Politics National Assembly Spent over 1 trillion Naira in Eight Years

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Former Minister of Education and immediate past Vice-President of the World Bank (Africa), Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, on Monday said Nigeria had spent over 1trillion on the National Assembly members in the last eight years.

Ezekwesili made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja, at a one-day dialogue session on the cost of governance in Nigeria and review of the Oronsanye Committee Report, organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC). Ezekwesili also advocated for a part time legislature.

" Since 2005, the National Assembly has been allocated over N1 trillion...things will improve through part time legislators, as it will also filter the number of people who will go into the National Assembly. You must have means of livelihood and you don't need to depend on public funds. We need to learn more on the good and bad side of it. But, we cannot rule out the possibility. “ she said while also lamenting that “82 per cent of Nigeria’s budgetary cost goes for recurrent expenditure”.

"In the 2012 budget, personnel expenditure alone gulped 44 per cent at 1.81 trillion naira, overheads was 14 per cent at 590 billion naira, and debt services of 16 per cent of the budget at 679 billion naira, while capital expenditure stood at 18 per cent of 744 billion naira.

"Our lack of development is occasioned by this kind of budget, where capital expenditure is just 18 per cent of the budget, whereas in other developed and developing countries it takes about 60 to 80 per cent of their budgets," she added.

Ezekwesili further noted that the problem of Nigeria was not the system of government being practiced, but the kind of people to deliver on the system, as the best system.
 
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