President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has berated the incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, for accusing the leadership of the 8th Senate of not fully funding the constituency projects of lawmakers.
LEADERSHIP reports that the 8th session of the Senate presided over by Saraki was between 2015 and 2019 during the first tenure of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saraki said Akpabio, who was a member of the 8th Senate, knew the truth about events at the time, saying President Buhari starved the lawmakers of funds for their constituency projects as a punishment for Senate’s scrutiny of his incessant foreign loan requests.
The former Senate President’s reaction was contained in a statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu, Head of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office, a copy of which was sent to LEADERSHIP on Thursday, which noted the news reports arising from an exchange on the floor of the 10th Senate earlier on Wednesday where Akpabio accused the leadership of the 8th Senate of not fully funding the constituency projects of members.
“Our initial response was to ignore the report because Dr. Saraki believes there are more serious existential issues confronting our country and her people like hunger and extreme hardship which should keep the leaders disturbed, busier, and more focused than throwing banters.
“However, he has also been persuaded by the need to explain the project funding process in the budget such that members of the public will not be misguided about the roles of the various institutions and individuals in the process.
“For clarification, the Saraki Media Office will want members of the public to note that then President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately refused to approve funds for the constituency projects of members of the Eighth National Assembly obviously to punish the members for questioning some of the loan requests presented by the executive before the legislature.
“Instead of viewing the legislature’s scrutiny of the loan’s request and the demand for elaborate explanations that would help in making informed decisions as democratic necessities, the Buhari government’s reaction was to be hostile and to seek to stifle the performance of the legislature.
“The refusal to fund constituency projects of members of the legislature was used as one of the retaliatory instruments. That was the experience of the 8th National Assembly. Mr. Akpabio, as Senate minority leader for over three years in the four-year tenure of the 8th Senate, ought to know better and even his experience as Senate President in the last eight months also ought to have made him more informed.
“Therefore, Mr. Akpabio is very well aware that the leadership of the Eighth Senate cannot be held responsible for failure to fund constituency projects. Unfortunately, he chose to play politics with facts, and as usual, make a joke and jest with serious national issues,” the statement said.
