The Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly, Ali Ndume, has referred to the disparity among lawmakers on the amount allocated to them for constituency project as a case of inequality.
Senator Ndume made the clarification on Wednesday night during an interview on Channels Television.
He explained that the reason for the difference in amount allocated is similar to what is obtainable in the United States where lawmakers receive varying amount for ‘Pork Barrel’. He said, the practice is even better in Nigeria, as the opposition is treated more fairly.
The Borno senator stated that there are 10 leaders in the Senate and those leaders receive more allocations that the others, hence, the disparity in the amount received for constituency projects, as raised by Senator Agom Jarigbe (Cross River North, PDP) during plenary on Tuesday.
He said, “This constituency project is not a new thing, in the American politics they call it pork barrel, in fact, their own is worse than our own if it is by that standard. The lawmaker, if you allocate funds for him, he decides what to do with that money in his constituency and is given to them discretionarily not the same.
“If you’re in APC you’ll get more, if you’re in Republican…right now it’s Democrats that has the majority, now most of the Democrat lawmakers will have more than their counterparts in the Republican.”
When asked if this was what was playing out in the Senate now, he answered, “No! We are very nice to PDP despite the fact that they didn’t treat us like that when they…”
“All the senators have N200 million as their constituency project but I’m a leader that’s the difference. 10 of us are leaders, including the ones in the opposition, they get more than the floor members, it’s normal, it’s there, they agreed.
“In those days, that decision is taken by the senators. We have what they call ‘Senate Budget committee’ before but now the floor members entrusted that to the presiding officers, that’s the difference. So, most of the senators don’t know what I get and I will not tell you since I didn’t tell my colleagues.
“My colleagues know that I got more than them. I got more than the floor senators, it’s normal.”
When asked about the disparity on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday concerning some senators receiving more than others started by senator Jarigbe from Cross River state, Ndume said, “it’s disparity now, we are not all the same. All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others.”