Mind your business - State Governors tell Dogara

chika ebuzor

May 5, 2017 8:28 AM

Barkindo also asked Dogara to explain to Nigerians how the National Assembly spends its N115 billion annual budget.

House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara in Kaduna state

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has warned the House of Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara to stop attacking Governors.

The Head, Media and Public Affairs at NGF Secretariat, Abulrazaque Barkindo said Dogara should focus on the work that needs to be done in the House.

Barkindo issued the statement on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Abuja.

He also revealed that Nigerian Governors are signatories to the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) initiative.

Barkindo also revealed that the initiative is aimed at improving governance and promoting transparency in governance.

He said “It may interest the speaker to note that at the last Governors Forum meeting of April 17, governors agreed to sign into the Open Governance Partnership (OGP).’’

“The key indices of the agreement include fiscal transparency, anti-corruption, access to information and citizen engagement."

Speaking on the face-off between the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, Barkindo said “The governor had earlier demanded that the Speaker should come clean on the expenditures of the National Assembly but instead Dogara published N346.57 as his January take-home.

“Of course, governors are human and can therefore not be adjudged to be all perfect, but the governorship institution is an integral part of this democracy, just as the House of Representatives

“If the Speaker continues in this path of disparaging governors, he may ultimately endanger this same democratic process that brought him national prominence.”

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“Kaduna state has also signed and many more governors, including Mohammed Ibrahim, are positively disposed to it.

“This in summary means that the era of using governors as punching bags to score cheap political points is over,” he added.

chika ebuzor