Olusegun Obasanjo, former President, on Thursday described the National Assembly as a “bunch of unarmed robbers”, saying the earn “bogus” pay.

Speaking in Ibadan at the public presentation of a I am Kagara, I Weave the Sands of Sahara, a book written by Professor Mark Nwagwu, Obasanjo urged the federal government to respect its 2009 agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

However, he warned that a situation where the country spends so much on overheads does not bode well for socioeconomic development.

“Government allows itself to be stampeded into signing agreement particularly when one group or the other withdraws it services and goes on strike. After the agreement has been signed, without full consultation within government, implementation becomes an issue,” Punch quoted him as saying.

“But an agreement is an agreement; whoever the agent is that signed that agreement on your behalf, you are bound by it. You may now have to renegotiate to have a new agreement but the agreement earlier signed remains an agreement.

“When the university teachers go on strike, there is an agreement; and when doctors go on strike, there will be a special agreement. And when the universities teachers see that the agreement reached with the doctors is different from theirs, they go on strike and this is bad for our economy.

“The way we are going about spending all our revenue to pay overheads, we will not develop. And we will have ourselves to blame. Ninety per cent of revenue is used to pay overheads, allowances, salaries and not much is left for capital development. In a situation like that, we have to rethink.

“It is even worse for the National Assembly. They will abuse me again but I will never stop talking about them. They are a bunch of unarmed robbers.

“They are one of the highest paid in the world where we have 75 per cent of our people living in abject poverty. They will abuse me tomorrow and if they don’t, maybe they are sleeping. The behaviour and character of the National Assembly should be condemned and roundly condemned.”

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