Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has submitted a bill to Kaduna State House of Assembly to ensure the autonomy of the legislative arm of government and to enable it to function more effectively and efficiently.
Speaking to newsmen after his remarks at the ongoing 8th edition of the National and State Assembly Service Commission conference holding in Kaduna, the governor said that “we must preserve our democracy, work consciously to develop it. And part of that development is granting it financial autonomy, we fully support it. Even before this bill.”
El-Rufai who reiterated that his administration believes in doing what is right noted that the executive arm of government has been supporting the legislature, adding that “Kaduna State House of Assembly will tell you that we have great respect for their financial autonomy and solvency.”
He described the agitation for the granting of financial autonomy to state Houses of Assembly as “a welcome development across the country. Our bill is going to the house today and I hope it will be passed very quickly so that we can put in place the necessary framework as soon as possible.”
The governor said that governments “must develop the legislature and we can only do that through better funding and sharing of ideas like this conference will enable all the state assembly service commissions to come and brainstorm and come up with better ways to support the legislature.”
“So, I call on my fellow governors not to be scared of anything but to do what is right and things will work better in the interest of everyone. We are elected to serve the public and not to protect our personal interests,” he noted.
According to him, the Kaduna State government believes in doing what is right, we believe in experimenting, we believe in looking for solutions. If something is not working very well, look for a solution, try the solution and if it doesn’t work, adjust it.
El-Rufai reiterated that “governments are there to serve people, nothing is personal, nothing is permanent. So, one should always collaborate with others to find solutions to problems and if those solutions don’t work, we improve on them. We believe in that strongly, we have taken many chances, we have experimented with many things and most of them have worked.”