Federal lawmakers are furious with the former president’s comments
The Senate, on Wednesday, challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to name lawmakers he described as “rogues and armed robbers”, in a remark the former president made in Lagos.
Obasanjo had said at a conference on Tuesday that “rogues and armed robbers” were now part of the National Assembly, and also accused the judiciary and the police of corruption.
The conference had the theme, “Strong Systems: Necessity for Building a Virile Nation.”
The Senate spokesperson, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said on Wednesday that the former president will assist the Senate by making public members he knew to have been armed robbers and criminals.
“We actually feel that the former president would help the National Assembly, and indeed also help Nigeria, in the new spirit of transparency and openness by assisting the National Assembly by naming those that he knows in the National Assembly as either rogues or criminals,” he said.
“That would help us to be able to sanitise the polity and we sincerely thank him for his role in Nigeria as someone who cares very deeply about the Nigerian state and how it is at the moment.”
Separately, the House of Representatives referred the comment to its Ethics and Privileges committee.
Minority leader, Sulaiman Kawu, had raised the matter as a violation of his right and called for stern response from the House.
“I am not an armed robber neither am I a rogue,” he said. “His greatest grouse against us is that we refused him third term in office; and since then we have become his enemies. But Obasanjo does not have credibility in Nigeria. Remember he was dragged to court by his own son accusing him of sleeping with his wife.”
However, House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal doused apparently inflamed reactions referring the matter to the Ethics and Privileges Committee. “I believe this is not a matter that should be debated,” he said. We cannot go into the foray and begin todiscuss this matter.”
