NASS ACCOUNTABILITY: 7,000 NIGERIANS ENDORSE PETITION

No fewer than 7,000 Nigerian are demanding that a breakdown of the National Assembly budget be made public, a survey carried out by civil society groups has shown.


According to a statement issued on Thursday by the OpenNASS project, a collaboration between Enough is Enough Nigeria and VOTO Mobile supported by the Omidyar Network, about 7,181 Nigerians had as at March 2, 2017, signed a petition demanding that a breakdown of the budget be made public with immediate effect.

The group said that 7% of Nigerians who signed the petition are from the South Eastern part of Nigeria, 9% are from the South West while 14% are from the North East. The survey also indicated that 15% are from the North Central or Middle Belt, 6% from the South South and 19% from the North West (including Kaduna). However, 30% did not give any response.

Among the people whose views were sampled, 45% spoke in Hausa, 29% in English, 11% in Yoruba, 10% in Igbo while 5% spoke in Pidgin English.

The research also showed that 20% of the signatories were female, 53% were male while 27% did not respond.

The group pointed out that despite several failed promises and assurances by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to make the breakdown of the 2016 and by extension the 2017 National Assembly budget public, Nigerians remain committed to ensuring that their demands of an accountable National Assembly is met speedily.

It said: “Lack of accountability in the National Assembly is very dangerous for our democracy because those who are elected to provide oversight over the executive arm’s implementation of our budget cannot be expected to provide leadership and ensure accountability when they have refused to be accountable with resources allocated to them. It is disheartening that a breakdown of the huge financial expenses incurred by the National Assembly cannot be made available to the demanding public and even more mortifying that some members of the National Assembly do not know how the money made available to the Houses are eventually spent”.

The group also frowned at recent happenings between the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.

“We would like to clarify that publishing of six months’ payslip of the Speaker doesn’t in any way address the issue around the budget of the National Assembly or make 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. #OpenNASS has been a very active conversation on social media and we’ve expanded the conversation through newspaper infographs and radio programs”.

The group pledged to continue its engagement using mobile technology and additional media platforms to enable Nigerians to get engaged, informed and most importantly, take action.

“The toll-free lines: 08139861001 and 08139861002 are still available for citizens to sign the petition on the National Assembly budget breakdown and get other information on governance issues. The toll-free line is a ‘flash’ service. 'Flash' service meaning upon dialing, the call drops up and calls you back immediately. The hotline is in English, Igbo, Pidgin, Hausa and Yoruba”.

It promised that in the coming days, the second petition to replace voice voting with electronic voting and making voting records public will be available for citizens to sign.

“Again, we reiterate that through the hotline and our engagements on social and traditional media, we will promote three advocacy goals of the #OpenNASS campaign: The National Assembly should publish the breakdown of its 2016 and 2017 budgets; Maintain a functional website, provide contact information of its members, activate the switchboard in the National Assembly complex so that citizens can engage their representatives and make attendance records public; Replace voice voting with electronic voting and making voting records public. The National Assembly is a critical institution in our democracy and we will ensure that it is repurposed to serve all Nigerians, not just a few. They are currently on recess until April 25th, 2017 and we encourage citizens to engage them at home and demand for accountability so they can resume plenary to deliver on their promise”.

Culled fr