COAFRICA online has been urged to organize and fix a date for debate on the alleged claim by the former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili that the national lawmakers have spent N1trillion in the last eight years.
The director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) Professor Is-haq Akintola in a statement in Ibadan on Sunday noted that the former minister had alleged that the National Assembly (NASS) gulped N1 trillion between 2005 and now.
She followed up this allegation on Wednesday 21st August, 2013 by challenging the federal lawmakers to a public debate on the issue. It expressed believe that this matter should not be trivialized through mudslinging and the use of abusive language. “Coming from a woman who has been twice a federal minister and a former executive of the prestigious World Bank, the issue should not be treated with a wave of the hand. Any matter that bothers on probity and accountability should be taken seriously in a decent society.
Transparency is one of the major hallmarks of democracy,” it said.
In view of the furore generated by the allegation as well as the attendant public interest, MURIC said Nigerian federal lawmakers owe Nigerian taxpayers the inalienable obligation to organize, within the shortest possible time, an open debate on the subject-matter as requested by the former minister.
According to the group, any undue delay will be interpreted as an attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet. It reminded members of the NASS that the general public was waiting for the debate. “Our organization has also partnered with other members of the civil society to work out modalities for compelling the actualization of the debate.
In particular, we are interested in knowing the rationale behind the idea of the federal lawmakers fixing their own salaries according to their own whims and caprices moreso since there is an agency
charged with the responsibility of fixing all salaries. NASS must be able to
convince the toiling Nigerian masses that they are not being taken for a ride,”
it added.
