Dogara, el-Rufai and the corruption war

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara was on a familiar terrain on Friday in Kaduna as he tackled the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on the anti-corruption war of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

Two weeks ago, the Speaker had addressed newsmen in Abuja on the perceived jumbo pay ascribed to Nigerian lawmakers and declared that Nigerians were too fixated on the so-called huge earnings of the

National Assembly. He had added that the way some commentators talk about earnings of the National Assembly, one would think that once the legislature stops drawing from the national budget, all the economic challenges of Nigeria would instantly get cured.

He declared that the National Assembly only accounts for two per cent of the federal budget, adding that 98 per cent of the annual budget is spent on the other arms of government.

Thus, when the governor of Kaduna State took on the Speaker at the closing ceremony of the one-week management retreat of the National Assembly, it was obvious the usually combative governor had drawn a difficult opponent.

The governor had while admonishing the National Assembly to address its image issues as far as the anti-graft war was concerned asked the National Assembly to publish its budget.

“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 Kaduna governor had said.

The governor, who challenged the legislature to grow a competent bureaucracy, said that the legislature must address its image challenges as far as the anti-graft war was concerned.

He also opened a debate on whether Nigeria needs a united bureaucracy that can serve all arms of government or whether the structure should be left as it is where different bureaucracies service the different arms of government.

Even though the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, who spoke immediately after el-Rufai had attempted to answer the Governor and dissuade the Speaker from replying him, by saying that National

Assembly’s budget was already in the public domain and that whoever is interested can always get the details, Dogara refused to shy away from the matter when it was his turn to speak.

The Speaker declared that the bureaucracy of the National Assembly has already been directed to make public the budget of the legislature starting from 2017.

He insisted that the legislature has nothing to hide as far as the budget was concerned.

Dogara said: “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… how they 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.”

Though the duo of the Speaker and the governor spoke at perceived cross purposes at the event, it is quite clear that they both raised issues that cannot be swept under the carpet.

True, like el-Rufai said, the National Assembly is not a popular brand among the populace with many readily brandishing the alleged jumbo pay as a weapon to soak the institution deep into corruption allegation.

The Institution has also not helped to defend itself by most of the time showing unconcern when such wrong perceptions are being perpetrated. Sometimes, some commentators have simply divided the budgetary allocation of the National Assembly among the 469 Senators and members of the House of Representatives. Such statisticians end up misinforming the people that the lawmakers go home with as much as N300 million every month. The fact that there has been no concerted effort at addressing the misinformation could have been the undoing of the legislature.

The Speaker equally raised valid points which could go a long way at helping to address the anti-graft war in the states and the local governments.

For instance, no one knows how much a governor is entitled to as security votes and why the governors are always desperate to corner the resources of the local governments in their domain. Why do governors earn huge security votes and at the end of the day give excuses they don’t control the security apparatus when there are violent outbreaks.

It will interest you to note that a governor who has just struggled to win his seat will conduct local government election six month after and record landslide victory over all the parties.

The allure is not far-fetched. They are both political and economic. The governors want to maintain their political hegemony in the state, probably prepare the structure ahead of the second term contest. The other is to ensure the local governments are not allowed to shoot up a candidate independent enough to challenge their structure in the states.

In essence, no country fights corruption by allowing a one-sided stream of accusation. Just as the National Assembly needs to address its image problems, the governors also need to hands off council funds and allow a truly democratic system of government evolve from the grass roots.