Nigerian Senate silent on bribery scandal involving members

The Nigerian Senate has deployed “silence” as its official strategy in response to the corruption scandal exposed by a recent PREMIUM TIMES investigation, which revealed an “extortion scheme” created by some lawmakers to fleece universities of their meagre income.

On Saturday, PREMIUM TIMES published a report detailing how members of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, along with their counterparts in the House Committee on University Education, demanded ₦8 million from each university as a condition for passing their 2025 budget proposals.

Following the report, Nigerians on social media have called for thorough investigations by anti-graft agencies.

However, the Senate has opted to remain silent in the face of the scandal.

On Monday, PREMIUM TIMES contacted the spokespersons of both chambers to obtain their official positions. The spokesperson of the Senate, Yemi Adaramodu, initially acknowledged a text message sent to his phone and promised to provide an official response. He has, however, failed to keep his promise as he ignored several reminders sent to him.

The spokesperson of the House, Akin Rotimi, did not respond to requests for comments on Monday but on Wednesday, he released a statement that failed to address the issues raised in the report. In the statement, the House appeared to have cleared the committees without even investigating the allegations.

The Senate leadership’s silence is widely perceived as a sign of complicity, particularly given that past leaderships of the National Assembly had been accused of receiving kickbacks from some committee chairpersons.

In the past, the leadership of both chambers had faced allegations of rewarding allies with committee appointments.

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Bob Solomon, a member of the House from Rivers State, was questioned by some new members on how certain lawmakers secured key committee positions despite lacking legislative experience.

Additionally, there has been a proliferation of committees in both chambers, widely believed to be a means of rewarding loyalists and creating “money for the boys.” In the current Assembly, there are over 150 standing committees in the House, following the splitting of some committees to accommodate more loyalists.

Previous strategy of silence

Earlier in January, PREMIUM TIMES published a report on the allocation of ₦10 billion for rent and furniture for the presiding officers of the National Assembly by the Ministry of the FCT. The story generated public outrage, with Nigerians questioning the “outrageous” allocation and calling for action.

However, the National Assembly completely ignored the report and refused to comment on it. Beyond the need for official statements, there is an urgent need for the institution to investigate the committees and take appropriate action.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly has become notorious for sweeping allegations involving its members and committees under the carpet.

Recently, there were some bribery allegations made by the CEO of Binance, Richard Teng.

In 2023, PREMIUM TIMES exposed an ad hoc committee of the House that was tasked with probing job racketeering but ended up extorting MDAs.

The report provided details of the bank account into which the money was paid, the bureau de change entity used, and the proxy who collected the funds. Following the publication, the House, through Mr Rotimi, promised to investigate the matter. However, no action has been taken to date.

Last year, PREMIUM TIMES also published a report on how some committees tried to extort tertiary institutions through the TETFUND allocation. The committees backed down after the report.

PREMIUM TIMES will, in the coming days, publish more reports exposing the activities of some of these committees in both the House and the Senate.