Balarabe condemns Reps' probe of power contract

Hassan Ibrahim, Kaduna - 24.03.2008

CHAIRMAN of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, at the weekend, expressed doubt over the activities of the House of Representatives panel probing the alleged misappropriation of money spent on the power sector during the Obasanjo era, insisting that the exercise lacked credibility.

He told the Nigerian Tribune in Kaduna that although the action of the House probing the power sector was desirable, it lacks credibility because the House of Representatives was probing others while itself deserved to be probed.

According to him, “even when it tried to probe one of them, the whole thing ended up as a kind of show. For example, the House of Representatives investigated the contract for the renovation of the residence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker and found the Speaker guilty. All that they did was to remove the Speaker; the Speaker still remains a member of the House.

“They ought to have gone further by probing the Speaker for possible commitment of fraud, but they failed to do so, they buried everything. Now if they were not able to probe a situation which was directly under their control, how do you expect them to probe a situation which was not under their control?

“For instance, the mismanagement, corruption, stealing or whatever it is of Obasanjo or his government cannot enable the National Assembly to take direct action on it because they can only expose, they cannot punish.”

The former governor of Kaduna State maintained that the oversight function of the National Assembly with regard to the activities of government lacked credibility because the National Assembly was unable to probe itself and, therefore, has no moral authority to probe anyone.

“But all the same, the action was desirable, but it is being undertaken by a body that cannot do anything. In other words we can regard their action as just a show, a drama,” he said.