Chief Whip of the Senate, Professor Olusola Adeyeye, believes all government officials including members of the National Assembly must to cut down on luxury in order to save cost and move Nigeria forward.
Adeyeye, who spoke this morning in a television programme monitored by Nairametrics recalled how he had been an advocate of transparency and prudence in government during the 7th Assembly but one of the issues that came up during the presidential media chat was the proposed allocation of funds for the purchase of official cars for members of the National Assembly in the 8th Assembly which he also belongs.
“If I was president of Nigeria today, honestly to the extent possible I will end official cars for everybody – from President to the level 8 officer.
We once had a republic where our head of state rode a Peugeot 504 and gave us what he called ‘Operation Low Profile’. We must go back to that.
A situation whereby we go through the streets of Abuja and everybody is riding SUVs, everybody is focusing on the senators because 109 of them are the ones who were elected. Ask yourself, ‘what type of cars are the ministers riding? What type of cars are the judges riding? What type of cars are the DGs of parastatals riding?’
My official car right now as the Chief Whip of the Senate is not as good as what the DGs of many parastatals are riding.
What we need to do is to say ‘regardless of your position, let’s go back to Operation Low Profile’,” the Senator said.
Buhari had frowned at the intended allocation of over N40billion for the purchase of vehicles for members of the National Assembly, a move which has been widely condemned by Nigerians.
