The senate has reacted to the corruption allegations leveled against it
by the former Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo while at a book launch
yesterday in Abuja. In a statement released and signed by its spokesman,
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe today, the senate frowned at the allegations
that they used their oversight function to extort money, stating that
the oversight functions of the senate was the initiative of the former
president. The statement reads in part;
"Ex- President Obasanjo for the avoidance of doubt, was the initiator
of the constituency project in the year 2000 as a means of ensuring that
projects were fairly spread across the country using the Senatorial
zones as the spring board.
To ensure execution of the projects, Obasanjo again factored the
constituency projects into the annual budgets to be implemented by the
executive depending on availability of funds. That is to say that no lawmaker ever comes close to the funds or even
determine the contractor for the said projects or when the said
contract would be awarded. So, it looks curious and surprising that former President Obasanjo
would turn around after over 10 years of initiating such a project to
allege that the National Assembly is performing the function of both the
executive and the parliament. Is it not preposterous for anybody to believe that members of the
National Assembly would against the provisions of the Constitution with
regards to application of separation of powers, award contracts ‘to
their agents to execute’ and expect the Presidency under a President
Obasanjo or any other President for that matter to pay for what they are
not part of? Such allegation stands logic on its head, as it amounts to an
indictment of the Presidency for wilfully contravening the budget laws
by ceding its power to execute to the National Assembly, if it was the
case.”
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