With early passage of 2020 budget, executive has no reason not to deliver – Bamisile

Femi Bamisile is a member of House of Representatives, representing Gboyin, Emure and Ekiti East Federal Constituency and the Chairman, House Committee on FERMA. In this encounter with Daniel Adeleye, the lawmaker explains why the process of budgeting should involve both executive and legislature, amongst other issues. Excerpts

Recently, the National Assembly passed year 2020 Appropriation Bill, and for the first time since 1999, Nigeria is going to achieve January to December budget cycle. How does it feel?

First of all, I am going to appreciate the joint leadership of the 9th National Assembly, and most especially the executive arm of government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, initiating a process that has been long overdue in this country. About 20 years ago people were yearning for the best practice that is being replicated in all parts of sphere, which is budget being passed from January to December. And by the grace of God the 9th Assembly has been able to achieve that extraordinary feat in the country. For me, it’s a glorious path that I am part of that historic process led by our amiable Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. It’s been a thing of joy to know that the process of governance will actually start from the time the President pens the budget anytime from January. So for me, it’s been a great one.

Speaking at a seminar recently, you were of opinion that the process of budgeting should be all inclusive; why do you think so?

Clearly, even after that particular section of the seminar, the former Senator Jonathan Zwingina met me and said, young man, all that you are agitated for, we did it in the year 2000/2001. But the then President Olusegun Obasanjo thought it wasn’t the business of the legislature to be part of process of budgeting. And I totally disagree. Just like I said, there is no reason and no part of this world where the executive will sit, using the technocrats who reside permanently in Abuja to determine which roads need to be done in my town in Ekiti State. I think the best practice would be, for them, during the process of budgeting, to call the legislators (Senator, Rep member), from various constituencies or senatorial districts and tell them the roads they want to do in their state. Then, the elected representatives’ members of that particular state would be able to sit together and agree on prioritising the roads they need. But for the executive to just keep on projects, recycling the same roads for ten years, that’s an abuse of office. And that’s what we are saying. For us as lawmakers, we have told them that come 2021 budget, things should be done differently. We are going to enact the process of being part of the process starting from January/ February 2020 when the budget is being enacted by the president. The process of 2021 will commence and we are going to be part of it.

Now that the 2020 budget has been passed by the National Assembly, what’s your expectation on the side of the executive in terms of implementation?

We have taken the bulk of the job straight to the executive. We have done our own part by passing it. And by tinkering with the entire budget, we make sure that we did our part of it and now that the budget has been passed, the bulk of the work has been sent back to the executive to make sure that it is being executed for the good governance of Nigerians. So, everybody is waiting and yearning. And there is no reason now that federal government will not do what’s expected of them regarding the project and developmental agenda for the country. So that’s exactly what am expected and people of Nigeria will start to smile from the month of March or April.

Many federal highways across the country are in deplorable conditions, as a Chairman, House Committee on FERMA, what’s your committee doing to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians by fixing those roads that are death traps?

My committee has gone round the entire nation by using members’ committee to attend different areas to actually see first-hand the level of decay or decadence these roads had become. And I can tell you that with all the information that we gathered and put together working with the FERMA itself, we know that 75 percent of our roads are bad. It doesn’t matter what anybody says about that. And the most important thing is that we’ve set template for ourselves; we have started with the budget of 2020. And what do we do, the budget that was sent to us from the executive, myself and my senate counterpart on FERMA, we made case for it by writing a letter to the executive and stated that if they want the roads of this country to be done, the meagre resources that has accrued to FERMA should be increased. And thank God, the additional 10 billion naira was added to the initial budget of the agency. What we are saying is at least take us to a particular level where we can start this festive period to attend to those areas that are difficult.

According to a report, Nigerian parliaments (Senate and House of Representatives) has the highest number of standing committees and yet the country is not better for it like those countries that have fewer legislative standing committees. How would you react to this?

It wasn’t like that in the time past; the National Assembly had fewer committees. But as time went on, the bureaucracy, the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Study (NILDS), advised that the importance of having more committees is to actually broaden the spectrum. So, when you have different committees that attend to various ministries, there is likelihood such ministries will not have total control of any committee and that is the essence of having a larger committee particularly in the current National Assembly. Again looking at the manner and attitude the Speaker won the election into office, the election where he garnered over 200 votes; how do you throw away most of people that assisted you to get to office; is about creation of a larger home to affect the good work of the legislative arm of government?

Recently, the Edo State House of Assembly declared some members’ seats vacant due to the crisis that has been rocking that legislative chamber. A similar situation is also going on in the Bauchi State House of Assembly. How do you think Nigerians can put an end to all these rigmaroles in the legislative arm of government?

It’s quite unfortunate that this is happening in our political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), but I want to tell you that there is an explicit clear mandate in the constitution that if you’re elected into an office and you abstain from that office for a period of 90 days, your seat will be declared vacant. So, even when you’re fighting war, you need to understand the basic and the bible that guides us, which is the constitution. You can’t be fighting and violate the constitution. This is my clear stance on the matter; outside that, we are in the same political party, but what we are talking about is good governance for the people whose mandate we are holding. So, for me as a person, I think the leadership has actually goofed in all these things. The war that’s going on between the two leaders in the state should have not degenerated to this. But if someone has gone to court and proved that some people were elected into office and abstained for a period of 90 days, the person is right to have done what he did. So for me, how to come out from this entangled crisis is something for us all to think of because it is now left to the judiciary to interpret what the law says. It’s quite unfortunate!