From Fred Itua, Abuja
The National Assembly was, yesterday, thrown into chaos, following massive leakage from the roof of the building housing the Senate and House of Representatives, which led to the disruption of plenary session.
The leakage had rendered the lobby of the Assembly impassable in the early hours of the morning, leaving most lawmakers stranded for minutes until the rain subsided.
Cleaners were, however, mobilised to clean up the mess created by the leaking roof.
The incident, however, drew criticisms from visitors and lawmakers who expressed the disappointment that despite the huge amount of money expended on the maintenance of the National Assembly in the recent past, the facility was in such a bad shape.
They also described the leaking roof as an embarrassment to the country.
Last year, Nigerians had criticised the approval of N37 billion for the renovation of the National Assembly complex. The N37 billion was different from the N128 billion statutorily allocated for the National Assembly in the 2020 budget.
One of the workers in the Assembly whose office was affected decried the rot in the Assembly complex in spite of huge budgetary allocation for its maintenance when compared to other sectors in need of increased funding.
“The level of misplaced priority in this country is mind-boggling, and it appears the people are fed up. Just to bring the actual issue here into perspective, it should be noted that only N48 billion was budgeted for education in 2020.”
