" ITREALMS: 7000 Nigerians seek open NASS

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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

7000 Nigerians seek open NASS

Over 7,000 Nigerians are demanding the breakdown of the National Assembly (NASS) budget be made public, reports ITRealms.

ITRealms recalls that #OpenNASS advocacy has been demanding over the past 4 years for an open and transparent National Assembly.

A press statement made available to ITRealms by Enough-is-Enough, says that this is particularly important because the legislative arm of government has oversight function over the executive.

The group wondered how could legislators hold the executive accountable when they are opaque in their internal operations?

According to the group, there have been several articles written and infographs published on the issue, stressing that the allegations of ‘budget padding’ also started conversations in the National Assembly about the breakdown of the budget because only the principal officers seem to know the details.

As said by them, the National Assembly has also refused to respond to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and a court order to provide its detailed budget.

“Between June 29 and July 4, 2016, we conducted a scoping survey randomly selecting telephone numbers and collecting 1,200 responses to 39 questions,” part of the statement read.

On Tuesday, December 20, 2016, for instance, ITRealms reports that EiE, Budgit and other partners addressed a press conference about how 76 per cent of Nigerians Actively Support Open Government Policies and #OpenNASS is a panacea for transparency and accountability.

In the foregoing, the group set up toll-free lines: 08139861001 and 08139861002 for citizens to join the advocacy by signing a petition on the National Assembly budget.

Furthermore, as at March 2nd, 2017, 7,181 have signed the petition demanding that a breakdown of the National Assembly’s budget be made public with immediate effect. Attached with this press release is an infograph capturing the figures.


These petitions have been gathered and they powered a letter sent and addressed to the Chairman of the National Assembly dated March 9th, 2017 which was received.

Chuks Egbune/GEE 
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