Omolori faces fresh hurdles as National Assembly Clerk

The new Clerk of the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani Omolori, is facing challenges.

Omolori resumed as the substantive Clerk of the National Assembly last Monday having been appointed in acting capacity in April 2016.

The Guardian learnt that among many issues now threatening the Clerk’s job is the pressure on him to eliminate the age-long corruption and indiscipline ‎among very senior members of the Legislature.

The pressure, according to findings, had arisen from the urgent need to bring the National Assembly’s operations into conformity with President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption stance.

Omolori, who now serves as chief accounting officer of the National Assembly, is also being charged by‎ key stakeholders in the Assembly, including middle-level members of the bureaucracy, to reverse alleged trend of racketeering that had previously damaged the image of the Assembly in the past.

Those, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, lamented that there was hardly any act of corruption carried out in the National Assembly that had not been facilitated by bureaucrats.

The source said: “If you can just look back in time‎ at the chain of ugly events in the National Assembly, you will find that we in the bureaucracy had played active roles in sinking the ship of the National Assembly, particularly in terms of corruption.

“The infamous issue of bribery and corruption that rocked the House of Representatives’ committee that investigated fuel subsidy mess in 2012 ‎was made possible because the bureaucrat who was to promote accountability and transparency in that committee compromised his roles.”

“Even the 2004 ‘bribe for budget’ scandal that rocked the tenure of Adolphus Wabara as Senate President ‎was equally facilitated by a National Assembly bureaucrat.”
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Another civil servant in the Assembly, who spoke on other challenges that had affected the smooth running of the Assembly which Omolori has to tackle, said: “Omolori’s immediate challenge is to enthrone a fresh administrative strategy which would eliminate apprehension from within the National Assembly bureaucracy by motivating and stimulating good working relationship between management and members of staff as well as the political leadership of the Assembly.

“The new CNA would equally face the challenge of eliminating the alleged deep-seated corruption among the bureaucrats in the National Assembly by initiating a functional and sustainable committee aimed at instilling discipline, hard work, diligence and accountability‎ to redeem the institution’s image.

The new Clerk is also being confronted with the task of forging harmonious working relationship with the political leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly.