Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, accused the National Assembly on Monday of ignoring the constitution when it did not serve their personal interests.
Obasanjo, in particular, claimed that MPs’ salaries were not based on the recommendations of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, as required by the country’s constitution.
The former Nigerian leader charged that the MPs’ activities were damaging the country’s democracy.
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He made the submission during a lecture titled “The Future of Constitutional Democracy in Nigeria: Imperative of a New Constitutional Order” in Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State.
The occasion was part of the celebrations honoring the 60th anniversary of legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola’s (SAN) call to the bar.
Obasanjo said, “The point in Nigeria which I have seen and which I can attest to is most of the people who are supposed to be operationalizing or managing and seeing the constitution and democracy move forward, they are actually the ones who undermine the constitution.
“All elected people, by our constitution, their emolument is supposed to be fixed by the revenue mobilization commission, but our lawmakers set that aside and they make laws and put any emolument for themselves.
“Even if that is constitutional, it is not moral and, of course, it is neither constitutional nor moral.”
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He warned against a situation where the constitution is “continually breached like that.”
The former President stated that citizens were expected to enjoy democracy, but that this could only happen if the actors followed the constitution to the letter.
He said, “Democracy doesn’t mean anything to any man who is hungry, whose life is in danger, or whose property is being destroyed.”
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