Lawmakers Fire Back At Ex-President Obj, Say He’s Most Corrupt Nigerian Living

The members of the House of Representative are saying a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is the most corrupt president Nigeria ever had.  The House of Reps speaking on Thursday took a swipe on the former President describing the elder statesman as the most corrupt Nigerian in history.

Apparently reacting to allegations of corruption levied against the the House and it’s leadership at a lecture delivered in Lagos on Wednesday, the legislators observed that the former President has perpetrated more corrupt practices than any individual in Nigeria.

 

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, in his regular weekly briefing yesterday, according to Leadership, stated that Obasanjo who has accused several Nigerian leaders of corruption would exonerate himself of any wrongful act.

 

Namdas who said it was un-becoming of a former President to quote figures of sums of money that are factually incorrect, noted that no member of the House of Representatives receives N10m every month as Obasanjo claimed.

According to Namdas, the former President who orchestrated corruption in the National Assembly from the inception of 4th Republic is yet to recover from the shock of his aborted third term ambition which was foisted by the legislators.

‎”Undoubtedly, the 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, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That was how Senator Evan Enwerem became 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 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.”

 

“The list of his corrupt acts while in office is endless. Unquestionably, he is the greatest corrupt person ever to hold office in Nigeria. He remains the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria and lacks the moral authority to discuss corruption or indeed abuse of office in Nigeria as he remains the most corrupt Nigerian on record,” he said.

 

Namdas who insisted that the National Assembly is grossly underfunded, noted that budgetary allocation to the legislative arm of government in the 2016 budget was lower than budget of some government ministries or agencies.

He added that leadership of the House did not commit any complicity in its conduct over the 2016 budget, thereby advised ‎Obasanjo to direct his anger about the government elsewhere.

 

“We have repeatedly maintained that there was no “padding” of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which is a legitimate document passed by the National Assembly, authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by Mr. President. It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo’s stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked and procured by a renegade member of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was removed from office. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no crime that was committed by the National Assembly by exercising its constitutional function of appropriation. If Chief Obasanjo has an issue with the execution of the 2016 Budget or indeed other Appropriation Acts, he should direct his anger elsewhere,” he stated.

 

 

The House also noted that Obasanjo has an habitual character of bringing down governments ‎when he falls out of favour with its leadership.

“It is unfortunate that he has started his very familiar method of bringing down governments. He did it to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, he did it to Gen. Buhari, he did same to Gen. Babangida, he attempted to bring down Gen. Abacha before he imprisoned him for treason; he made frantic efforts to derail the government of President Ya’ardua when he couldn’t use him. He supported President Goodluck Jonathan but when he refused to take dictation, he turned against him. He supported President Buhari, but since he has sensed that Nigeria is having economic difficulties under him, he has pounced to derail his government.”

“The way Chief Obasanjo talks gives the impression that he is a lifetime opposition leader who has never held any office. What did he do about the issues he raised in his 8 years as President? This is a man with unlimited access to President Buhari. Or is it because he has not appointed all his cronies as requested? We may never know. His stuck in trade is blackmail, subversion and treachery,” Namdas said.