October 16, 2023 NewsOrient

By Samuel Egburonu, Editor

Some Nigerians have expressed disgust over Sunday’s announcement of the House of Representatives’ approval of an exotic bulletproof Toyota Land cruiser as official vehicles for each of the members.

NewsOrient reports that the House of Representatives made this announcement on Sunday in a statement by the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon Akin Rotimi.

Even before the announcement, many Nigerians, in their responses to rumours on the planned exotic bulletproof vehicles, alleged to be worth over N70m each, accused the representatives of evident insensitivity, taking cognisance of the hunger and suffering in Nigeria of today.

But, according to Hon Rotimi, the “House of Representatives is monitoring a trending topic across multiple traditional and online media, concerning the distribution of vehicles to honourable members, and because this issue has understandably generated significant public interest, we believe Nigerians deserve feedback from their elected representatives.”

“While many versions of this story carry varying exaggerations, we can confirm that the National Assembly bureaucracy is in the phased process of procuring and distributing operational vehicles to honourable members over the coming weeks and months. This development is in accordance with extant procurement laws and has been the practise in previous assemblies.”

It is also not peculiar to the Legislature, as unelected government officials in the Executive arm of government from the Assistant Director level and above, in most cases, have official vehicles attached to their offices. It is important to make a few clarifications.

The vehicles to be allocated to the offices of honourable members are utility operational vehicles tied to their oversight functions in the discharge of their duties in the standing committees.

They are not personal vehicles gifted to honourable members. For the duration of the 10th assembly (2023 – 2027), the vehicles shall remain the property of the National Assembly. At the expiration of the tenure of the 10th Assembly in 2027, should the extant assets deboarding policy of government still be in place, honourable members may have the option of making payment for the outstanding value of the vehicles to government coffers before they can become theirs, otherwise it remains the property of the National Assembly…”

Notwithstanding yesterday’s explanation by the House, most Nigerians who spoke with NewsOrient today on the matter expressed disappointed at the choice of official vehicles their lawmakers opted for.

“It is a reflection of the vanity and insensitivity of the average Nigerian leader of today. It does not matter to them that majority of Nigerians today can hardly afford a good meal a day,” says Mrs Reti Lawal, a petty trader in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.

For Mr James Ukpo, a retired teacher from Akwa Ibom State, “it should be expected. It is an open secret that majority of our leaders today do not care about the common citizen. It’s all about themselves. It is a shame.”

Also commenting on the development, Dr Ferdinand Iso told NewsOrient: “It will be unfair to suggest federal lawmakers should not get good official vehicles. Of course, they should be given good official vehicles to do their works. But their explanation on Sunday is neither here nor there. Our concern is just the choice of vehicle they approved for themselves. They could have decided on a less expensive option, preferably made in Nigeria. For a country in our current economic mess, this choice certainly smacks of insensitivity.”

NewsOrient

Photo Credit: Punch