By Thefrontrank Editorial Board
The Ondo State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, Dec.24, 2024, passed the state’s 2025 Appropriation of N698.659 billion. The fiscal document dubbed “Budget of Recovery” was jerked up by N43.43 billion by the Assembly from the initial N655.230 billion presented by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa. According to the Assembly, the increment of N43.43 billion was approved to address “essential needs”.
The “essential needs” in the budget include the N235 million allocated for telephone calls for members of the Assembly. Residents were expecting the Assembly to distance itself from such news, but there has been no rebuttal till now. Yes, the lawmakers deserve the necessary facilities to function effectively as the representatives of the people.
In Ondo State, there are 28 elected state officials – the governor, deputy governor and 26 Assembly members (lawmakers). However, the 26 lawmakers chose to appropriate a whooping sum of N235 million for their own telephone calls in the 2025 fiscal year. From the analysis of the N235 million, 24 members would share N200 million, while the speaker and deputy speaker would spend N35 million. For the 24 members’ N200 million, each of the lawmakers would spend over N8.33 million per annum, spend over N694, 000 monthly and spend over N23,000 daily on telephone calls.
A las, these calls must be “heavenly telephone calls” by the lawmakers to discuss with “Our Father In Heaven” on how to solve the myriad of challenges bedevilling the Sunshine State. This is the sad reality of our political system. Perhaps, the lawmakers need to be challenged that how many of them could afford N5000 call card daily before their election.
It is instructive to let the lawmakers know that the money being prodigiously spent was paid as tax by that Okada rider and tricycle rider, who is on hire purchase and could hardly feed his family, but levied N500 and N1000 daily by the state government. The money was paid by that taxi driver who could not afford to pay the rent of his one room apartment, but being chased off the road daily for vehicle papers’ renewal and other levies by officials of the state revenue service.
The lawmakers should be reminded that the money was paid in form of Pay As You Earn (PAYE) by that civil servant, who trekked several distance to the office daily, and takes loans to be able to send his ward to school and afford his house rent.
Imagine, in a state where over 50 per cent of the residents go to bed hungry daily, their representatives called lawmakers, decided to allocate over N23,000 to themselves daily for telephone calls, this is sad. This is profligacy.
