Nigerians have continued to criticize the decision by the National Assembly to earmark N70bn for its members out of the N819bn federal supplementary budget passed by the legislature last week.
The lawmakers had said the N70bn was earmarked to support “the working conditions of National Assembly members.”
But many Nigerians have described the N70bn budgetary allocation for lawmakers as insensitive while the majority of Nigerians are grappling with economic hardship heightened by the removal of fuel subsidy.
An advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) is now calling on the National Assembly to discard the plan immediately.
In a statement on Sunday, SERAP urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, “to drop the scandalous plan to spend N40bn on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70bn as ‘palliatives’ for new members.”
SERAP asked them to “repeal the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to reduce the budget for the National Assembly by N110bn, reflect the current economic realities in the country and address the impact of the removal of fuel subsidy on the over 137 million poor Nigerians.”
The group threatened to sue the National Assembly if its demands were ignored.
In the same vein, popular human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has also condemned the National Assembly.
In a statement, Falana said, “Out of sheer insensitivity coupled with impunity, the members of the National Assembly, regardless of political affiliation, conspired to breach the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 by padding the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2023 to provide the so-called palliative of N70bn for 306 newly-elected members.
“While the masses of Nigeria are groaning under the excruciating economic pains unleashed on them by the ruling class, the National Assembly has awarded N228.7m to each of the newly elected legislators. As if that is not enough, the members of the National Assembly have earmarked N40bn to purchase 465 Sports Utility Vehicles and bulletproof cars for principal officials and members. However, the legislators approved the sum of N500bn for 12 million indigent people in a country where the National Bureau of Statistics has said that ‘62.9 per cent of people (133 million) are multidimensionally poor’.”
Other individuals and groups have continued to criticize the National Assembly over the controversial decision, but it remains to be seen if it will be rescinded.
