The petition
It is utterly abhorrent that barely three months into her tenure as the 'Honorable' Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, a former hairdresser and "mother" of two kids would find it appropriate to spend hundreds of millions of Naira for the purchase of vehicles and the renovation of her official residence and that of her deputy - houses that they are only supposed to temporarily occupy during their tenure in office. That is quite an impetuous action.
A breakdown of the contract for the renovation of the Speaker's residence showed that demolition of a section of the building will cost N14.5m; furnishing, N35.4m; and installation of Close Circuit Television and a multiple intercom system, N30m.
External work will cost N64.2m; fittings and fixtures, N35m; metal detector, N10m; furnishing, N52.5m; and curtains, N10m.
For the Deputy Speaker's house, furnishing only will cost N55.2m.
Ten units of Toyota Land Cruiser will cost N123m and two 320 Mercedes Benz cars will cost N49.6m. - Source Vanguard Newspapers.
All of this is happening in a country where a sizable proportion of its population is living in abject poverty. As to be expected, certain members of the "ruling" party has started waving their magic wand in the hopes of making such an abominable deed go away in the minds of Nigerians. Instead of weeding out the bad eggs among them in order to save face, they are staging a cover up. This is the same administration that is fighting against corruption and stealing in high places.
Be that as it may, we would like to remind these 'politicians' that the funds in question belong to Nigerians in general and not to any particular group who share the same political ideology. For how long can we, Nigerians, truly allow such insensitive and egregious acts to continue. In the past -without mincing words- we have stood in unison against military led juntas and fought them to a standstill, but somehow we have now lost our voices why certain persons under the guise of democracy continue to mortgage the future generation of Nigerians.
We therefore request Messrs. David Idoko (PDP), Rabe Nasir (PDP), Nasir Mohammed (ANPP), Sani Saleh Munjibir (ANPP), Chinedu Eluemuno (PDP), Peter Umoh (PDP), Depo Oyedokun (PDP), Yakubu Dogara (PDP) and Habeeb Fasinro (AC), all members of the committee set up to investigate Madam Speaker to perform their duty to the best of their ability and in good conscience.
While we recognize the attendant difficulties and enormous pressures that they may encounter in the course of duty, we are confident in their political adeptness and obligation as Honorable members of the house.
This petition will be mailed to the Committee by September 15th, 2007 before their final report is submitted to the house. If you support our efforts to sanitize governance in our beloved country, Nigeria, please add your signature below.
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