Ogun Lawmakers Travel To US
Published on November 27, 2012 by ·
The assurance given by lawmakers in Ogun State to pass the state’s budget within three weeks of the presentation may not materialise afterall, as the lawmakers have all travelled to the United States for ‘legislative training.’
P.M.NEWS gathered that the 26 lawmakers in the house travelled to the US shortly after the presentation of the budget by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
P.M.NEWS learnt that the lawmakers had concluded their travelling arrangements before the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, presented the budget to the House.
Investigations by P.M.NEWS revealed that 24 lawmakers left Abeokuta, the state capital last Friday while the remaining two left earlier.
It was gathered that the lawmakers met for the second reading of the 2013 appropriation bill on Wednesday and on Friday embarked on their trip to the US for ‘legislative training.’
But sources said the lawmakers did not go for any legislative training in the US, but went for shopping. They were allegedly sponsored by the state government.
The lawmakers are expected back in the country early next year. This means they cannot fulfill their pledge of passing the state’s 2013 appropriation bill within three weeks like they did with the 2012 budget.
—Abiodun Onafunye/ Abeokuta

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/11/27/ogun-lawmakers-travel-to-us/

ACN power to the people.

Baby mama,

Na so you want take open a new week? You want talk bad about Yorubaland for Monday morning?

Negro_Ntns: Baby mama,

Na so you want take open a new week? You want talk bad about Yorubaland for Monday morning?

Well what can I say? It's a training. So?

geez*:


Well what can I say? It's a training. So?

Look at yr mouth, you HYPOCRITE: 'it is training, so?'. If dis story (assuming it is even completely true) were to be even remotely related to d oda side, wud u not hv already be mastur.bating about the thread with yr usual rantings?..... Hypocrite!

While there are some inconsistencies between the article and the one copied in below, impartial observers will derive cold comfort from yet another junketing mission fueled directly from the Ogun state budget.

What is this thing between Nigerian politicians and recurring pilgrimages to the United States (More than two-thirds of members of the Enugu State House of Assembly are currently on vacation in the United States)?

Ogun lawmakers jet out to U.S for “legislative rudiments”



Ibikunle Amosun, Governor of Osun State

The trip is alleged to be an attempt by Mr. Amosun to pacify the lawmakers

All the 26 members of the Ogun State House of Assembly have travelled to the United States of America on the bill of the state government.

The trip is not an official recess as the lawmakers had just resumed from a lengthy recess on November 13.

It is not clear what the mission of the lawmakers to the U.S. is, but sources at the state government say that they are in the U.S. to learn “legislative rudiments.”

The trip comes about two weeks after the lawmakers resumed plenary following a feud that had threatened to tear them apart.

The lawmakers had claimed that they were angry at the State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, and the Speaker of the Assembly, Suraj Adekumbi, and refused to cut short their recess as requested by the speaker. Some of them claimed in interviews with PREMIUM TIMES that the governor was not concerned with their “welfare.”

The speaker asked the lawmakers to cut short their recess in order to approve commissioner nominees of the state government. Majority of the lawmakers, 19 out of 26, declined.

Mr. Amosun had to hold a secret meeting with the lawmakers before their resumption of plenary on November 13. It is not clear if this trip is one of the ways the state government is trying to take care of the lawmakers’’ ‘welfare.’

The lawmakers approved the commissioner nominees on November 20. Less than a week later, they are all on a state sponsored trip.

No one of the lawmakers, who all travelled over the weekend, was available for a reaction on their official reason for going on the trip that would cost the state millions of naira.

The state’s Commissioner for Information, Yusuf Olaniyonu, was also unavailable for comment. When PREMIUM TIMES called Mr. Olaniyonu’s number, someone else picked the call saying the commissioner was not around and he was not authorised to respond to any enquiry from journalists.

The lawmakers are expected to return over the weekend.

Source

Demdem: i dont support this crap. It would have been cheaper to bring in the facilitators here instead if indeed they needed any training at all

While I agree that it will be cheaper bringing in the facilitators, there are some experiences you can never get in a class

They may sit as observers in a legislative sitting in the US as well as get other hands on tips

All the same, I believe the training could have been cheaper using a video conferencing to achieve the above