Obasanjo Is The Grandfather Of Corruption – Reps

SAN FRANCISCO, November 24, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives on Thursday declared that former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria, accusing him of introducing corruption into the National Assembly on its first day in 1999 and that he is still angry with the parliament for aborting his third term agenda.

Recall that the former President had while delivering a lecture at the first Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos on Wednesday averred that the “National Assembly stinks and stinks to high heavens. It needs to be purged,” adding that the parliament operates a cabal “worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national governance system at any time.”

But addressing a press conference in Abuja, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas maintained that Obasanjo lacks the moral authority to talk about corruption, accusing him of plotting to bring down Buhari's government, and that he is: “acting as lifetime opposition leader, blackmailer”.

According to Namdas, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his characteristic manner accused everybody but himself of corruption.

“He ventured to accuse the National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities of threatening the life of a “whistleblower”, lampooned constituency projects which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly which is highly underfunded?

In the speech Namdas said the House would ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office that deserves respect and reverence.

“However, because of the material misstatement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo introduced in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.

“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.