In this write up, ISAIAH BENJAMIN x-rays the bickering between the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara and Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Refai over the ongoing anti-corruption war.
The enthusiasm with which the 5-day retreat organized for the management personnel of the National Assembly was going to come to a close on the 6th of April, 2017 was almost defeated when Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir el-Rufai a man who describes himself as being ‘blunt’ openly told members and leadership of the National Assembly that they are enemies of the war against corruption. One would have thought he was going to stop at that since he was only expected to make a good will message at the occasion, but in what seems like an opportunity to get at the National Assembly members, he went further to accuse them of lack of transparency in their budget and the lack of the knowledge of how much they get paid.
The hall was filled to capacity with management staff and principal officers of the National suddenly became very cold at such accusation but the coldness was shortlived when the governor got more than he may have bargained for when the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara who apparently was not happy with the comments of the Governor gave it back to him in an unequivocal manner, and suddenly the mud of virtually all in the hall jacked back to life with thunderous applauds at the Speakers responses when he challenged the governor to also champion the calls for transparency to other arms of government.
It was when the participants thought the Speaker was done responding, that he threw what I considered another challenge when he further asked the governor as an executive of his state to also declare his salary, what he spent monthly as security votes and should tell the public what happens to local government funds, at that point again, the applauds became more thunderous perhaps in appreciation of the responswwe you may say. Unfortunately for the governor, he had no right of reply again haven spoken earlier and first to throw the missiles, but who knows, the governor being a ‘blunt’ person like he addressed himself, he may reply through another means and perhaps a memo to the National Assembly reiterating his position and responding to the challenge thrown at him may not be out of the options available to him, bearing in mind his record of memo writing as witnessed in recent times.
In that meeting where the governor was only expected to give his goodwill message and perhaps stop at that, he may have ‘over stepped his boundaries’ when he accused the members of the National Assembly saying, “the National Assembly is seen as an opposition to the fight against corruption, the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, is seen as one of the fighters of the war against corruption and that image has to be worked on now that we are going towards election year, the leadership and members of the National Assembly have to do something about the narratives”.
“I don’t believe that it is entirely true, I also don’t believe it is entirely false but it is important that the National Assembly do something about its image”.
On the budget of the NASS, the governor posited that “no transparency in your (NASS) budget, nobody knows your budget, how much you get paid. Publications are made about your salaries and allowances that I don’t believe are true but cannot be defended because there is no transparency about your budget, personal cost and so on and so forth. I think you can do something about that to clear all the rumours and remove all the evil stories that are largely untrue” he had stressed.
Although the Senate leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan who represented the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki and who spoke immediately after the governor had spoken was the first to counter the governor’s position told the governor that the National Assembly fights corruption and support the fight against it at all levels of governance contrary to whatever he believes, was very mild in his response but intimated that the Speaker who is a presiding officer will respond accordingly and the Speaker in his response did not disappoint the participants as he did responded to the accusation to their admiration and applauds.
Then came the time for Speaker Dogara to speak and declare the retreat closed, he spoke for almost 14 minutes by my time without responding to the governor’s accusation but towards the last 3 minutes or so to round up his speech and declare the retreat closed, he dropped the bump shell first by informing the governor that the leadership of the National Assembly has instructed its management to publish their budget.
Then he proceeded with rather a soft but firm tone when he said, “you will have some kind of misfortune if you attempt to join issues with intellectuals but as intellectuals we expand issues and add to discussions, so I will like to challenge you (el-rufai) to champion the call for transparency in budgeting and budgettary process from the National Assembly to other arms of government, we want to see clearly how Chief Executives of states are paid, what they spend monthly as security votes, and also publish what happens to local government funds, this will help our discussions going forward” he challenged the governor.
Meanwhile, shortly before responding to the governor, the Speaker acknowledged the challenges faced by the management of the Federal legislature, stressing that the National Assembly is the most misunderstood institutions and that while no parliament in the world can win popularity contest, Nigeria’s National Assembly is not an exception. In a record move, Governor el-Rufai made public his monthly pay slip and specifics of security budget but failed to disclose his allowances and the amount spent as security votes, he also failed to disclose the transactions of local government funds but went further to challenge the National Assembly leadership to release their budget and all allowances of the legislature to the public.
Dogara on the other hand in less than 24 hours also made public his six months pay slip and further accused the governor of undermining President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly when the spokesperson of the green chamber said, “these attacks are coming. On theheels of his now famous letter to Mr. President where he made strenous effort to undermine his government by openly lampooning. Him when he has unhindered access to the President.
In any case, one is forced to ask if the accusation and counter-accusation are a political distraction or a good omen for democracy, or better still want to know if the accusation by the governor against the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, is an attempt to smear the image of the members of the National Assembly.