The House of Representatives on Tuesday said Governor Nasir el-Rufai
of Kaduna State published the security budget of the state, not his own
security vote.
The Chairman of the Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas, stated this at a news briefing in Abuja.
Namdas
said el-Rufai was undermining and distracting the National Assembly by
his claims that the N115 billion in the legislature’s 2016 budget was
for the 469 members.
According to him, the budget covers among others salaries, allowances, expenditure and running cost of 469 members.
He
said this will also cover salaries and allowances of about 3,000
legislative aides and salaries, allowances, equipment and maintenance of
about 5,000 staff in the bureaucracy of the National Assembly.
He urged the governor to concentrate on governing Kaduna State, particularly addressing security issues facing the state.
Namdas said: “As a senior citizen, el-Rufai should not overheat the polity with tendentious and unfounded outbursts.
“We note that what Mallam el-Rufai published was the security budget of Kaduna State and not his security vote expenditure.
“We
wish to advice the Kaduna State governor to concentrate on his efforts
in governing Kaduna State and stop undermining and distracting the
National Assembly in playing its constitutionally assigned role in
nation building.
“He launched an attack on the National Assembly on Friday, April 7, 2017 and continued on Monday, April 10, 2017.
“We
are aware that there are serious security issues he should be grappling
with in southern Kaduna and other governmental issues facing him.”
According
to Namdas, the National Assembly is not opaque and since the
Constitution was amended in 2010, the legislature was put in a first
line charge.
He
said: “Its budget became part of statutory transfers, together with the
Judiciary, Independent National Electoral Commission and others.
“You cannot find details of the Budget of the Judiciary and INEC in the national budget.
“It exists elsewhere.
“Of course from 1999 to 2010, the details of the National Assembly budget was contained in the national budget.”
Namdas said the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, was directed to start publishing the budget from 2017.
He said: “To continue to repeat the same call made three days earlier smacks of propaganda and cheap blackmail.
“The Kaduna State governor chose to give headings of its budget on security related matters.
“Maybe, he will give further details of actual security expenditures at the appropriate time.
“It
is most uncharitable to ignore the fact that the National Assembly is
an arm of government, not a department in the executive branch.
The budget of so many agencies in the executive is higher than that of the National Assembly, an arm of government.
“Such
agencies are Nigerian Communications Commission, N102 billion; Central
Bank of Nigeria, N421 billion; and the Nigerian Ports Authority, N250
billion.
“Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, N100
billion; Federal Inland Revenue Service, N146 billion; Nigerian Customs
Services, N81 billion; and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
whose budget runs into trillions.
“Indeed, the National Assembly Budget is about two per cent of the national budget.”
Namdas
added that the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, had directed that
his six months’ pay slip, from October, 2016 to March, 2017, be
published.
No comments:
Post a Comment