Barely four days after describing the
constituency projects embarked upon by members of the National Assembly
as corruption, former president Olusegun Obasanjo has bemoaned the bogus
allowances and salaries collected by the lawmakers, who he described as
a bunch of unarmed robbers.
He
made this disclosure on Thursday at a public presentation of a book
written by Prof Mark Nwagwu, entitled “I am Kagara, I weave the sands of
Sahara”, held at University of Ibadan, an event where he acted as the
chief host.
Lamenting that overhead,
allowances, salaries take 90 per cent of the nation’s revenue while not
much is left for capital development, he said: “It is even worse for the
National Assembly. They will abuse me again, but I will never stop
talking about them. They are a bunch of unarmed robbers.
“They
are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 75 percent of
our people living in abject poverty. They will abuse me tomorrow and if
they don’t, maybe they are sleeping. The behaviour and character of the
National Assembly should be roundly condemned.”
The
former president urged the Federal Government to respect the agreements
it signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, because
the government allowed itself to be stampeded into signing the
agreements without full consultation within government.
He
regretted that government allows itself to be rushed into signing
agreement, particularly, when one group or the other withdraws their
service and goes on strike.
“But an agreement
is an agreement; whoever the agent is that signed that agreement on your
behalf, you are bound by it. You may now have to renegotiate to have a
new agreement, but the agreement earlier signed remains an agreement,”
Obasanjo declared.
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