By Hon. Victor Afam Ogene
Deputy Chairman
House Committee on Media and Public Affairs
There appears to be no let-up in the crave by former Education Minister, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili to get back into national consciousness, simply by randomly throwing pot shots anchored on misplaced aggression, in the ardent hope that such mudslinging would elevate her to the status of a moral crusader.
As an institution, we ought not to be responding to the tirades of Mrs Ezekwesili, especially as they are anchored on wrong deployment of figures, weird generalizations and outright falsehood.
But as elected representatives, we owe it a duty to the NIgerian people to always seek to conduct our affairs in an atmosphere of openness, candor and a fidelity to the truth. Indeed, if there is any point we are agreed upon with Mrs Ezekwesili, or anyone else for that matter, it is the promotion of transparency in governance and ensuring that democratic institutions of state function optimally for the benefit of all.
On the basis of this shared vision, the 7th House of Representatives wholeheartedly welcome her request for a public hearing on the stated ideals. In doing so, however, the former MInister must be ready to comply with some basic ground rules, so that we may all all not be fooled by the guerrilla tactics of someone plagued by an out-of- office syndrome.
Nigerians would remember that in the course of a similar misadventure, in January 2013, Mrs Ezekwesili had made wild claims bordering on the alleged frittering of $45 billion of the country’s external reserves, and $22 billion in the excess crude account.
While she is yet to fully justify those allegations, the former Minister is this time seeking a fresh sparring partner in the Legislature.
If it were not so, why would an address which centered on a “cost of governance in NIgeria” be curiously limited to an inquest into the operations of the National Assembly, leaving out the other two arms and arriving at the rather simplistic suggestion of the introduction of a unicameral or part-time legislature as the panacea of all Nigeria’s problems.
Since it is public knowledge that whosoever wishes to go to equity ought to do so with clean hands, we restate our earlier posers which Mrs Ezekwesili conveniently glossed over in her latest statement on this issue, to wit: What is the percentage of the National Assembly’s N150 billion allocation in a budget of N4.9 trillion? Is it right to insinuate that the budgetary allocation for the National Assembly is for “members salaries and allowances”, while deliberately leaving out capital projects component, salaries of legislative aides and the bureaucracy, as well as allied institutions such as Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS?; what is the total disbursement to the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government over the same eight-year period? If she was not mischievous, why would she elect to believe The Economist, rather than the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC over the issue of salaries of Nigerian public officials.
For an ex-official of government, who between the 2006 and 2007 federal budgets, superintended over a total of N422.5 billion as Education Minister, what percentage of the public fund was expended by her as recurrent cost?
Indeed, answers to these posers are necessary in the build-up to Mrs Ezekwesili’s anticipated incarnation as an activist, else she would once again embark on spontaneous flight of fancy, whose major destination is mere ruffling of feathers.