National Assembly not committed to anti-corruption fight, says El-Rufai

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has taken members of the National Assembly to the cleaners over what he described as their lack of commitment to the fight against graft in the country.

El-Rufai, who expressed concerns over the over-bloated budget, salaries and allowances of the lawmakers, especially those of the senators said that the issues should be looked into in order to redeem the image of the National Assembly.

The governor stated this in his good will message to the closing ceremony of the five-day retreat ‎management personnel of the National Assembly which held in Kaduna. His words: “I am going to be blunt. The National Assembly, particularly the Senate is seen as an opposition to the fight against corruption,” and urged them to purge themselves of the negative image this was likely to have against them.”

El-Rufai who also reacted to the comments of the Senate Chief of Staff, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said: “I think Baba-Ahmed is being diplomatic because of his job. I don’t work for you, so I am going to tell you my mind that the National Assembly, particularly the Senate is seen as one of the fighting against success of the anti-corruption war and this image has to be worked on.”

El-Rufai further took a swipe on the legislators because their budget lacks transparency, adding: “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.”

Meanwhile, speaking on the NASS budget which has received so much criticism from members of the public in recent times, the governor argued that there was no transparency in its budget as nobody knows their budget and how much they are 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. I think you can do something about it to clear all the rumours and remove all the negative stories that are largely untrue”.