By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character on Tuesday criticised the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Architect Sonny Echono, for failing to appear at an investigative hearing to defend the activities of the agency.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Idris Wase, expressed displeasure over the fact that Echono failed to turn up even after several invitations.
Wase also berated the Industrial Training Fund ITF, Transmission Company of Nigeria TCN, National Sugar Development Council for also failing to honour the Committee’s invitation.
According to the chairman, these agencies were taking the committee for granted over their persistent refusal to honour invitations, even as he said that henceforth it would not be tolerated.
The representative of the Executive Secretary of TETFund at the meeting, Babatunde Oladeji, who is the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation told the committee that the Executive Secretary was away on official leave.
But Rep. Wase, stressed that all agencies of government must be accountable and transparent to the Nigerian people.
He said henceforth they would be sanctioned in accordance to the law if they continue to avoid the parliament.
He said, “You must be accountable to the House. This is the last time. Next time the committee would invoke its powers provided for in the constitution
“You are appearing before the House of Representatives Committee and we are not going to take this nonsense any longer.
“This is a House that you should be giving account to. And I don’t know the instrument that gave you the power to operate. The same parliament that gave you the powers, what makes you think that they are useless here. We are here on behalf of all Nigerians. We keep writing and you keep neglecting us. Where do you draw your powers from? You are spiting the entire country.
“We cannot let any agency or ministry take us for granted because without us, they don’t exist. It is unacceptable for them to keep disrespecting this committee”.
He said because of the way heads of agencies were treating the parliament with levity, the committee had to advertise in three national dailies apart from the letters.
“I am disappointed with the Executive Secretary of Tetfund. He was a former federal permanent secretary. I expect him to be more compliant than any other person as he should know the rudiments of civil service better. He chose to neglect it. We would not take it.
“The Committee has not been doing it’s job properly in the past that is why people think they can do anything and carry on with it. It would not be business as usual.
“This is your last warning. Tell him that the Committee is not willing to go the way he thinks. Or take the Committee for granted. But if he thinks he has the power to do that, then we shall meet at the appropriate point.bWe will make every chief executive accountable. They should not test the will of the Committee,” he told the representative of the Tetfund Boss.