Ogene, when speaking with The Nation yesterday, said the National Assembly, comprising 109 Senators, 360 Representatives and the bureaucracy, which is the National Assembly Commission, began to draw its N150b annual budget from the first line charge in 2010.
“I think that Mrs. Ezekwesili is jaundiced, to come up with a calculation that the lawmakers alone got over N1 trillion during the period. What is the percentage of N150b in a budget of N4.9 trillion? She should tell Nigerians”.
He said: “If we are truly talking about cutting cost of governance, it has to be across the three arms. If that is the case, how do you explain a fleet of 10 aircraft in the presidential fleet and how do you maintain them?
“Again, how do you defend N2b spent on air tickets by a minister, and that is just one Minister, what about the rest despite the fact that there is a presidential fleet. Why do we need up to 40 Ministers in the first place?
“The legislature and the judiciary have principal officers too and they have to travel as well; how many aircraft are they maintaining?”
“She was part of several reform committees that ended up being reformed themselves. In view of this, the best way to go to equity is to go with clean hands.
“It would, however, suffice for Ezekwesili to tell us what recurrent expenditure was during her tenure and what it cost Nigerian taxpayers to maintain her and her aides for a year,” he also added.
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