Rep: N16bn to manage n’assembly not enough — it should have been doubled

Yunusa Abubakar, lawmaker and member of the house committee on house services, says the amount of money allocated to the national assembly as running costs should have been doubled.

On Thursday, Benjamin Kalu said the house of representatives is broke and its “poor budget is a disservice to Nigerians”.

While speaking on Tuesday however, Abubakar said the house is not broke but that funds allocated to parliament are grossly inadequate.

“It is obvious the N16 billion naira allocated to the national assembly management is not enough. According to the bureaucracy ( the national assembly administration), to maintain our chamber alone, they are spending over N40 million monthly,” he said.

When asked how much would be enough for the national assembly management, he said, “going by our need assessment, the amount should have been doubled”.

“Everybody knows that we do live coverage and we are charged how many millions for it. Running it is very costly.

“What is taking the chunk of the money is how to conduct the day to day business of the legislative arm of government.”