Politics
NASS Has Spent 2% Of Nat’l Budget -Gbajabiamila
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Saturday, said the National Assembly spends less than two per cent of the national budget, wondering why no one is asking questions about the remaining 98 per cent.
Gbajabiamila said this as his reaction to a statement credited to the Vice-Chancellor of Ahman Pategi University, Patigi, Kwara state, Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji, who opined that Nigeria runs the most expensive National Assembly in the world.
The university boss and the Speaker both spoke at the 10th annual symposium of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, B-Zone, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Prof. Adedimeji, who was the guest lecturer at the occasion, touched on the theme, ‘Saving a nation on the precipice: between re-federation and secessionalism.’
Adedimeji had emphasised the need to rejig the operations of the legislature in Nigeria, stating that the nation’s parliament is the most expensive in the world.
“With due respect to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nigeria spends the highest amount of money on the legislators in the world and the National Assembly consumes more money than any other parliament in the world.
“A unicameral legislature with two representatives from each state is sufficient. The National Assembly should have less than 100 members, including Abuja,” the varsity don said in his lecture.
However, Gbajabiamila absolutely disagreed with the Vice-Chancellor, describing his perception as wrong.
Gbajabiamila who was represented as the Chairman of the occasion by Hon. Ibrahim Isiaka of Ifo/Ewekoro constituency, mentioned that the money budgeted for the National Assembly was two per cent of the total budget.
“No one till today has actually sat down to go into research and define the meaning of legislators.
“The money being spent on the national assembly is less than two per cent of the total budget of this country; but nobody, has ever looked at what is happening to the remaining 98 per cent. And when you say National Assembly, you are not talking about legislators, who are the lawmakers only. You are also talking about the National Assembly Commission, you are talking about everything, all encompassing,” he said.
The Speaker regretted that no one had ever sat down to go into research and define what the National Assembly actually means.
He charged Nigerians to change the perception that Nigeria runs the most expensive National Assembly in the world.
Lawyers representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the ongoing local government election tribunals in Benue State have written to the panels’ chairmen over growing security concerns at the tribunal venues.
The lawyers expressed their fears in three separate letters signed by Matthew Burkaa (SAN), Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), and Sunday Ameh (SAN) for Zone A, B and C senatorial districts, addressed to the tribunal chairpersons and made available to journalists in Makurdi.
The local government councils election petitions tribunals were all sitting in Makurdi, the state capital.
In their letters titled “Re: Notice of Tribunal Sitting on Monday 24th February 2025, and Our Security Concerns”, the lawyers urged the court not to sit because of the security concerns.
Mr Burkaa, who is representing the Zone B senatorial district in his letter, said he and his team were representing 294 respondents in all the pending 104 petitions before the tribunal in the zone.
He stated that they received notice through the tribunal secretary, Emmanuel Awuhe, via the ‘Local Government Petition Tribunal Makurdi’ WhatsApp group of the tribunal’s intention to sit on February 24.
Mr Burkaa said the lawyers had received a directive that the tribunal would not sit on February 21, the initially scheduled date and would be heard Monday, February 24.
“We hereby, with regard to the hearing notice against Monday, state our reservation against the said sitting of the tribunal on the following grounds:
“We have noted the brewing tense security situation around the court premises and within the state in the past few days.
“The state of affairs has created a serious security concern for us, as we fear for the safety of our team of lawyers and our clients should they attend the sitting on the said date.
“Consequent upon the above, we hereby respectfully request that the tribunal sitting be adjourned to a further and tentative date when adequate security measures would have been put in place to guarantee our collective security.
“We will be delighted if our request is granted with immediate and adequate consideration,” he said.
Also, Mr Ndarani, representing respondents in the 93 petitions pending before the Zone A senatorial district tribunal, aligned completely with Mr Burkaa.
Mr Ameh, counsel for Zone C respondents in the pending petitions at the tribunal, said the issue of security raised in his letter was a serious one.
A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Marvis Ossai, on Monday prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to declare the Delta North Senatorial seat vacant, following the defection of Sen. Ned Nwoko to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Ossai, filed the suit marked: FCH/ABJ/CS/325/2025, seeking the lawmaker’s removal, having defected from the party on which platform he came into the Senate.
The plaintiff also urged the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to, within 60 days from the delivery of judgement in the matter, conduct a by-election into the Delta North Senatorial District.
Aside from Nwoko, the INEC, PDP and the Senate, were cited as defendants in the matter.
Specifically, the plaintiff, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Johnmary Jideobi, posed a lone question for the determination of the court.
He prayed among other reliefs, for: “An order of this Honourable Court, directing the INEC (the 2nd defendant) to conduct a bye-election into the Delta North Senatorial District of the Nigerian Senate within sixty (60) days from the date of the delivery of judgment herein.
“An order of this Honourable Court declaring vacant the seat of Ned Munir Nwoko and cancelling his Certificate of Return issued to him by INEC.
“An order of this Honourable Court mandating the 1st Defendant, Nwoko, to refund into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, forthwith, all the salaries, emoluments and allowances received by him since January, 2025 until the date of the final judgment in this matter.
“An order disqualifying the 1st defendant from standing election into any elective post under the amended 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until and unless he complies with every terms of the judgment in this suit.
“An order mandating the 4th defendant (Senate) to immediately give effect to the judgment of this Honourable Court.”
In a five-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Ibrahim Isa, the plaintiff, told the court that Sen. Nwoko had on Jan. 30, resigned from the PDP which was the political party on whose platform he was elected to occupy the Delta North Senatorial seat till 2027.
According to the plaintiff, who told the court that he is from Oshimili North Local Government Area in Delta North Senatorial District, Sen. Nwoko’s continued stay in office after his defection, would amount to a gross violation of the constitution.
“That since when the 1st defendant decamped from the PDP up to the present moment of initiating the instant suit, there is never any division in the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“That the ideology of the 1st defendant’s new party, APC, to which the 1st defendant now fully subscribes, does not bear any similarity or represent the political philosophy of the PDP (which is the basis upon which the Plaintiff resolved to cast his vote for and elected the Defendant in 2023).
“That the conduct of the defendant in defecting from the PDP to APC has dealt a major blow to the fortunes of the plaintiff’s party, the PDP.
“That the conduct of the 1st defendant being challenged herein if not condemned and upturned by this Honourable Court will continue to encourage political harlotry, legislative rascality and destroys the reasons for the laws made to regulate the defection of National Assembly Members by the Constitution of Nigeria itself.
“That the continuous stay of the 1st defendant at the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does no longer represent the Plaintiff’s interest or that of thousands of other members of our constituency who voted him in on the basis of our faith in our Party’s manifesto which they believed the 1st Defendant was capable of representing in the Federal Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That the defendant is now representing adverse interests of the people who fought the Plaintiff’s party tooth and nail [in the year 2023] to forestall the emergence of the 1st Defendant as the Member Representing Delta North Senatorial District Federal Constituency on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP).
“That time is of the greatest essence in the instant application.
“It will be in the interest of justice for this Honourable Court to grant the prayers contained on the face of this Originating Summons,” the affidavit further read.
The suit is yet to be assigned to any judge for hearing.
President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, on Monday, defended the tax reform bills introduced to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, saying that the bills would shape the future of the country’s economy.
He spoke in Abuja as the Senate Committee on Finance opened the long-awaited public hearing on the bills, urging all stakeholders to thoroughly examine the bills, considering the impact they would make on revenue generation and redistribution in the country.
The tax reform bills are, The Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill (NTAB) 2024; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill (NRSEB) 2024; and The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill (JRBEB) 2024.
Sen. Akpabio noted that the misconceptions and fears about the bills were spread mostly by persons and groups that had hardly read the provisions.
He called all those opposing the bills to seize the opportunity of the public hearing to tell Nigerians why they believed the bills were bad for their well-being.
The Senate President stated, “The four bills, some leaders and elders have never read them. They only rush to the television to make comments.
“I call on all Nigerians, who are against the bills, to come and make their contributions. Don’t follow social media commentaries to act, read the bills.
“This is the future of Nigeria, these tax reform bills. All oversights by the Senate are suspended for now for us to devote enough time to the public hearing.”
Sen. Akpabio observed that while discussions or pronouncements about tax scare people, the truth remains that less than 30% of Nigerians pay taxes.
According to him, over-reliance on crude oil revenue has made many Nigerians to assume that paying taxes is unnecessary.
“At a time when oil revenue is dwindling, we have to think out of the box by sourcing money from other areas. This is a fact.
“I don’t think up to 30% of Nigerians pay tax. Yet, everyone wants good services and good governance.
“This is Nigeria. Nobody believes in the rule of law and nobody believes that tax works”, he added.
A long list of stakeholders attended the opening of the hearing on Monday.
