Former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili: “N1 Trillion has been Allocated to the National Assembly since 2005”

I guess it literally pays to be in Nigerian politics.

Yesterday Monday 19th August 2013, former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili (2006-2007) was present at the one-day dialogue session on the “Cost of governance in Nigeria”  in Abuja to deliver a keynote address.

She said that over N 1 Trillion has been allocated to the National Assembly since 2005, according to Punch Newspaper.

The Nigerian chartered accountant also added that banks earned N 699 Billion as interests last year on loans secured by the government.

“Since 2005, the National Assembly members alone have been allocated N 1 Trillion. 82 percent of Nigeria’s budget cost goes for recurrent expenditure.”

She later continued that “a research conducted in the United Kingdom identified Nigerian legislators as being the highest paid in the world.”

The former Minster also spoke on her time under Obasanjo’s administration, saying “One major mistake of the government under which served was that we simply got into democracy and did not spend reasonable time getting every citizen; every leader and every institution to do away with militaristic ethos and principles from their minds.”

She later said “Things will improve through part-time legislation. It will also reduce the number of people who will go into the National Assembly. You must have means of livelihood so that you won’t have to depend on public funds”

So if you have ever wondered why Nigerian politics has been dubbed a do-or-die affair, the reasons are clear.