Reps dismiss Ezekwesili’s N1trn claim

Oby Ezekwesili

(Sun News)-The House of Representatives yesterday dismissed claims by former minister of education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili that the National Assembly has gulped over N1trillion in the last eight years.
The lower chamber said the former minister was engaging in ‘flight of fancy,’ urging the public to disregard her claim. The lawmakers said Ezekwesili was trying make herself relevant by slamming government institutions.
Ezekwesili had told the civil society groups in Abuja on Monday that the National Assembly has gulped over N1trillion in eight years.

In a statement signed by its Deputy spokesman, Hon Victor Ogene, the House accused the former minister of deliberately wanting to set the public against the National Assembly.
The statement reads:”There appears to be no let-up in the crave by former education minister, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili to get back into national consciousness, simply by randomly throwing pot-shots anchored on misplaced aggression, in the ardent hope that such mudslinging would elevate her to the status of a moral crusader.
“As an institution, we ought not to be responding to the tirades of Mrs Ezekwesili, especially as they are anchored on wrong deployment of figures, weird generalizations and outright falsehood.”
The House maintained, “but as elected representatives, we owe it a duty to the Nigerian people to always seek to conduct our affairs in an atmosphere of openness, candour and a fidelity to the truth. Indeed, if there is any point we are agreed upon with Mrs Ezekwesili, or anyone else for that matter, it is the promotion of transparency in governance and ensuring that democratic institutions of state function optimally for the benefit of all.
“On the basis of this shared vision, the seventh House of Representatives wholeheartedly welcome her request for a public hearing on the stated ideals. In doing so, however, the former minister must be ready to comply with some basic ground rules, so that we may all not be fooled by the guerrilla tactics of someone plagued by an out-of- office syndrome.
“Nigerians would remember that in the course of a similar misadventure, in January 2013, Mrs Ezekwesili had made wild claims bordering on the alleged frittering of $45 billion of the country’s external reserves, and $22 billion in the excess crude account.
“While she is yet to fully justify those allegations, the former minister is this time seeking a fresh sparring partner in the legislature.
“If it were not so, why would an address which centered on a “cost of governance in Nigeria” be curiously limited to an inquest into the operations of the National Assembly, leaving out the other two arms and arriving at the rather simplistic suggestion of the introduction of a unicameral or part-time legislature as the panacea of all Nigeria’s problems.
“Since it is public knowledge that whosoever wishes to go to equity ought to do so with clean hands, we restate our earlier posers which Mrs Ezekwesili conveniently glossed over in her latest statement on this issue, to wit: What is the percentage of the National Assembly’s N150 billion allocation in a budget of N4.9 trillion?