Crisis Brewing In Reps Over $15 Million Executive Largesse

Femi Gbajabiamila

House of Representatives members and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila are about to square off amid claims that $15 million in government largesse was distributed unfairly.

The disgruntled lawmakers specifically claimed that Gbajabiamila had a dubious agreement with the executive on behalf of the House to pass the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but that he shortchanged his colleagues by failing to share the $15 million made available to the House to sweeten the deal.

In order to buy more time and appease the irate members, it was found that the looming crisis had pushed Gbajabiamila to postpone the plenary's scheduled restart on Tuesday.

Invoking the fact that the earlier date had been announced incorrectly, the speaker called the plenary to a break.

The next postponed date is Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at 11:00 AM. Please discard the preceding message and date; it was issued in error. We apologize any inconveniences very much.

However, it is unclear whether the frayed nerves had subsided by the time this report was submitted.

One of the members who confided in our correspondent claimed that when the House reconvenes, there may be a free-for-all because the majority of them had a beef with the speaker.

On Tuesday, January 31, the House gave the president permission to borrow a further N1 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay for the 2022 supplemental budget.

The lawmakers dropped the request for N22,719,703,774,306.90 from the CBN while the House approved the restructure of the Nitn WMAS.