Few months to the 2018 governorship election in Osun State, your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), is enmeshed in internal crisis, raising questions about its chances of winning the next governorship in a state it has ruled for eight years. What is your reaction to this?
You see, that is the rumour that the main opposition party in Osun State is carrying all about; that there is a crisis in the APC. They think that this unfounded rumour might help in brightening the chances of their party in the forthcoming September 22, 2018 governorship election and other elections in 2019. But that is not possible. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing like crisis in Osun State APC, because we see ourselves as one family.
Although, there can be little disagreements at times, which we normally resolve as fast as possible, that is not to say that the party is engulfed in crisis. As far as Osun State is concerned today, APC is still the most peaceful party, unlike in the main opposition party where they have two factions with two factional state chairmen and two party secretariats. There is nothing like such in the APC and I am using this medium to call on the good people of Osun State to make sure that they ensure continuity of good governance by casting their vote for the APC candidate in the coming governorship election.
You are a two-term member of the National Assembly, which has always been a butt of jokes for the way it delays the passage of budgets. Do you have any defence to the accusations that the National Assembly is to blame for failing to pass the 2018 budget, which was submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2017?
Well, let me just summarise the answer to your question by saying that the major cause of the delay in passing the budget is the late appearance of some of the government parastatals and agencies to defend the budgets of their ministries. As I talk to you now, some agencies are yet to come and defend their budgets. An example is that of EFCC, which was mentioned some weeks ago at the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Even those that have come didn’t come on time.
Secondly, it will not speak well of us as lawmakers to just rush into passing the budget, leaving behind a lot of lapses which may later affect the country. You see, Nigerians need to understand the process that goes into a budget passage. When a budget is presented to the National Assembly by the executive, it is always good for us to study the budget thoroughly and then invite various government agencies, parastatals and ministries for the defence of their various ministries’ budget before the various committees of both chambers of the National Assembly. Later, aggregate positions, defences and reviews will be collated and debated upon at the committee of the Whole House before passing it into law for presidential assent.
Another issue that has generated different reactions from Nigerians is the impending face-off between the executive and the legislature over the Electoral Act bill 2018, which the president declined to assent. As an individual, do you think the order of election sequence really matters?
To me, it is not the issue of whether the presidential election should come first or last in any general election that really matters, what is most important is how do we have a free, fair and credible elections that will be acceptable to the electorate. I still want to believe that God will show us the way on what to do about it at the appropriate time. In fact, series of meetings have been going on about the bill and I believe that very soon, the matter shall be resolved amicably.
You are almost seven years in office as the member representing Iwo/Ayedire/Olaoluwa Federal Constituency; would you say the constituents have felt your impact?
I thank God that I have been able to do many things for the constituency, most especially in the area of youth empowerment. I am happy that I was given an opportunity in the last seven years to represent the good people of Iwo/Ayedire/Olaoluwa Federal Constituency. What has been paramount to me was how to ensure that the youths were empowered and I have been able to achieve this by organising empowerment programmes and building a skill acquisition centre for them. I discovered that a great number of youths are unemployed and this could increase the number of people who are into various kinds of crime.
So far, God has also helped me to influence the employment of a number of them into Federal Government agencies such as the Civil Defence, Customs, Immigration and teaching jobs, while some others were trained in various vocations and given take-off grants to set up business. I can tell you that last year alone, we were able to train 2,000 people at the skill acquisition centre, which I built.
Apart from empowering the youths and making sure they got jobs, I also believe strongly in the education of children and youths and this has been behind the drive to facilitate the building of many schools in the constituency. For example, a 55-classroom block was built at the L.A. School, Iwo while ICT centres and a laboratory were also constructed in some of the schools.
I have also been instrumental to the sinking of boreholes across the length and breadth of the Federal Constituency, because I discovered that people have potable water challenges in most of the inner villages in my constituency.
It is often argued that lawmaking, appropriation and oversight are the major functions of a legislator, with most Nigerians criticising some of you for not sponsoring any bill in four years.
That is the issue about representation; if all you do is sponsor bills and not take care of the people, they will criticise you and if you facilitate infrastructural and human capital development only, they will still criticise. In any case, one must strike a balance and I can say that I have been able to do that. I have sponsored many motions for the betterment of my constituency, Osun State and Nigeria as a whole, while I have also supported meaningful motions sponsored on the floor of the House by my colleagues.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola is rounding off his two terms of eight years in office, how would you score him in terms of achievements?
Really, we are very lucky to have Governor Rauf Aregbesola as the governor of Osun State in the last seven years. Honestly, his achievements are unparalleled. If you look at his achievements in various areas, constructing roads and empowering the youths; they are tremendous.
Apart from that, Aregbosola has also done well in the area of education whereby all the dilapidated schools in Osun State have now been replaced with modern day school structures. The introduction of Opon Imo and free school feeding for students are not left out. Kudos should also be given to Aregbesola in the area of agriculture. For example, as the country is now clamouring for economic diversification away from oil, Aregbesola made sure he trained several numbers of youths in modern day agricultural practice where many of them were sponsored to various overseas countries for further trainings in agriculture.
Aregbesola, to me, is trying to leave a legacy in Osun State but people will not value it now until he leaves office, because the legacy the governor is leaving behind in terms of building schools, road constructions and other things is unrivalled and I want to believe that in the nearest future, people will actually eulogise him for what he has done. You can see that most of the programmes Governor Aregbesola is doing in Osun State are now being copied by the Federal Government. Take for instance, the Home-grown School Feeding Programme of the Federal Government is an idea borrowed from Osun State.
Left to me, if there is an opportunity for Aregbesola to continue for a third term, I would have preferred it, because he has actually done well and we are proud of him. If you seek the opinion of people living outside Osun; most of them want to come down here to copy from the legacy Governor Aregbesola is leaving behind. But since our constitution stipulates only two terms, I want to appeal to the people of Osun State to ensure that the next person to be elected as governor should be a person who believes in continuity, because if such a person should believe in continuity, the laudable programmes of Aregbesola will continue.
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