Date: 2016-07-25

Last week you held a long session with the Minister of Finance and she talked about challenges in the economy, do you have hope of this economy making a rebound any time soon? For the first time in 17 years, funds for capital budgets have risen from lower than N300 billion to about N500bn, and unlike previous budgets, this budget will be implemented fully and Nigerians will soon start seeing changes. There is a bright light at the end of this tunnel.

The senate will always improve on its oversight and quickly intervene to make the economy buoyant again. I also want to tell you that the savings this government has made through staff audits and other measures, will also go to finance the budget of the National Assembly and other parastatals that suffered in the past as a result of leakages.

Last Thursday, the Senate President made a move that suggested he might be wooing his opponents to his camp, what do you think? The changes in committee composition is routine, but I want to also assure you that the Senate president is now at peace with his opponents. The Unity Forum is now ready to work with the Senate leadership and all our differences have been settled.

There was a motion against diversion of food items meant for the Internally Displaced People (IDP’s) from the north east which you also contributed. Can you speak more on this?

The motion we moved became necessary because of the situation in Maiduguri when we visited the area with the Senate president. Before the visit I have being in constant touch with my constituents, the situation in the areas recently recaptured by the armed forces is not good. These people were not able to earn a living, they could not access their farms and that was one out of many. We met in a situation in Bama, don't forget we have IDP's in Dikwa, Ngala, Kondoga, Marte, Mungono,Kalabaleke,Goza, Abadan, Magumeri, people are trapped in these areas due to hunger, food insecurity even though the challenges of Boko Haram are no longer there. Children have become the worse hit, malnutrition has set in and if nothing is done urgently, these children will grow up with various forms of permanent disability and the government as well as the society would have to live with it unfortunately. That would affect the economy. The government's efforts are not enough, because they are being overstretched and that is why we are calling for more professional help. We are saying the children need high nutrition supplements so that they would be revived as soon as possible. That is why we felt we should bring this to the attention of the senate. To call on the government and the international community to take this matter even more serious than it is presently. They should address this as another phase of war. I have said it in the past that after winning the war against insurgents we have to again win the war against hunger, poverty and malnutrition. I am happy that the motion was unanimously carried.

The National Assembly is in the process of amending the 1999 constitution, what is in there for the benefit of the North east?

Before the constitution amendment which we intend to present holistically, we have pushed for the establishment of the North East Development Commission which is in advanced stage and is unanimous; we are just going to address a few minor issues before its final passage. We hope that once the Bill is passed it would be immediately signed into law by the President.

This would provide an institutional framework that would address the challenges in the north east caused by the activities of Boko Haram for over six years. We again thank God for the support the Bill has received in other to quickly address these challenges.

To the constitution I must say we are working on it, the north east has become a peculiar problem and constitutionally we need to fashion out ways of addressing these peculiarities. But most importantly we need to address the present challenges, we have the resources and the land, we have oil prospects, solid minerals and we have hoping that the constitutional review will afford us the opportunity to look inwards and see what we can do.

Would you support immunity for the presiding officers of the National Assembly?

I have not changed my position I opposed it at our retreat in Lagos and I stand by it. I objected immunity for all principal and presiding officers. If immunity should be given, it should be for all members of the parliament not one amongst equals. I understand that in Niger, Cameron and other democracies including Africa, immunity is for members of the parliament generally. So I do not subscribe to this selective immunity for only presiding officers.

The leadership of the National Assembly is not like that of executive and Judiciary. In the judiciary the appointment of Chief Justice of Nigeria is by seniority mostly, in the executive the President is elected as president by all Nigerians for a certain period and it is okay for him to have immunity, even at that I have a problem against criminal acts by whoever the person is. If you are in office and committed any criminal act and there are over whelming evidences against you beyound reasonable doubt I think you should be prosecuted whether he is in, or out of office. I support immunity for civil cases, so that people should not take the president to court over frivorous issues. So for criminal cases I do not support immunity even now. I am against immunity and criminal act by any Nigerian.

What of pension for presiding officers?

personally do not support it even if I am one of them. You can give the president who is elected for a period of time pension after serving and I do not have a problem with it.

I do not support pension for presiding officers, however I am of the opinion that if you served as member of the parliament for up to twenty years or the minimum years required to earn pension in the public service, then you should be a pensioner. Not for somebody who would just come and serve one term, such person should just go with his or her severance.

There is so much poverty in the land and Nigerians are becoming understandably inpatient, what should be done in the interim?

Government has mapped out some safety nets such as the N500b captured in the 2016 budget, employment for teachers, empowerment programmes and many others. The CBN governor made some analysis and that was cogent. We discovered that it takes a minimum of 12 weeks for rice imported from Thailand to arrive Nigeria, meanwhile it takes 14 weeks for you to plant and harvest rice in Nigeria, and it is our believe that it is better to encourage Nigerian farmers to farm rice. This strategy has being adopted. This government people should not forget is just one year old, but it has being task with responsibility fixing a country that has being battered by previous governments including the military, although the worse was the 16 years of PDP. It will take time for the change to take proper shape , people have to be patient and keep supporting this government. Government on their part must continue to carry the people along, the transparency must continue but I think the fundamental problem of this government and the country is the problem of communication. I believe the people need to be more educated, they should know the workings of government, they should know that there is global economic recession, let us know that we now have challenges in the internal generated revenue. People should know the expenditure profile of government; people should know that we are in difficult times now. We should know that we need to ensure, we should consume what we produce south like the south asian experience who had to look inwards. We cannot continue with the way we were going in the past where tooth pick was imported. In the past chewing stick was transported from the south east to the north, what has happened to that, why should the price of garri and plantain go up? Why should price of rice go up in Ebonyi? I do not think there is anywhere in Nigeria you cannot farm rice, even in our desert states of Borno, Yobe , Adamawa, Jigawa and the rests. We can produce what we need to consume, We have produced cotton for manufacture of clothing in the past and we can do it again.

What is the implication of lack of full budget implementation?

In the history of this country both military and 16 years of PDP mismanagement I do not think there was any year the budget was implemented up to 70 percent even when we were earning more. Nigerians should understand that every kobo today is being accounted for. Those who were stealing our money are now afraid because they know the law will catch up with them. There is now accountability and transparency, but like I said government needs to communicate with the people. Nigerians and patient and resilient people, they will understand. When the prices of oil went up and government wanted to remove subsidy they resisted it because they knew that money was there to pay for the subsidy, but when they knew that there was no money to pay for the subsidy any longer they said okay subsidy should go because they knew there was no money to pay for it. Labour union said they will not agree, but the Nigerian people didn’t listen to them. They told the NLC to leave them alone. So Nigerians are honest, realistic and understanding people, all government needs to do is to put the analysis before them and they will understand.