The National Assembly on Friday took up state governors over calls for transparency in fiscal activities with a challenge that state chief executives should disclose how much they collect as security votes and how they manage local government funds.
Ekiti State governor and chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, Mr Ayodele Fayose, in his reaction, on Friday, however, countered that security votes should not be a subject of political discussion.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, who was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Management Retreat of the National Assembly in Kaduna, on Friday, said that governors were not helping the anti-corruption war of the Muhammadu Buhari administration by keeping the two records secret.
He was responding to an earlier charge by the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who in his speech had challenged the National Assembly to make public its budget and join the anti-corruption war of the present administration.
According to el-Rufai, many Nigerians are of the view that the National Assembly is opposed to the war on corruption and the perception of the legislature among the Nigerian public is very low.
“The National Assembly, the Senate in particular, is seen as fighting against the anti-corruption fight of this government. It is an image problem the National Assembly has to work on. There are many publications out there seeking that you make your budget public. Several publications are made on your salary. Even though I don’t believe them, we cannot defend them because the budget is not made public,” the governor had said.
He also opened a debate on whether Nigeria needs a united bureaucracy that can serve all arms of government or leave the structure as presently constituted.
When Speaker Dogara took the podium to declare the one week retreat closed, he replied el-Rufai in clear terms, saying that the budget of the National Assembly was already in public domain.
He said the bureaucracy of the National Assembly had already been told to make public the budget starting from 2017, adding that the legislature had nothing to hide.
“I will like to challenge him (el-rufai) to champion this cause for transparency in the budgetary process from the National Assembly to other arms of government. The judiciary first.
We want to see clearly how chief executives of states are paid. What do they spend monthly as security votes? And if they can publish what happens to local government funds under their jurisdictions. That will help our discussion going forward,” Dogara said.
Also speaking, Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, said the budget of the National Assembly was not secret, adding that those who are interested in it can get the details.
Declaring that the legislature had always supported the fight against corruption, he said the legislative arm of government created all the anti-corruption agencies through legislation and is funding them through the budgets.
He warned those stoking executive/legislature feuds to desist, adding that the Nigerian public is only desirous of dividends of democracy rather than ego trips.
“The Nigerian public cannot distinguish between the executive and the legislature. All they are after is performance. Change has come to stay in Nigeria but if we don’t perform, Nigerians can change the change. I believe we won’t give them reason to do that,” the Senate Leader said.
Clerk to the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, thanked the political leadership of the National Assembly for backing the management to kick start the need assessment programme as well as organise the retreat to keep management staff in tune with current realities.
Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who delivered a paper at the event, called for a strong legislative bureaucracy, saying a weak bureaucracy in the legislature would affect performance of the lawmakers and invariably threaten democracy.
In a reaction, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, who is also the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, said “the issue of security vote is similar to other security issues and therefore it should not be subjected to unnecessary public discussion.”
Fayose, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, contended that “precedence in the security vote matter is also of important consideration because it is, somehow, out of place for any governor to table the security vote for debate and it has never happened.”
He however explained that “the people of Ekiti are in the know of government receipts as there is a committee that decides what to do with income when the government receives it, and they meet regularly.”
He said “for instance, the state government, through the Ministry of Finance, has published the state’s budget and it is in the public domain. This is coupled with the regular meeting of the stakeholders to decide how the state government’s receipts are disbursed. This is transparency and I doubt if there are others in public office doing this.”
On the handling of local government finances, Fayose said the relevant officials of the various local governments in the state were aware of the income and expenditure of the councils, “and they also meet regularly on their finances.”
According to him, “this is why even the labour unions in the state rise in defence of the government whenever issues like this arise, because they know how much that comes in and how it is being disbursed.”