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Reps Cry Out, Say National Assembly Is Broke
- The House of Representatives says the National Assembly is underfunded to function efficiently as a national parliament.
- The Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, made the lamentation at his weekly media conference on Thursday.
The House of Representatives, on Thursday, says the National Assembly is underfunded to function efficiently as a national parliament.
According to the House, the paucity of funds has made the working environment not conducive for lawmakers while they have not been able to carry out their legislative activities to the best of their ability.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, made the lamentation at his weekly media conference on Thursday.
The National Assembly had a budget of N139.5bn in 2018, N125bn in 2019 and N128bn (N125bn proposed, N3bn added) in 2020. While the sum of N125bn was proposed for the National Assembly in 2021, it along with its affiliates got about N134bn.
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Kalu, who was asked if it was true that the House reduced the number of days lawmakers sit for plenary per week – from three days to one and recently two – to cut costs, said it was for safety reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The House’ spokesman, however, said the parliament is ‘broke’ still.
“Yes, the House is ‘broke,’ I have said it before and I am saying it again and I am not afraid to say it. The House is ‘broke’ and it is afraid to appropriate the sufficient amount for them to do their job. The House is broke and is afraid of your complaints as Nigerians to make provision for what will make them run the activities of the House effectively.
“That is why today, here is hot; that is why the hearing rooms are not fixed; that is why the house is indebted to contractors who provide one form of service or the other. This is the fact.
“Until Nigerians believe that the appropriation that was made for the running of the National Assembly, which happened when naira was 160 to the dollar, is less now than what it used to be. The dollar equivalent of naira today has gone up to over N400. The purchasing power of the budget as it is now is weaker than it was 10 years ago,” Kalu said.
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