A former Senator and prominent Yoruba leader, Senator Femi Okurounmu has backed the assertion by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that members of the National Assembly are corrupt.
Recall that Obasanjo had earlier in the week written an open letter to the leadership of the National Assembly in which he accused the members of corrupt enrichment by allocating salaries and allowances to themselves that were beyond the regime established by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has since replied the letter, affirming that the National Assembly under his leadership was committed to transparency, accountability and due process.
But in an interview with The Punch, Okurounmu, who represented Ogun Central Senatorial Zone between 1999 and 2003, said he supported the former president because everything he covered in the letter was nothing but the truth.
The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the 2014 National Conference said though he had had cause to disagree with Obasanjo in the past, but the ex-president hit the nail on the head concerning the issues raised and berated the leadership of the National Assembly for pretending not to know what Obasanjo was talking about.
He said: “I have been saying the same thing for years. For once, Obasanjo and I agree on something. I agree with him completely because he is saying the truth. He knows everything because he has been in the system.”
Okurounmu identified constituency allowance as one of the ways the lawmakers will the nation dry, stating that the practice surrounding the constituency allowance in their own time was different.
“The constituency allowance is just a way of getting money. They are all thieves. The constituency allowance was introduced when we were in the Senate and it was not allowance. It was for projects that the Federal Government ministries would prosecute.
“As a senator, you would identify a project in your constituency which you want the government to execute. If it is a road, you would list it under the Federal Ministry of Works. If it is water, you would put it under the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority and then you begin to lobby for the execution of the projects. It is not that cash is given to you.
“They are not supposed to do so. But today, they get the money and get so many other allowances.”
He also faulted the failure of the National Assembly to give a breakdown of the budget, as many rights group have been advocating, accusing the National Assembly of operating a culture of secrecy.