FG should use ‘missing $20bn’ to fight insecurity —Ogunnusi

9 years ago

FG should use ‘missing $20bn’ to fight insecurity —Ogunnusi

In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Mr. Yomi Ogunnusi, speaks on the $1bn loan request of the Federal Government and other issues

What do you think of the $1bn loan request made by the President to fight insecurity?

There is what we call sources and application in accounting. If they say the budget is insufficient, why are they not taking care of the welfare of the people that are fighting the war? Why are they not taking care of their wives? Is the budget not sufficient? Then what about the missing $20bn oil money. If you convert that into naira, that is trillions of naira so why should we borrow? Who is going to pay it? How long will it take to pay back? Is it every time that we have problem that we talk about loan? A fund has been created for relief and many people including banks have been making donations. What about that? It is not just money all the time but what of the managing of the money? For example we have Ebola outbreak in Lagos but the governor said there is enough money to handle the crisis and you don’t need to make donations because tax payers’ money can solve the emergency. So, let the Federal Government use the $1bn and the relief fund to address the challenge. Can’t they use the missing $20bn to fight security? If they take the loan now, in the next one year, they might ask for more. And again, elections are around the corner. People don’t believe the loan request is genuine. I have a lot of respect for the leadership of the National Assembly. As you can see, have we discussed it? If it was a priority, we could have been called back from our holiday to deliberate on it but we have not. Prudency is not in the system, corruption is everywhere. What pains me is that people steal money and they don’t make it available in the system. They steal money and go and bury it in the water tank. Even if you steal money, why not use it to create jobs so that people will pray for you? They take money abroad. There is something wrong with our management system. Nigerians have been suffering for long and we need a change.

You spoke of being prudent. Why isn’t the House talking of part-time legislation which they say could cut the cost of governance in the country?

People are just chasing shadows. If you want to cut costs, it should be at the Presidency. Most of the constituency allowances we get are not for us but the people. We have to build boreholes, fix roads, build markets and even lobby to get them transformers for electricity or even buy it for them. You must support their religious programmes and even buy buses for churches and mosques so where is the money? What do they do with the Presidency’s budget? Who are they accountable to? The average federal Permanent Secretary would pretend to you that he has no money. The allowances we get should even be increased. As a lawmaker, before you return to your constituency at home, your whole house is filled up, people will be waiting for you, expecting a lot. The leakages are in the budget. Do you know that every year, we buy a bulletproof car for the President at the cost of N100m on cash basis? This means in the last four years, the man has collected over N400m for just cars. What is that? The road that leads to Aso Rock, if you read the budget very well, you will see Ministry of Works claiming to be maintaining the road. You will see Abuja FCDA (Federal Capital Development Authority), which is constitutionally empowered to get involved in the maintenance and building of houses in Abuja, putting it in its budget. Aso Rock itself will submit another budget for the same road. There are a lot of leakages in that budget and as far as I am concerned, the budget in 2015 will be dissected and destroyed. Cases of duplication and hidden agenda. Do you know that before now, the Auditor-General of the federation did not have access to the books of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as well as to the books of customs which means he did not audit them whereas the Auditor General is supposed to be the watch dog of any organisation? It was just recently that we amended it in the constitution so that he can have access to the books. They have just been playing with the money in the NNPC, nobody checks them. In any case, we reps work three times a week officially so it is already part-time but those of us that are in committees work throughout the week because most of the job, unknown to people, is not in the plenary but in the committees.

Why did you feel the need to sponsor a bill on the creation of state police?

The insecurity and insurgency in the country has been going on since the time of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. And if the United States and even Kenya in Africa can have both federal and state police, if we are looking for an example of what is called a developed nation and we are even having leakages in our police structure, what is stopping us from having community and state police? Because when you create community policing, it is more effective because it is closer to the people and there is no crime or local content. There must be people in the area who will know about a crime in an area because the people in the area will know about a crime in an area because they live around there. The same thing applies for the state. How can you have a problem in Ogun State and you will be waiting for directives from Abuja?

Look at our prison service, it is centralised and it is not doing well. A lot of these government agencies need to be decentralised and re-organised. That is why we need state police and it would reduce unemployment. So, it is in good faith. If we are talking of true federalism.