Culled from The Reality Newspaper

The financial autonomy of the Plateau state house of Assembly has again become a matter of grave concern to all and sundry in Plateau state.

Investigations by Reality Newspaper Journalists in Jos reveal that the House, in the past three months did not receive overhead funds to run its affairs, and therefore the lawmakers have had to go cap-in-hand to the executive for assistance.

Also exacerbating the situation is the fact that the house members have not been receiving their salaries on a regular basis, given the very difficult financial state of the state.

In the light of these challenging circumstances, the house members have struggled to execute their constitutional functions of lawmaking and oversight.

In the last few weeks, journalists from Reality newspaper had reported that the lawmakers were so broke that many of them were defaulting on loans collected from banks and that banks were already chasing the members for recovery.

In an exclusive interview a few weeks back, the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Peter Azi, acknowledged that banks were chasing his colleagues to service outstanding loans.

Speaking, he said “If Banks are chasing after honorable members, then it doesn’t bode well for our democracy”. “They are actually chasing all of us. I also don’t have any other means of servicing my own!”

Reacting to the issue, some political observers in the state are already putting the blame on the door steps of the House Members.

They said, “How can the people who are constitutional empowered to appropriate funds, be telling us that they don’t have money or they have not been paid?

“I have a feeling they don’t know their Constitutional responsibilities and powers as provided by Section 128.  They are the only arm of government, who should know whether the state has money or not through the reports of the State Auditor General and not the executive.

“They should be able to expose corruption and wastage in the system and correct same, not the executive.

“It is the House that can publish whether the state is broke or not the executive.

“We feel greatly sad that the Executive has muscled them to the extent they don’t know their powers. How can they say they don’t have money when they are the ones to appropriate money? So who has been appropriating moneys being spent by Ministries and Government departments?”

You’d would recall that Section 128(1) and (1b) of the 1999 Constitution (Amended) provides that:

“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, a House of Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazettee of the Government of the State to direct or cause to direct an inquiry or investigation into-(b) the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, Ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for- (ii) disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by such House.

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Plateau House of Assembly members in financial difficulties