Budget padding: 10 things to know about Dogara

Following the budget padding scandal currently rocking the House of Representatives, the man in the eye of the storm, Yakubu Dogara, who presides over the house as speaker has been in the news lately. But not many Nigerians know a lot about the legislator beyond being the leader of Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber.

We bring you ten facts about Nigeria’s number four man.
Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara

This began after Abdulmumin Jibrin, the former House committee chairman on appropriations blew the whistle on his colleagues over budget padding allegations.

He accused the Speaker of going home with N25 million monthly, for which he never gave any account, while also adding that a five-man cabal consisting of two governors and three former House members was constituted by the Speaker, to shield him against possible prosecution.

Apart from this controversy, what exactly do we know about the Speaker? NAIJ.com has compiled ten facts you never knew about Dogara. Read below:
1. Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, Yakubu Dogara was born on 26 December 1967.

2. He represents Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa federal constituency of Bauchi State in the House of Representives
3. He is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

4. He was a teacher before he ventured into politics at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Staff School in Bauchi in 1982 for his secondary education. Then he proceeded to the Bauchi Teachers’ College in 1987 where he obtained a Grade II Teachers’ Certificate.

5. He is also a lawyer with a law degree from the University of Jos, Plateau State. However, from 1992 to 1993, he was a student at the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School and was called to the bar in 1993. He is also a member of the Nigerian Bar Association.
6. Dogara has been a member of the House of Representatives for nine years since 2007.

7. He was appointed special assistant to the minister of state for transport in 2005.

8. Under his watch, the House of Representatives set a record in December 2015 when 130 bills passed first reading in one sitting.

9. He is an active supporter of the Not Too Young To Run campaign.

10. He serves as the secretary of the board of trustees and legal adviser to FAcE-PAM, an NGO operating in Baluchi state.