The House of Representatives has
described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the most corrupt
Nigerian to have held a public office, deploring his tactic of always
seeing himself as the only clean human being.
It made a formal reaction on Thursday to
the ex-President’s latest attacks on the National Assembly, saying that
he churned out “outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous
innuendo.”
On Wednesday, Obasanjo had attacked the
legislature on several fronts, including their salaries/allowances and
the alleged diversion of constituency projects.
He had stated, “Once you are a member,
you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and
corruption that you cannot opt out as you go home with not less than
N15million in a month for a senator and
N10m a month for a member of the
House of Representatives. The National Assembly is a den of corruption
by a gang of unarmed robbers.’’
The former President spoke further, “If
the judiciary is being cleaned, what of the National Assembly, which
stinks much worse than the judiciary? Budget padding must not go
unpunished.
“It is a reality, which is a regular and
systemic practice. Nobody should pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians.
Ganging up to intimidate and threaten the life of a whistle-blower is
deplorable and undemocratic.’’
But, speaking through its Chairman,
Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, the House
said Obasanjo first introduced corruption to the legislature in 1999
when he felt he must bribe legislators to have his way on every issue.
It added that a reason he would never
like members of the National Assembly was the fact that they foiled his
third term ambition in 2007 after taking his money and displayed it
publicly to put him to shame.
On corruption, Namdas noted,
“Undoubtedly, 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 Olusegun
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, (the late) Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That was how Senator
Evans Enwerem became the 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 the 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?
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