Adeyemi: Ninth Assembly not a rubberstamp

Akeem Adeyemi, who represents Afijio/Oyo East/Oyo West/Atiba Constituency in the House of Representatives is a prince of the Oyo Kingdom. He is the Chairman of the House Committee on Telecommunication. In this interview with TONY AKOWE, the two-time legislator speaks on the decision of the government to close the nation’s border and others.

 

Many Nigerians see the 9th Assembly as a rubber stamp. Don’t you think so?

Those who habour that view were at the receiving end for seven months when the budget was not passed by the 8th Assembly.

History beckons. If by doing our job in earnest to see to the growth and development of the Nigerian people and their welfare is termed rubber stamp, I beg to disagree. Our duty is to support the executive in alleviating poverty and ensuring the growth of the economy of the nation.

We are not elected to frustrate or play politics with the lives of Nigerians. That is now to say that we are now rubber stamp. The era where somebody will tell you that the budget is missing is gone.

The era where for seven months, Nigerian budget is not passed, is that what you called not being rubber stamp? Passing the budget on time so that it can be implemented for the benefit of all Nigerians, for schools to be constructed on time, for health care delivery to be implemented speedily and for the economy to grow and debt paid in time and workers paid on time, is that what you call rubber stamp? As long as this is done for the growth of Nigeria and for the welfare of the people, I don’t have an apology being part of it.

There is security challenge in the country and people are not seeing what lawmakers are doing.

The security challenge is a global phenomenon. This same administration met security challenges in Arekpo in Lagos and this is a thing of the past now.

There are no more security challenges there. They met security challenges in Ikorodu, but that is now a thing of the past. Before this administration came on board, there was a bombing at the Police headquarters here in Abuja; parks and motor garages in Abuja were being bombed.

There has been nothing of such in the last five years. Before then, Kano was not safe, Kaduna was not safe. Right now, Boko Haram challenge has not only been depleted but has been moved to the borderline of Lake Chad.

We must appreciate the progress so far made and then encourage the executive to do more. In recent times, you were talking about herdsmen killings, but this has greatly reduced. Since the closure of the border, security in Nigeria has improved. Immigrants were the ones coming to do the killings.

Nigerians can have a disagreement, but I have never seen where an Ibadan man and an Oyo man will be fighting and killing themselves. But when foreigners came and mixed with us, they have no families here and have nothing to lose, they started these killings because of porous borders.

Since we closed the border, communal killings have reduced.  Talking about kidnapping, there is no way the police can secure every person individually, not even in America or the developed world.

The only thing is for the security agencies to intensify efforts and bring to book, the perpetrators of these crimes. While I commend the security agencies, I want to encourage them to do more. But as a Nigerian living in Nigeria, I can tell you boldly that the security situation has improved, but that does not mean we will not encourage them to do more.

The fact that we have not recorded any major incident recently does not mean we should relax. We should rather do more. That is why the federal government has given approval for the recruitment of more security personnel.

You are from a border community. How does the border closure affect your constituency?

I loved the Nigerian government decided to close the border. There has been lots of adulterated food being imported to the country and when you eat this food, you have kidney problem and series of health challenges.

How can a country like the Benin Republic be importing rice into their country and yet they are not eating those rice because they know the health implication.

They import the rice, collect the revenue on it and then take it to Nigeria. How do we improve agriculture if we allow other people to be bringing food into this country? How can we say our farmers should grow when we allow expired rice to be brought into the country.

The agricultural revolution embarked upon by previous administrations, what was the level of implementation and success. During the Obasanjo administration, we had a cassava revolution. Many farmers went to the farm, cultivated cassava, but where did that take us? Don’t forget that the mover of any policy always has high hope for the success of that policy.

During Jonathan’s administration, there was a demonstration of cassava bread. Nobody has seen one after that because of some factors that affected the policy. During the present Buhari administration, there is a rice revolution and anything that will make the policy succeed, we will do it.

We cannot be carrying out a rice revolution and yet open our borders for rice to be brought in again. You cannot probate and reprobate at the same time. Let us do this thing. Instead of farmers in Thailand to be smiling, let the farmers in my village and across the country smile by farming these rice for our consumption.

Later, we can think of exporting what is left. How can you be importing your main food? They accused us of being the poverty capital of the world.

When the poverty capital of the world has decided to closed its border, why are you crying? Why are you begging us to reopen the border? Do you want us to export poverty to you? From what is happening, you will know that even those people we are trying to assist are the ones bringing us down.

How will the early passage of budget affect governance?

I want Nigerians to know that the era of playing politics with the development and economic growth of Nigeria by the National Assembly is gone. This 9th Assembly is determined to partner the executive whenever it is necessary for development to take place.

For no reason whatsoever will the legislature, especially the National Assembly, be a hindrance to the progress of the country. Our job is to partner with the executive arm of government for the development of the nation. So, if the executive brings a budget to us now, it is our duty as a legislature to scrutinize the budget and we have done this in good time without compromising the principles of separation of power.

This was done so that Nigeria can be operating a January to December budget circle. What we have done is to show commitment and national interest; to show to the world that for once, Nigerians want to get things right so that we all can benefit from it.

I have high hope and expectations that having done our part as legislators and sent it back to the executive who is the executioners of the projects, they will do the needful. Don’t forget that we will also go on oversight of the projects approved in the budget.

We have done part A of our job by passing the budget and sending it back to the executive. When they are implementing the budget, we will still go along with them in over sighting the implementation of the budget.

How do you make the Gbajabiamila leadership so far?

I have always been a party man and luckily, the person that the party brought is a brother I loved so much. He has been one of the most experienced legislators Nigeria has ever had.

He has the highest number of motions and bills on the floor since 1999. Having him as a role model, coupled with what the party wanted, made my work easier. In 2015 when he narrowly lost by 5 votes, people like us did not desert him.

We believed in him and stood by him and in 2019, he won. This is the first time that the difference between the winner and the loser will be more than 200 votes. It showed the acceptability of Femi Gbajabiamila. Dogara won by five votes and Femi defeated Bago with over 200 votes.

That gladdens my heart that the project we stood for is acceptable to the generality of members of the House. You can see that is happening right now in the National Assembly. Everybody is working together irrespective of political parties.

During the budget defense, nobody was against the early passage of the budget, not even from the opposition. We have a clear vision that nation-building is a joint tax.

Are we going to see the crash of data rates soon as directed by the minister?

We are for the development of the industry. So any policy made by the executive will not only be looked into by the committee, but we must look at the implementation according to the rule of law.

The Minister has his own functions and power as stated in the constitution, the regulatory agency has its functions. Where there is an overlap of functions, the legislature steps in to set the records straight for the growth and development of the industry so that Nigerians will not be short-changed.

Read Also: Nasarawa Assembly passes 2020 budget of N108.4bn

 

At the same time, we must make sure the telecom does not run out of business. If they run out of business and leave the country, Nigeria will be losing employment opportunities and services rendered. Ultimately, our agenda is in the people’s interest. So, to say least, we are looking into the directive in the interest of both parties.

How do you feel about the APC losing Oyo State during the last general election?

It is a known fact that without the collaboration ad gang up of other parties, there is no way any other party can defeat the APC in Oyo state. The indices are clear.

A party that went into a national election and came out with nine House of Representatives members and two Senators remain a dominant party. But during the governorship election, the other parties teamed up.

This is not to say that there were no steps taken by the APC against the people’s wishes. But reconciliation is ongoing to reposition the party to overcome our electoral challenges.

I want to assure you that our party is on the ground and we will show the people the stuff we are made of and in future elections, we will make a comeback. The party you are celebrating today was kicked out before.

How will you assess the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde so far?

I believe that six month is still pretty too young to access a new government particularly in a state like Oyo. Some of his policies are good so far, some are not too good.

The prompt payment of workers’ salaries is commendable. But a situation where a state governor makes pronouncement without proper information, only to cancel it the following day is not good. A situation where the governor gets a certain percentage of every contract awarded leaves much to be desired.

For example, the Iseyin road contract was awarded by Ajomobi for N7 billion and the governor said he heard that if Ajimobi award contract, a percentage goes to the governor, another percentage to the wife of the governor, etc. At the end of the day, he reviewed the contract to about N9 billion.

Look at what happened on the circular road which is a joint project of experts to develop the first capital of the Western Region. Unfortunately for our governor, he thought the road was being sponsored by the state governor.

He went there and said he has canceled the contract and they told him you can’t cancel the contract because it is not a government contract. They told him we have gone this far, this is a PPP arrangement.

Will you give us back our money? Our governor need to be more matured, wait to be properly briefed and should not always rush to the press because it is not good for a governor to say one thing today and rescind it tomorrow. A governor who talks from two sides of the mouth will not be taken seriously.

 

You moved a motion on the dormant immigration office in Oyo town. Can you expatiate on why you moved the motion?

Nigeria Immigration Service, in its own wisdom of expansion and operation exigencies, decided to have an office in Oyo town an this was approved and funds were provided for it.

They came to Oyo town and did the construction and the building is ready for use. What is left right now is for staff and equipment to be moved there to make it functional.

The building has been completed since October 2018. As the representative of the people of the area, I have to get the attention of the government and the leadership of the Immigration Service to make the place functional. I am using this opportunity to draw the attention of the service to the need to make the office functional.

As a federal lawmaker, have you made any previous attempt to get to the Immigration Service?

The community has sent emissaries to them. The Alaafin of Oyo has also exchanged messages with them on the need to put the office into use. The constitutional way of tabling the matter by the people is through the National Assembly. After this, I will follow it with lobbying.