The National Assembly spends less than two percent of the national budget, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said.
Gbajabiamila said this in his reaction to a statement credited to the Vice-Chancellor of Ahman Pategi University, Patigi, Kwara state, Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji, who opined that Nigeria runs the most expensive National Assembly in the world
The university boss and the Speaker both spoke at the 10th annual symposium of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, B-Zone, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Adedimeji, who was the guest lecturer at the event, said there was the need to rejig the operations of the legislature in Nigeria, stating that the nation’s parliament is the most expensive in the world.
However, Gbajabiamila said the Vice Chancellor, had a wrong perception of legislators.
He said the money budgeted for the National Assembly was two percent of the total budget.
“The money being spent on the National Assembly is less than two percent of the total budget of this country; but nobody, has ever looked at what is happening to the remaining 98 percent,” Gbajabjamila said.
“And when you say National Assembly, you are not talking about legislators, who are the lawmakers only. You are also talking about the National Assembly Commission, you are talking about everything, all encompassing.”
