President Buhari Must Answer Questions On Villa Allocation

Tajudeen Yusuf, the chairman of the House
of Representatives Committee on Capital
Market and Institutions, in this live interview
monitored by our correspondent has asked
President Muhammadu Buhari a series of
questions, especially on the over N18billion
allocated for the Aso Villa in the 2016
Budget.
Excerpts:
What do you think of the figure concerning
the amount for the vehicles the members of
the National Assembly want to buy?
The National Assembly, unfortunately, is a
tier of government that suffers a lot because,
by my estimation, Nigerians are not yet
conversant with the role of the National
Assembly. We are used to having the
judiciary and the executive. I agree totally
that we should all be prudent, but it is not
possible for the National Assembly not to buy
cars. But the type of cars matters. At this
time when we are talking of economic
crunch, we must not buy cars that are seen
as too exotic. In the seventh Assembly at the
House of Representatives, that was what we
did: we bought Camry rather than SUVs.
Nigerians should also look at this: we have
774 local government areas in Nigeria and if
you calculate the amount to buy cars for
chairmen of the local governments, you
would see how huge the amount is. However,
I agree that we must scale down.
Tajudeen Yusuf, Tajudeen Yusuf, Chairman,
House of Representatives Committee on
Capital Market and Institutions, wants the
President to answer questions on what the
money approved for the Aso Villa will be used
for.
It has become a recurrent issue, but do you
think the National Assembly has been able to
cut down on wastage here?
Unfortunately, the challenge with democracy
is that it is expensive. The moment you elect
new members who have responsibility of
carrying out certain functions, you must
provide vehicles. I am very sure that the
leadership of the National Assembly will
understand that this is not the best time to
buy cars that would massage anybody’s ego.
They should be utility cars that would not be
owned by members. They should be the
National Assembly-owned cars.
Are the cars for personal use or for
oversight? We sometimes see committee
members in buses…
The buses are not that enough… don’t forget
that in the order of protocol, the National
Assembly official is ahead of the minister.
What I am saying is that I agree with scaling
down, but is it possible to get an elected
officer at the level of the National Assembly
without providing vehicles for them? That is
the unfortunate thing about democracy; it is
expensive. I just gave you example of the
local government chairmen, most of them
drive in Prado. We must sit down and prune
this thing, but you must provide vehicles.
Where is the money accruing from the sale of
vehicles to outgoing members of the National
Assembly lodged?
It goes into the federation account. The law
stipulates clearly that all monies are
domiciled in the federation account. As at
when those vehicles were sold, the money
went straight into the federation account.
The National Assembly does not retain those
monies and now add to it to buy new ones.
Some agencies in the last administration
patronised made-in-Nigeria cars. Why is the
eighth National Assembly not patronising
made-in-Nigeria cars?
I cannot speak for the entire eighth
Assembly. I know that the House of
Representatives would sit down and look at
the type of cars. I know it is going to be a
general House decision to look at the type of
cars and seek opinions of experts. In the
seventh Assembly, I had the privilege of
being a member of the House Services
Committee and they proposed that we were
coming with Prados, but in line with our
decision to make sure that we scaled down
and make Nigerians understand that we are
in tune with the challenges, members
proposed Camry, believing that Toyota cars
are more pliable to Nigerian situations, roads
and weather. For the eighth Assembly, I am
not aware, all I see and hear are from the
news. As at now, we have not sat down to
take such decision.
Is it that the National Assembly does not
really scrutinise its budget?
The National Assembly budget is
unfortunately being misconstrued to mean
just for members of the National Assembly.
You have the bureaucrats. The National
Assembly budget goes through the
Committee of House Services in both
chambers.
Have you started going through the 2016
budget?
Yes, I am going through it and I am sure
members are going through it. When we
resume on January 12, that would be the
major burning issue on our table.
So what key items would you be looking for?
One thing that interests me… I once spoke
with the deputy chairman of the Committee
on ICT in the seventh Assembly concerning
the procurement of ICT equipment in all
MDAs. We came up with a proposal then that
appealed to the National Executive
Committee to harmonise ICT budget. It
should be housed under the Ministry of ICT
so that we don’t have items duplicated, we
don’t have pockets of every MDAs creating
its own ICT centre. For example, you find
N450 million for computers in MD ‘a’, you
find another N300 million for computers in
MD ‘b’, then you move in to procurement of
ICT materials; these are things that the
details are not given. We had a lot of work
on it in the seventh Assembly and I’m raising
the attention of the ICT Committee already.
I’m bringing to the consciousness that we
must deal with it once and for all. These are
areas of leakage. The Federal Government
has an agency called Galaxy Backbone which
has the capacity to wear out some of these
things. So why do you create an agency that
has capacity that’s not being used and you
create duplication all over? In exercising our
power over the appropriation, Section 80 and
81 are clear that the National Assembly will
appropriate in a manner it deems fit.
Do you in the PDP and your colleagues in the
APC agree with the budget allocated to Aso
Rock?
We must come to terms with this reality. In
democracy everywhere, after elections, party
variations dissolve and that is why in 2012,
we had the unfortunate responsibility of
coming up with a motion against the removal
of subsidy at the time it was done, believing
that the manner in which it was done was
not right. I am PDP. So if we find any item
that is not in consonance with the desire of
the Nigerian people, does not promote the
change mantra that Nigerians genuinely
desire and which we must give them, (we will
raise concern). I have seen some of the items
there, I don’t see any reason why party
affiliation would stop us from doing what is
just and fair. Remember in 2012 when the
then President made a budget of about N900
million for feeding in Aso Rock, there was
outcry and it was scaled down to about N700
million. From then onward, it began to drop.
Last year, it was a little above N400 million.
It means that we are conscious of the need
to scale down our budgetary allocation to
certain areas of government. So, the Villa
budget as it is, we need to ask a lot of
questions from the Permanent Secretary or
whoever is involved. Are we building a new
Villa with the capital allocation to the Villa?
How much sacrifice are you willing to make if
Nigerians want you to forget about the cars
because we are broke?
Definitely, if Nigerians are saying “Do away
with the cars”, I am very sure there would be
alternatives. Nigerians would not just say the
National Assembly members should go ahead
and do their work without means of moving
from one place to the other. I am aware that
there are a lot of other areas of sacrifice; the
car is just one. Training is very, very key, but
if you observe, since the eighth Assembly
came on board, all trainings have been done
locally. You know the cost of traveling for
trainings abroad. In as much as we
understand that we need these expertise
abroad, there is this plan by the leadership to
try and bring in this expertise into the country
so as to reduce cost in that area. If you look
at the national Assembly budget for the past
seven to eight years, it has been consistent
at one level. Last year, it dropped to N130
billion and we have proposed that this year,
it will drop to N115 billion. By implication,
the National Assembly is trying every year to
show that it is leading by example. I don’t, in
anyway, deceive myself that I can on my own
bring in the desired change, but in my show
of interest, I can bring in the change that is
desired. That is why I influence everything
that I can influence to my constituency to
bring dividends to my people. So I urge my
colleagues to understand that Nigeria is in a
triumvirate and what is expected of us as
leaders is to genuinely sacrifice and I am
sure the leadership understand that.