BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, a civil society group, says over 7,000 Nigerians have signed the petition demanding that the national assembly budget be made public.
Adeolu Adekola, programme manager of the group, said this in a statement.
The statement said the publishing of six months payslip of the speaker of the house of representatives does not address the issue of making the national assembly budget transparent.
“Our attention has been drawn to the recent happenings between the speaker of the house of representatives and the governor of Kaduna state,” the statement read.
“We would like to clarify that publishing of six months’ payslip of the speaker doesn’t not in any way address the issue around the budget of the national assembly or makes the entire legislature transparent or accountable.
“The leadership of the national assembly which the honourable speaker is a part of is responsible for opening up of their budget.
“How can legislators hold the executive accountable when they are opaque in their internal operations?
“There have been several articles written and infographs published on the issue. The allegations of ‘budget padding’ also started conversations in the national assembly about the breakdown of the budget because only the principal officers seem to know the details.
“The national assembly has also refused to respond to freedom of information (FOI) requests and a court order to provide its detailed budget.
“Over 7,000 people have signed a petition demanding the breakdown of the budget of the national assembly”.
EiE said 20% of signatories were female, 55% male and 27% did not reveal their gender.
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