Name The Rogues And Criminals in NASS, Senate Replies Obasanjo
ABUJA, May 24, (THEWILL) – As a first step to bringing sanity into the legislative arm of government, former President Olusegun Obasanjo must name the “rogues and robbers” who are members of the National Assembly, the Senate has said.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe made the disclosure at a press conference in Abuja.
Abaribe said that the request to Obasanjo became imperative following his statement that national and state Houses of Assembly are populated by rogues and criminals.
“In the new spirit of transparency and openness, Obasanjo should assist the National Assembly by naming those that he knows who are either rogues or criminals,” Abaribe said.
Obasanjo was reported to have descended on the nation’s Legislature, Judiciary and the Police on Tuesday in Lagos, while speaking at the annual conference of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, describing them as corrupt institutions that held no hope for the country.
“Integrity is necessary for systems and institutions to be strong. Today rogues, armed robbers are in the State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly. What sort of laws will they make?” Obasanjo had queried.
“The judiciary is also corrupt. During my tenure, many of the corrupt judges were removed, some are still there. If the judiciary becomes corrupt, where is the hope for the nation? Justice, no doubt, will go to the highest bidder. The judiciary did not see anything wrong with a former governor but the same set of evidence was used to sentence him in the United Kingdom. The Police are even worse. Well, I will not lament. I will only say, let us understand our problems and emphasise the good ones.”
Abaribe confirmed that the Senate had been inundated with inquiries on the former president’s outbursts. He said that the National Assembly has great respect for Obasanjo and so would never talk back at him.
“But we actually feel that the former president would help the National Assembly and indeed Nigeria in the new spirit of transparency and openness by … naming those he knows are either rogues or criminals,” he said.
“That would help us to be able to sanitise the polity and we sincerely thank him for his role in the country, as someone who cares very deeply about the Nigerian state and how it is at the moment.”
He also said that the appeal was not to Obasanjo alone, but to other Nigerians who are concerned about the country. He urged them to, also in the spirit of transparency, provide information that members of the Assembly could use to check themselves and make the country better.