The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) has sent
\nFreedom of Information Act requests to both the Senate President Dr Bukola
\nSakari and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Dogara Yakubu
\nrequesting them to \u201curgently provide information about alleged spending of
\nN500 billion as running cost between 2006 and 2016, and the monthly income
\nand allowances of each Senator and member.\u201d<\/p>\n
SERAP\u2019s request followed disclosure by Abdulmumin Jibrin that Nigerian
\nSenators and House of Representatives members have pocketed N500 billion
\nas \u2018running cost\u2019 out of the N1 trillion provided for in the National
\nAssembly budgets between 2006 and 2016, and by former president Olusegun
\nObasanjo that each Senator goes home with nothing less than N15m monthly
\nwhile each member receives nothing less than N10m monthly.<\/p>\n
The organization threatened to \u201ctake all appropriate legal actions under
\nthe Freedom of Information Act to compel the Senate President and the
\nSpeaker of the House of Representatives to comply with the request if \u201cthe
\ninformation is not provided to us within 7 days of the receipt and\/or
\npublication of this letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the letter of request dated 25 November 2016 and signed by SERAP
\nexecutive director Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organization, said that, \u201cWe are
\nseriously concerned that details of the National Assembly budgets and
\nincome and allowances receive by its members over the years remain
\nshrouded in secrecy, and hidden from Nigerians. Alleged stealing or
\nmismanagement of N500 billions of public funds may be responsible for the
\neconomic crisis and attendant hardships being faced by millions of
\nNigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n
The identical FOI requests read in part: \u201cRepresentative democracy
\nrequires more than the simple casting of ballots in periodic elections.
\nOnly when Nigerians in general have access to concrete information about
\nthe running cost and other critical spending and financial details by the
\nNational Assembly can citizens make well-informed choices and can
\npoliticians be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of these overwhelming allegations of corruption, the
\nleadership cannot continue to claim that public perception that many
\nlaw-makers are in the National Assembly in pursuit of self-interest is off
\nthe mark.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP believes that secrecy in parliamentary spending has resulted in
\nlapse of accountability for Senators and members of the House of
\nRepresentatives, and this could ultimately endanger the healthy
\ndevelopment of the rule of law and good governance in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP believes that secrecy in the spending by the National Assembly and
\nthe monthly income and allowances of its members contributes to and
\nenables poor governance. It undermines the ability of the government to
\nspend wisely on behalf of Nigerians, and erodes the integrity and
\nauthority of the National Assembly to make laws for the peace, order
\nand\u00a0good government in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTransparency in the spending by the National Assembly and income of its
\nmembers is a key element of justice, which is essential for an open
\nlegislative process, and can serve as a confidence building measure by the
\nlawmakers to regain the trust of Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP argues that the level of transparency in spending by the National
\nAssembly\u2014be it the Senate or the House of Representatives\u2014and the monthly
\nincome and allowances of its members is an important measure of the
\ndemocratic nature of our government, and is especially important for the
\nNational Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are serious allegations, which require your immediate and urgent
\nclarifications and public disclosure. If true, such allegations will
\nclearly amount to a fundamental breach of national anticorruption laws and
\nthe country\u2019s international anticorruption obligations and commitments
\nincluding under the UN Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a
\nstate party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy virtue of Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011,
\nSERAP is entitled as of right to request for or gain access to
\ninformation, including information on the alleged spending of N500 billion
\nby the National Assembly and on the incomes and allowances receive by its
\nmembers, if the said information is in the custody or possession of any
\npublic official, agency or institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy virtue of Section 4 (a) of the FOI Act when a person makes a request
\nfor information from a public official, institution or agency, the public
\nofficial, institution or urgency to whom the application is directed is
\nunder a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the
\ninformation requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act, within
\n7 days after the application is received.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information being requested does not come within the purview of the
\ntypes of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the FOI
\nAct. The information requested for, apart from not being exempted from
\ndisclosure under the FOI Act, bothers on an issue of national interest,
\npublic peace and concern, interest of human rights, social justice, good
\ngovernance, transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disclosure of the information requested will give SERAP and the
\ngeneral public a true picture on how exactly the alleged N500 billion
\nrunning cost has been spent as well as other critical financial details.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, (SERAP) has sent Freedom of Information Act requests to both the Senate President Dr Bukola Sakari and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n