We’re broke, House of Reps admit

THE House of Representatives has called for an upward review of the National Assembly budget so that it can afford to execute its constitutional mandate effectively. 

The lower legislative chamber said this following the disclosure that it is broke and hampered from effectively discharging its “statutory” duties.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, at his weekly media conference today, declared:

“Yes, the house is broke, I have said it before and I am saying it again and I am not afraid of saying it.

“This is the fact until Nigerians believe that the appropriation that was made for the running of the National Assembly which was done when the exchange rate of naira to dollar was 180 is less now than what it used to be.

“The dollar equivalent today has gone up to over N400, the purchasing power of the budget as it is now, is weaker than it was 10 years ago,” he said.

Kalu said that he had fought with the leadership of the house and I have asked the question.

“Why are you afraid to raise the budget of the National Assembly that will enable us conduct our services efficiently and effectively.

“We appropriate for agencies to run effectively and yet, we are in penury trying to run our own constitutional mandate, it is a disservice to Nigerians and the poor budget of the parliament is a disservice to Nigerians,” he said.

The spokesman explained that the N128 billion appropriated for the National Assembly was divided among all the agencies in the parliament about 6,000 members of staff and lawmakers aides.

Kalu said that legislators needed professional experts to work with them to produce laws and motion that would address the needs of the people.

“If you go to the U.S., you see professors who are consulting and working directly with members of parliament,” he said.

This admission of being in dire financial straits came almost 24 hours after the Spokesman for the Senate, Dr Ajibola Basiru  refuted  the  claim that the National Assembly is hit by cash crunch.

Basiru described the claim as the “figment of the imagination” of the writers.

“The issue of cash crunch hitting the National Assembly is the figment of the imagination of the writers. Sitting at plenary does not require money. It just requires printing of order papers. We are not collecting sitting allowances.

“There are no pecuniary financial requirements for us to sit. I don’t see how finance can hinder our sitting.

  We are not collecting sitting allowance; we only collect salaries at the end of the month.

“We are in March and all our February salaries have been paid. The only thing we need during plenaries are printing of reports and the Committee on Business and Rules which is being adequately funded by the management is handling that,” Reps spokesman said.

The National Assembly comprises senators and members of House of Representatives.