Excessive pressure from Nigerians force legislators to pad budgets –Jonathan’s ex-aide, Obono-Obla

Former aide to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Okoi Obono-Obla, has blamed the padding of budgets by Nigerian legislators on the excessive demands and undue pressure from the populace.

The former Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), who stated this in an interview on Sunday in Calabar, said high expectations from constituents and the pressure to deliver by the lawmakers, force them to jerk up budgets.

Obono-Obla said the average Nigerian electorate expects his legislator to do everything for him and in the frenzy to satisfy their “greed and insatiability”, the lawmaker is forced to play to the gallery and want to compete with the executive by veering into areas traditionally carved and reserved for the executive.

“We crave for legislators to give us money during festive periods such as Christmas, Ramadan, New Yam festivals, etc,” he said.

READ ALSO:Alleged budget padding: SERAP tells Akpabio to call in EFCC, ICPC, recall Ningi

“We demand money for school fees, and hospital bills. We want them to buy cars for us and do everything we should be doing for ourselves.

“We want to organize so-called empowerment schemes, etc, but do we ever take time to ruminate, reflect, and ponder where these legislators get money they use for all these welfare schemes they embarked upon on their senatorial districts and constituencies now and then?

“As long as we expect our legislators to continue to play the role of the local government and father Christmas, we should not shed crocodile tears when they pad the budget estimates submitted to them for approval by the executive branch.

“And we should not hypocritically cry blue murder when they insert humongous amounts into the budget, which are not specifically tied to clearly defined projects,” he stated.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now