…Says, “We are sworn to Oath of Silence.”
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
A senior management official of the House of Representatives, Ifeoma Ofili, has alleged widespread corruption, budget manipulation, and suppression of staff within the National Assembly, saying, legislative aides and civil servants are “sworn to an oath of silence” and cannot speak out.
legislative retreat.
Ofili, a Director in the House of Representatives and former Clerk of the House Committee on Local Content, made the allegations in a viral address at a legislative retreat, in a video that has since drawn widespread public attention.
An emotional Ofili said she was “livid” over the gap between what is discussed at retreats and what happens in practice.
“I am mad because we talk, we don’t do. I am mad because nobody listens. Our legislators are not here. We are talking to ourselves,” she said. “Now, we don’t have the power to do nothing of all the things we talk about,” she lamented.
On allegations of oversight and public hearings, Ofili accused lawmakers of compromising oversight functions, alleging that agencies pay for lawmakers’ flight tickets and provide money during oversight visits.
“How do you account for the fact that the flight ticket to go and oversight somebody was paid for that person by the agency? What are you coming to write? You go there; they tell you what to write. They give you money; they court you,” she alleged.
She also alleged that committee members often fight over money given by MDAs, while clerks and committee staff are excluded. She added that staff are sometimes compelled to write reports on activities they did not witness.
“They will not give the clerk; but it’s not even the fact that they didn’t give the clerk. Now, you are compelled to write a report of what you did not see, what did not happen, and you lie. Me, as a Catholic, I will just go for a confession first,” she said.
On public hearings, Ofili recounted rejecting a consultant hired to write a report without attending the event. “I asked the consultant: ‘Were you at the public hearing?’ He said “No.” ‘So, what do you want to write?’ I said “No;” it’s not going to happen. I will not work with you,” she said.
Ofili said she submitted the original report she typed herself and told the chairman: “If you want to change it, you go ahead and change it, but the original report is in my system.”
On ‘Budget collapse’ and Staff Welfare, the courageous director also alleged that funds budgeted for National Assembly staff for training, clinic, sports, books, and allowances are “collapsed” and diverted.
“Budget money, for instance, staff budget money for training, money for clinic – they collapse it. It is in the National Assembly. Allowances that are budgeted for National Assembly staff are collapsed,” she revealed.
She said staff have no power to hold a press conference “because we are sworn to oath of silence,” adding that some retirees wait over a year or two for benefits.
“Go and see them. They look like scarecrows. Our former colleagues call us; direct us to beg for money for fuel. They are coming to the National Assembly. We see them standing at the junction into the National Assembly. They can’t afford to fuel their cars,” she said.
“They chop their own, they chop our own,” she added. Ofili, who said she is two steps from retirement, insisted she spoke out “because my mother says she is not dancing so that people will give her money. It’s so that they will see me so I will say what I want to say.”
As of the time of compiling and filing this report, the National Assembly management and House leadership had not responded to the allegations.
The claims have reignited debate on transparency, accountability, and welfare issues within Nigeria’s legislature assembly the country’s current worsening hardship.