Nobody Can Prevent me From Seeing President Buhari......
People Around President Buhari Leaked My Memo
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai on Friday spoke on his
faceoff with the National Assembly, insisting that the legislature should
publish its budgets.
Speaking with State House correspondents after observing the
Jumaat prayer with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
El-Rufai added that Speaker Yakubu Dogara is his kid brother and that he has no
problems with him.
He said “There is nothing like falling out with the National
Assembly; first of all I am a state governor and do not have any direct
relationship with the national assembly.
“They don’t legislate for me specifically. I don’t have any
relationship that is negative or positive with the National Assembly.
“The National Assembly is the legislature of the federation
and we have very good relations with the legislators.
“There are senators from my state and there are
representatives and I meet regularly with those of them that are ready to meet
with me. Here, beside me are Senators Abu Ibrahim and Marafa.
“If I have problem with the National Assembly they will not
be standing beside me. So there is no problem.
“The issue is what I did last Friday was to ask the
leadership of the national Assembly to fulfil the promise that they made
themselves to publish the details of their budget and asking for that is my
duty as a citizen. Every Nigerian is entitled to ask that question.
“It is in the National Assembly’s interest to actually
publish it because there are rumours of bogus amounts of money that they are
getting which I do not believe is true.
“I think that the best way to kill that rumour is to publish
the details of their budget but some people took exception to that call for
transparency and I have no apologies because as citizens we have the right to
demand for transparency for how resources are being spent.
“This one hundred billion or so budget of the National
Assembly is money belonging to the people of Nigeria and every Nigerian has the
right to ask and I am exercising that right as a citizen not even as a
governor.
“I have no problem with the Speaker. He is my kid brother,
he respects me and I respect him, I have no problem with the Senate President,
we worked together in the past and I am confident that we will work together in
the future in the interest of Nigeria.
“But demand for accountability is not a problem and should
not be construed to be undermining or any such thing. It is only someone who
has something to hide that will do things like that and I don’t believe that
the National Assembly has things to hide”.
By Wale Odunsi
