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Nigerian MPs 'no to bribes'
06/07/2007 13:17 - (SA)
Lagos - The head of Nigeria's senate has warned ministerial nominees not to use bribes to get parliamentarians to approve their appointments, say reports.
David Mark was quoted as saying: "No nominee is to present any gift to any senator either as a senator himself or the senate as a whole."
President Umaru Yar'Adua presented the upper legislative chamber with a list of 34 ministerial nominees on Thursday for approval according to the constitution.
In the past, there had been allegations of bribery against Nigeria's MPs by cabinet ministers who allegedly induced them to either approve their nominations or the ministerial budget.
Fabian Osuji, a former education minister under ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, revealed in 2004 that he bribed the senate's appropriation committee to approve his ministry's budget.
Also in 2003, Nasir El-Rufai, Obasanjo's minister in charge of the federal capital, Abuja, alleged that senators asked for bribe to approve his ministerial nomination.
Nigeria scored a mere 2.2 in the corruption perception index of the global coalition Transparency International in 2006, where 10 represented a clean society and zero represented a corrupt one.
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