olesugn Obasanjo. He birthed the 4th Republic National Assembly with corrupt practices from day one; indeed the first day of the Republic. He bribed both PDP, ANPP 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?

“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?

“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.

“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 stock in trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery.

“We wish him well".

Source: http://www.socialtimesng.com/2016/11/obasanjo-remains-the-grandfather-of-corruption-in-nigeria-reps/

Kwarapcian will always fight back

OBJ = 1; REPS = 1. Watching...

Oh, I thought it was GEJ

Dem Suppose Give Am Award Na

I love where they said"We wish him well".2019 is going to be peacefully bloody.

Hehehehe. Pot calling kettle black

Who's leading in this corruption competition?

“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?


Baba Iyabo, over to you.

This is why some of us are of d opinion that Booohari is only fighting his enemies,not corruption.U can't have OBJ,Abdulsalam,IBB enjoying their loot in peace,yet U choose to harass GEJ and PEJ who actually have oil wells in their backyards and U come to convince me U are fighting corruption,lai lai.
When we speak these facts,children who never read a single newspaper b4 and only became politically conscious wt d advent of smartphones will come here and spew thrash.
Obj that sold national assets to companies he has interests viz transcorp.
Obj that pocketed 16B dollars wtout anything to show viz power projects.
Obj that bought coaster buses for his Bells university and a Peugeot 607 for his girlfriend wt PTDF money.
Obj that you had only 10k in his account and was actually owing banks for loans he couldn't service as at 1998 but has suddenly turned to one of Nigeria's richest men.
Chaii,I remember Ghana must go bags filled wt money was paraded on live TV in d national assembly,the money being what Obj wanted to use and bribe legislators .

Lalasticlala hope you're watching?

So why cant they probe him

In other word, GEJ is trailing OBJ with a large margin in the 'most corrupt Nigerian' race. Don't forget OBJ is the 'Navigator' of the great Party APC... time will tell

Watching in 4D

Hmmmmmm..... Time will tell because whenever this old man talked about national assembly and they reply him, some corruption secret about NA will be expose.

Obasanjo remain the godfather of corruption in Nigeria-Reps.Me concur GBAM!

as bad as the NASS is, kudos for this strongly worded response & for not letting OBJ get away with his usual scathing remarks.

will the Presidency have the balls to also fire a return salvo to its Navigator? I doubt that, their power is on top those who are gentlemanly in their ways...

meanwhile, the NASS should put its money where its mouth is & probe OBJ... then hand over the report to the Executive for further necessary action.

if they can't probe OBJ, then they should all STFU.

How someone like OBJ could keep a straight face and called others corrupt is what I don't understand.

OBJ...... grand master of corruption.

I thought they said he was the " chief navigator" of the A.P.C or is the honeymoon ended already?The house of thieves is no longer @ ease and the centre is not holding anymore either,anything that would put asunder to the unity of this country's enemies is welcomed.Let them come out and tell us the amount he stole during his tenure.
Always sounding sanctimonious like he is the only angel in the midst of sinners and meanwhile he is as dirty as the average politician if not even dirtier.
Always claiming to be a wiseacre and anybody else's opinion doesn't matter in nation building.

The coming weeks will be interesting,the concerned camps re getting ready their "ammo" and more salvos will surely be fired and i trust him,he doesn't suffer fools gladly. This is what happens to an elder who refuses to leave the stage for the younger ones and wen ovation is loudest,how many times has I.B.B been spoken about in this manner esp by the same house? none that I can remember,maybe he still thinks he's the presido.Meanwhile in their own time they started assuming leadership positions wen they were in their late twenties and now it's still the same old set of geriatrics still ruling us and are still not even in a hurry to leave the stage for the younger ones.

This was someone whose daughter took a swipe at in the past and he still doesn't want to lie low.What exactly does our elder statesman still wants,a man who providence has been very kind to by helping to break his kernel.


First he was military head of State, so many years later he went to prison,he came out and became president and instead of him to use the opportunity judiciously to right many wrongs, bt he didn't do that and instead he busied himself with his futile third term agenda and wen he couldn't get his way he foisted a sick man on us as president in the person of Yaradua ,this man's numerous atrocious acts against this country cannot be forgotten anytime the history of Nigeria is to be told or written by unbiased minds.

Brb Make my boss stretch small 2019 no go easy

Buhari should try this too

Naija which way

hope still dey like this? with the kind leaders wey we get

Characteristics of an afonja as follows:
1: eat and clean mouth
2: first claim saint
3: first point accusing finger
4: u can add urs plss
I fear dis people!!!

Just give me the name of a politician that is not corrupt.

Corruption fighting back


Nobody said Obasanjo doesn't have skeletons in his cupboard, he's just not happy with the theft of national cake



Reps claiming budget was not padded, while jibrin and Co are running helter skelter

OBJ got what he deserves when he was the mastermind of the infamous Ghana must go scandal...SMH

Splinz:
How someone like OBJ could keep a straight face and called others corrupt is what I don't understand.

OBJ...... grand master of corruption.

He hates national assembly so much because they didnt allow him to be president for life.

He squandered his chance to be father of nigeria. He failed to build legacy projects.

National Assembly remains the grand institution of corruption.

Truth is mine*

See the kind akpako wey dem knack our grandpa of corruption!


Gbosa!!!

Thieves replying another thief