Trips, perks for lawmakers raise ethical concerns in governance
Reps reject funding of tours, probes by Executive
Senate denies accepting trip from aviation ministry
Govt defends action, says planned tour not a bribe
ANPP seeks probe of aviation funds
FUNDING of trips, perks and other luxuries for members of the National Assembly by the Executive arm of government is again raising fresh concerns by Nigeria’s leaders and public office holders.
The worries are heightened by the proposed offer of the Ministry of Aviation to sponsor members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on an overseas’ tour to showcase the opportunities in the country’s aviation sector.
The minister’s offer has also triggered questions from Nigerians over the use of public funds and equipment by elected and non-elected officials.
Nigerians are now raising questions over the frequency of the use of presidential aircraft and chartered jets by certain categories of officials and non-officials of the state at both the federal and state levels.
The concerned Nigerians wondered why state governors, leadership of the state and National Assemblies, and state governors fly all over the country and abroad on frivolous trips at the expense of the taxpayers’ sweat.
In fact, they are calling for a national forum to streamline the use of such facilities, trips and perks. Indeed, according to many, the real focus on the scandalous cost of governance should begin with this.
“With the way things are, Nigerians only labour to serve their elected officials with their hard-earned income, not the other way round,” says Segun Adetula, a lawyer based in the United Kingdom (UK), who is collecting signatures of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora “to seek a law to compel service by state officials.”
He further said: “No wonder they could kill to get into offices. The benefits are too much for democracy’s good.”
According to him and others, in developed countries, no leader wakes up at will to embark on such trips or use state equipment for non-state functions without paying for the services.
Only recently the Speaker of the Oyo State of Assembly took the wives of all the lawmakers in the state on a foreign jamboree at the expense of the state.
Interestingly, the House, which is wary of the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi’s offer at a time it is protesting against the Executive implementation of the 2012 budget, has turned the offer.
In what the House called a self-cleansing measure, it has embarked on the review of its rules on members’ acceptance of such offers or sponsorship of local and foreign trips by any organ of the Executive.
The House is also reviewing the activities of its committees to ensure that their oversight functions and probes of public and private institutions are seen to be transparent.
A majority of the lawmakers are allegedly pushing for the funding of probes and trips to be contained in future budgets for the House to end the current practice of seeking the assistance of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) for such activities.
The Guardian learnt that the move is designed to check the recurrence of the recent Herman Hembe-Arunma Oteh and the Farouk Lawan and Femi Otedola type of saga, which brought the House into public ridicule, as two of the lawmakers (Hembe and Lawan) allegedly abused their offices during their probe of the capital market crisis and the rot in the fuel subsidy management. Hembe and Lawan lost their headship of the Committees on the Capital Market and other Institutions and Education to the crises.
It was learnt that it was against this backdrop that the House rejected the offer of an aviation road show abroad by Oduah-Ogiemwonyi to attract investment to the sector.
Those listed to be on the trip by the minister were members of the Senate and House Committees on Aviation, officials of the ministry, chief executive officers of some aviation agencies, and representatives of the media.
According to the ministry, the trip tagged: “Investors’ road shows” would be staged in some cities in China, the United States of America (USA) and Canada, where “investment baskets” would be opened to showcase the opportunities in the Nigerian aviation industry.
The Senate, which a national daily claimed had accepted the offer, yesterday described the report as untrue.
In a statement issued by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja, the Upper House said the report could not have been true because the chamber was on recess and most of its members were either away for the lesser hajj (Umrah) or travelled with their families on holidays.
Abaribe said the Senate was alarmed at the falsehood being peddled to the fact that the ministry sponsored senators on overseas trip.
“The story is not true and only exists in the imagination of its authors. For the avoidance of doubt, the Senate is on vacation and as a result most senators are currently on the lesser hajj (Umrah), some are at present meeting their constituents while others may have gone with their families on vacation.
‘”So, it is a blatant lie and a sinister fabrication to say that aviation ministry is taking the senators on overseas’ trip.”
Some lawmakers, who opposed the minister’s offer, told The Guardian that it was a waste of public funds, arguing that “investors would naturally come to the country if a safe environment for them to operate exists.”
One of the lawmakers said: “We are learning fast and also wary of curious gifts or offers from external quarters. So, we rejected the 10-day trip being packaged for some of our members by the aviation minister.”
But the minister’s spokesman, Joe Obi, insisted that the offer was not a Greek gift. “There is no malicious intent about this trip at all. We are going on an investment drive. We will have investment road shows where we will open a basket of opportunities for investors, who we are going to meet during the tour. We intend to visit a few countries and meet some investors we have had contact with. We are going to woo them and tell them that we are ready for their investments,” he said.
Another lawmaker said “no matter the good intention of the minister, the House would not jump at the offer. The House is yet to come out of the $620,000 bribe scandal between suspended member (Lawan) and businessman (Otedola).”
It was also learnt that the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, has placed an embargo on such trips by members.
Although the cost of the trip has not been disclosed, the House reportedly said it was not comfortable with both the timing and its benefits to the nation.
It added that because of the current row with the Executive over the implementation of the 2012 budget, Nigerians could see the trip as a bribe.
According to a lawmaker, “when the Speaker returned from the United Kingdom (UK) last Tuesday, the House leadership overruled participation in the exercise by some members, going by a similar experience with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The concern of the House leadership is the footing of the bill by the ministry in a system in which the Legislature should serve as a check and balance.
“The House leadership is also being careful to prevent another scandal whereby in the next few months, the Executive may take advantage of the trip to insinuate allegations of corruption against members.”
It was learnt that if the House must participate in the trip, the funds must come from its budget but it had lean resources to accommodate it.
Consequently, the House may from the 2013 budget come out with guidelines on foreign trips and make provision for funding them. “We have agreed that this will insulate the National Assembly from going cap in hand to the Executive or being at the mercy of the Executive. We will go on foreign trips with relevant MDAs, but we have reached a level that we want to finance such to make our independence meaningful.
“It only requires careful planning for a pool account for lawmakers for necessary oversight trips abroad.”
A member of the House leadership said the Lower Chamber was circumspect of the offer from the aviation ministry because some of those slated for the trip had been critical of the Executive on budget implementation. Therefore, he who seeks equity must come with clean hands.
“The minister may mean well, but at a critical bend, she has to be loyal to the system. This gesture may be hijacked from her to get at National Assembly members. We have got to a stage of mutual suspicion and it is proper for the House to stick to its role as the conscience of the nation than to allow itself to be rubbished.”
Obi explained that it was not a trip for leisure but a working tour. “We decided to invite members of the committees in the two chambers because they are critical stakeholders whose experience and input could help our investment drive.
“The lawmakers have always been part of our programmes. They participated in our recent conference on aviation development in Africa. We need to carry them along so that if we come back to Nigeria, they will be in the full picture of the investments we have attracted and assist us with the appropriate legal framework.
“So, it can never be a curious trip. We are not persuading the lawmakers to go abroad.”
Asked to confirm if the trip was projected to cost the taxpayers about N250 million, Obi said: “I am not aware of the figures, but it is not a jamboree at all. One thing is clear; the lawmakers can afford to travel abroad on their own. It is not as if we are persuading them to go. We have no ill-motive.”
The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) has demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of persons and organisations linked with the theft of misuse of the N300 billion aviation intervention funds.
In a statement, the party asserted that until this was done, the reform of the n sector would be elusive.
The statement by the ANPP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Eneukwu, followed the submission of the Technical and Administrative Review Panel, led by Air Commodore John Obakpolor (rtd) set up by the Federal Government to investigate the June 3, 2012 Dana plane crash in Lagos to the aviation minister.
Among the 59 findings and 41 recommendations, the committee asked the government to declare a state of emergency in the sector by implementing an Aviation Sector Emergency Programme (ASEP).
The ANPP said the first line of action to making “our airspace safe is in the prosecution of the culprits that allegedly diverted the N300 billion Aviation Industry Intervention Fund.”
Senate denies accepting trip from aviation ministry
Govt defends action, says planned tour not a bribe
ANPP seeks probe of aviation funds
FUNDING of trips, perks and other luxuries for members of the National Assembly by the Executive arm of government is again raising fresh concerns by Nigeria’s leaders and public office holders.
The worries are heightened by the proposed offer of the Ministry of Aviation to sponsor members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on an overseas’ tour to showcase the opportunities in the country’s aviation sector.
The minister’s offer has also triggered questions from Nigerians over the use of public funds and equipment by elected and non-elected officials.
Nigerians are now raising questions over the frequency of the use of presidential aircraft and chartered jets by certain categories of officials and non-officials of the state at both the federal and state levels.
The concerned Nigerians wondered why state governors, leadership of the state and National Assemblies, and state governors fly all over the country and abroad on frivolous trips at the expense of the taxpayers’ sweat.
In fact, they are calling for a national forum to streamline the use of such facilities, trips and perks. Indeed, according to many, the real focus on the scandalous cost of governance should begin with this.
“With the way things are, Nigerians only labour to serve their elected officials with their hard-earned income, not the other way round,” says Segun Adetula, a lawyer based in the United Kingdom (UK), who is collecting signatures of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora “to seek a law to compel service by state officials.”
He further said: “No wonder they could kill to get into offices. The benefits are too much for democracy’s good.”
According to him and others, in developed countries, no leader wakes up at will to embark on such trips or use state equipment for non-state functions without paying for the services.
Only recently the Speaker of the Oyo State of Assembly took the wives of all the lawmakers in the state on a foreign jamboree at the expense of the state.
Interestingly, the House, which is wary of the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi’s offer at a time it is protesting against the Executive implementation of the 2012 budget, has turned the offer.
In what the House called a self-cleansing measure, it has embarked on the review of its rules on members’ acceptance of such offers or sponsorship of local and foreign trips by any organ of the Executive.
The House is also reviewing the activities of its committees to ensure that their oversight functions and probes of public and private institutions are seen to be transparent.
A majority of the lawmakers are allegedly pushing for the funding of probes and trips to be contained in future budgets for the House to end the current practice of seeking the assistance of Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) for such activities.
The Guardian learnt that the move is designed to check the recurrence of the recent Herman Hembe-Arunma Oteh and the Farouk Lawan and Femi Otedola type of saga, which brought the House into public ridicule, as two of the lawmakers (Hembe and Lawan) allegedly abused their offices during their probe of the capital market crisis and the rot in the fuel subsidy management. Hembe and Lawan lost their headship of the Committees on the Capital Market and other Institutions and Education to the crises.
It was learnt that it was against this backdrop that the House rejected the offer of an aviation road show abroad by Oduah-Ogiemwonyi to attract investment to the sector.
Those listed to be on the trip by the minister were members of the Senate and House Committees on Aviation, officials of the ministry, chief executive officers of some aviation agencies, and representatives of the media.
According to the ministry, the trip tagged: “Investors’ road shows” would be staged in some cities in China, the United States of America (USA) and Canada, where “investment baskets” would be opened to showcase the opportunities in the Nigerian aviation industry.
The Senate, which a national daily claimed had accepted the offer, yesterday described the report as untrue.
In a statement issued by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja, the Upper House said the report could not have been true because the chamber was on recess and most of its members were either away for the lesser hajj (Umrah) or travelled with their families on holidays.
Abaribe said the Senate was alarmed at the falsehood being peddled to the fact that the ministry sponsored senators on overseas trip.
“The story is not true and only exists in the imagination of its authors. For the avoidance of doubt, the Senate is on vacation and as a result most senators are currently on the lesser hajj (Umrah), some are at present meeting their constituents while others may have gone with their families on vacation.
‘”So, it is a blatant lie and a sinister fabrication to say that aviation ministry is taking the senators on overseas’ trip.”
Some lawmakers, who opposed the minister’s offer, told The Guardian that it was a waste of public funds, arguing that “investors would naturally come to the country if a safe environment for them to operate exists.”
One of the lawmakers said: “We are learning fast and also wary of curious gifts or offers from external quarters. So, we rejected the 10-day trip being packaged for some of our members by the aviation minister.”
But the minister’s spokesman, Joe Obi, insisted that the offer was not a Greek gift. “There is no malicious intent about this trip at all. We are going on an investment drive. We will have investment road shows where we will open a basket of opportunities for investors, who we are going to meet during the tour. We intend to visit a few countries and meet some investors we have had contact with. We are going to woo them and tell them that we are ready for their investments,” he said.
Another lawmaker said “no matter the good intention of the minister, the House would not jump at the offer. The House is yet to come out of the $620,000 bribe scandal between suspended member (Lawan) and businessman (Otedola).”
It was also learnt that the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, has placed an embargo on such trips by members.
Although the cost of the trip has not been disclosed, the House reportedly said it was not comfortable with both the timing and its benefits to the nation.
It added that because of the current row with the Executive over the implementation of the 2012 budget, Nigerians could see the trip as a bribe.
According to a lawmaker, “when the Speaker returned from the United Kingdom (UK) last Tuesday, the House leadership overruled participation in the exercise by some members, going by a similar experience with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The concern of the House leadership is the footing of the bill by the ministry in a system in which the Legislature should serve as a check and balance.
“The House leadership is also being careful to prevent another scandal whereby in the next few months, the Executive may take advantage of the trip to insinuate allegations of corruption against members.”
It was learnt that if the House must participate in the trip, the funds must come from its budget but it had lean resources to accommodate it.
Consequently, the House may from the 2013 budget come out with guidelines on foreign trips and make provision for funding them. “We have agreed that this will insulate the National Assembly from going cap in hand to the Executive or being at the mercy of the Executive. We will go on foreign trips with relevant MDAs, but we have reached a level that we want to finance such to make our independence meaningful.
“It only requires careful planning for a pool account for lawmakers for necessary oversight trips abroad.”
A member of the House leadership said the Lower Chamber was circumspect of the offer from the aviation ministry because some of those slated for the trip had been critical of the Executive on budget implementation. Therefore, he who seeks equity must come with clean hands.
“The minister may mean well, but at a critical bend, she has to be loyal to the system. This gesture may be hijacked from her to get at National Assembly members. We have got to a stage of mutual suspicion and it is proper for the House to stick to its role as the conscience of the nation than to allow itself to be rubbished.”
Obi explained that it was not a trip for leisure but a working tour. “We decided to invite members of the committees in the two chambers because they are critical stakeholders whose experience and input could help our investment drive.
“The lawmakers have always been part of our programmes. They participated in our recent conference on aviation development in Africa. We need to carry them along so that if we come back to Nigeria, they will be in the full picture of the investments we have attracted and assist us with the appropriate legal framework.
“So, it can never be a curious trip. We are not persuading the lawmakers to go abroad.”
Asked to confirm if the trip was projected to cost the taxpayers about N250 million, Obi said: “I am not aware of the figures, but it is not a jamboree at all. One thing is clear; the lawmakers can afford to travel abroad on their own. It is not as if we are persuading them to go. We have no ill-motive.”
The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) has demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of persons and organisations linked with the theft of misuse of the N300 billion aviation intervention funds.
In a statement, the party asserted that until this was done, the reform of the n sector would be elusive.
The statement by the ANPP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Eneukwu, followed the submission of the Technical and Administrative Review Panel, led by Air Commodore John Obakpolor (rtd) set up by the Federal Government to investigate the June 3, 2012 Dana plane crash in Lagos to the aviation minister.
Among the 59 findings and 41 recommendations, the committee asked the government to declare a state of emergency in the sector by implementing an Aviation Sector Emergency Programme (ASEP).
The ANPP said the first line of action to making “our airspace safe is in the prosecution of the culprits that allegedly diverted the N300 billion Aviation Industry Intervention Fund.”
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