The Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Abdulrazak Atunwa recently spoke to journalists in Ilorin on a wide range of both state and national issues. Hammed Shittu was there. Excerpts

What is your take on the current insecurity in the country?

It is saddening that we continue to experience insecurity to the level we do in Nigeria. It's a problem for the entire country to tackle. The security and stability of the country is dependent on us and we must all work together to ensure we counter it, But they have to be done within the context of sincerity. The federal government must have a plan to engage all of us irrespective of the party we belong to. It is not an attack on the federal government but on Nigerians. The FG should ensure that all stakeholders are carried along and views are considered from the local to the national level on how to go about it. Either we accept we have a problem and we come together and discuss it or we continue deceiving ourselves and the attack will continue. What are the agitations of these people? Can they be addressed? These things cannot exist in a vacuum; their communities and personalities are involved and we need to get to the root and the symptoms of the attack. We can't deal with the symptoms with just aerial bombardment.

Are you still in support of financial autonomy for state legislatures?

Financial autonomy for state legislatures is included in the harmonised version of the constitution amendment passed to the state assemblies. We will take our stock and vote. But I am confident as one of the major proponents of it, that we will get the required 2/3 of the state assemblies and pass it.

Some governors are complaining that they are not getting what they are supposed to get from the federation account, yet the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the country was not broke. How do you view this?

This is what also baffles the mind. Clearly, Nigeria is not working, not functioning. The level of poverty in this country is such that a person lives on less than N200 a day and yet, we have a minister of finance who says we are not broke, that everything is working well. The Minister of National Planning has also fallen into that trap of dealing with pettiness and bringing himself and his office low. Kwara State used to be 33 out of 36 states in terms of federal allocation. That was how bad it was. Now, we are number 36 out of 36. If he wants to claim self- righteousness that he is from Kwara, he should address why Kwara should be cheated and placed number 36 in terms of federal allocation. Is it as a result of population, literacy index, hospital bed index, land mass, why? Again in Nigeria, we have fallen into a position where people just deal with petty issue, including the president, because daily, we do not see any cogent economic policy coming from the federal government.

What should be the expectations of Nigerians as regards the constitutional amendment? Has the harmonised one been forwarded to Kwara Assembly?

Few weeks ago, the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria was invited to the National Assembly and we all went including myself to the senate building of the national assembly where the senate president and the speaker were present and they formally transmitted the harmonised version of the constitution amendment act which was passed by both houses of parliament. It therefore means the ball is now in the court of the state houses of assembly to pass it by the necessary majority. We as conference of speakers held a meeting and accepted that we should give it accelerated and speedy consideration so that within the shortest possible time, all the state houses of assembly can return their results to the national assembly shortly after it commences session. So, the report has been given to us but I wouldn't want to preempt or prejudice members of the various houses of assembly on their views on certain issues. But it covers a wide range of issues.

What is your reaction to the Muslim-Muslim, Christian-Christian ticket that has dominated our national discuss lately?

There are two things. Personally I don't believe the country should be further divided into a multiplicity or facet because we are getting into a stage in this country where we segregate ourselves by one criteria or the other even the more. And then added to that is religion. We have divided and continue to divide ourselves into multiplicity of facets which are man-made and artificial. But we should concern ourselves with merit. But nonetheless, I am a politician and however much I believe, I am right that we should not continue to divide ourselves. I am not insensitive to the majority who have fallen for that division. And in order not to create uproar, until such time we can change the system, I think any political party will do well to cater for the various sensibilities and sensitivities as well as it can.

What is your take on the recent withdrawal of security details of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal following his defection to APC?

Firstly, I will commend the speaker for his action in joining the All Progressives Congress. We learnt that his police security had been withdrawn from him. For me, this is most unfortunate, improper and unconstitutional. He, as we speak now, remains the speaker of the House of Representatives and therefore entitled to the appurtenances of that office regardless of party affiliation. The issue whether is he entitled to defect to another party with or without consequence is a matter solely to be interpreted by the court and the rules are clear that once he is the speaker, he should remain the speaker and have all the necessary security details. He has not been impeached or removed and no court has declared the seat vacant. For me, this is an act of gross rascality by the federal government and particularly by the Inspector General of Police.

How will you react to the ongoing perceived attacks by the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Suleiman Abubakar on the APC Government of Kwara state and Bukola Saraki?

He is a minister for the entire nation and I do not think it is proper of him to be attacking or discussing personalities. I cannot fathom a develop system in a developed world where a national minister would be discussing and attacking personalities. I asked myself doesn't this minister have any work to do. The issue is this, you know me as the speaker here; as lowly as I am in the political ladder, I simply don't discuss personalities. This country has issues to deal with. We are number six in the world in terms of oil export and tenth in terms of export of natural gas and yet we are economically regressing. 80% of our revenue comes from oil and gas and yet we have no adequate infrastructure to boast of and our economic growth is stunted largely due to corruption and lack of transparency. The transparency international report, that is the corruption perception index of 2013/14 rates Nigeria as top 25 most corrupt countries. Our budgetary provision and processes is zero in terms of openness and transparency. The World Bank by its latest report tells us that about 80% of the revenue of government which is basically oil and gas benefits less than one per cent of the population. That means Nigeria is very rich but the masses are poverty- stricken. These are issues the minister should be facing. Our human development index is rated by the word bank on our economy as 156 out of 187. It means that we are at the bottom in terms of human development. We have a population of about 160 million living well below poverty line. These are issues directly related to planning and growing our economy which the minister should concern himself with. But rather than do that, he busies himself in discussing Saraki dynasty, not even Kwara Politics but Ilorin politics. He is so obsessed that he forgets infrastructural development, economic growth, planning, health and all those matters that affect the people of this country which he should be coordinating with other ministers. Perhaps, he should tell the President to create a Ministry for Saraki Matters where he can be posted to, to really function well. My view is let's get away in dealing with personalities in this country; face our job to serve the people.

Even, the minister had said within the first few months in the job, he had attracted 60 federal employments to Kwara State and asked people to challenge immediate past Minister of Sport, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi if he attracted one throughout his over three years stay despite his attachment to Bukola Saraki. This inquisition by the minister was laughable and I simply don't want to get involved in such. It is completely improper for the minister to descend to that level. Of whose concern is it in this nation as to how many jobs you provide to certain individuals. We have a population of over 160 million and I am sure we have more than 80 million unemployed in this country; now, giving 60 people employment pales into insignificance. Bolaji Abdullahi would have done his bit for the people of the state and country a whole, but I didn't see him coming out to outline how many employments or boreholes he has benefitted people with. We all play our part because that is why we are elected into office. So, if he thinks that deserves a commendation, then he need to sit and rethink what his job is. His job is not to give 60 people in Ilorin out of the many capital cities in the country jobs. He is grossly mistaken. His job is bigger than putting few boreholes in one or two places. It is to look after Nigeria as a whole.

How best do you think all the anti-graft agencies should handle cases of corrupt politicians, should there be stiffer penalties?

It is embarrassing to say the least that we have become as corrupt as we are. All of it boils down to leadership. From the top downwards, this government has witnessed an increment in the indices of corruption. The EFCC, ICPC, Police among others, have clearly been incapable of addressing the issues of corruption largely because most of those who engage in it are in high offices. Any of these agencies, even with the best desire in the world wishes to address corruption and tackle people in high offices. They are incapacitated because those people lobby the powers that be to stop them from performing their function. Until we get a president that has zero tolerance for corruption, we will not get anywhere. When we have a president that says corruption is mere stealing, then we are in trouble in this country and until we get rid of that president and replace him with one that has zero tolerance for corruption, the EFCC of this world will not get anywhere even with the best intention.