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| Obasanjo and Na'abba |
FORMER Speaker of House of Representatives,
Ghali Na’abba yesterday threw a fresh bomb at former President, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo by describing him as the most corrupt person in the country in
response to the former president’s assertion that National Assembly is full of
corrupt people.
Na’abba who made the remarks during interaction with the media argued
vehemently that the controversial budget padding could only have been gotten to
such a concluding stage in connivance with some members of the executive arm...
“I don’t think there is anybody that is more
corrupt in this country like the former President. I believe you are talking
about the former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“As the Speaker, I took Obasanjo on various
expenditure offences which he committed, which he could not defend and didn’t
show any remorse. In fact, that is why sometimes in 2002, the National Assembly
tried to impeach him.
“So, he has not got the integrity to call
anybody corrupt. This is a man who became the president with nothing, today he
is one of the richest Nigerians. Let him explain to Nigerians how he acquired
all these wealth.
“I am aware that, during the tenure elongation
attempt of Obasanjo, money was shared to the members of the National Assembly.
It was alleged that, the Senators collected N50million, House of
Representatives members collected N40million. But I also know that, it was not
all the members that collected this money. Some of them collected, some of them
did not. But, I am aware that money was shared.
Reacting to the statement by the Speaker
Yakubu Dogara that padding was not an offence, Ghali Na’abba dissented, however
noted that it is relative.
“It all depends from what angle one is looking
at it. The responsibility for appropriation in this country belongs to the
National Assembly, So, there is no way that the National Assembly can vote
anything and it will be called padding.”
“If you are talking about padding, which I
believe is generally accepted to be illegal, it must be a situation whereby
certain members of the National Assembly will add certain items of expenditure
behind their colleagues. If any item of expenditure is added behind other
members, then that item can be said to be illegal and it can be called padding”,
Na’abba explained.
