Funds allocated to NASS as running costs inadequate – Reps member

A lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Yunusa Abubakar, has lamented the paucity of funds allocated to the National Assembly as running costs.

Abubakar, who is a member of the House committee on house services,  said the money for running costs  in the national legislature should have been doubled.

Abubakar said this while featuring on Channels Television Programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ today.

The lawmaker’s complaint came days after th spokesman of the lower legislative  chamber, Benjamin Kali, said the house of representatives is broke and its “poor budget is a disservice to Nigerians”.

But reacting to Kalu’s statement, Abubakar said the house is not broke but that funds allocated to parliament are grossly inadequate.

“The assembly is not broke as such, but when you talk about inadequacy, the amount allocated to the national assembly is somewhat grossly inadequate to run the structure that exists in the assembly,” he said.

“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.”