Fuel subsidy a scam, not in interest of masses —Bamidele

The lawmaker representing Ekiti Central senatorial district, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele in this interview tells ‘YOMI AYELESO, the race for the presiding officers ahead of the June 13 date for the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the fuel subsidy argument, among other issues in the polity.

 

A few days to the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the zoning of the principal officers by the APC is yet to be accepted by some lawmakers-elect. Are you not worried that the 2015 scenario might repeat itself?

I thank you for your interest in our matters and when I say ‘our matters,’ it concerns me just as it concerns each and every one of you because it’s a national project. The 10th Senate, to me, humbly promises to be a much more organised National Assembly, let me put it that way, than people might imagine. There is no doubt in the fact that the party has taken a decision and it’s a decision that cannot be said to have gone well with everybody or everyone involved. In every democracy. The minority will always have their say while the majority will have their way. As far as I am concerned, I believe what is playing out is a situation where some interests that are consider not being carried along in the decision made by the party are protesting which is normal; Protestation is an integral aspect of democracy itself.

What the APC has done in zoning positions to different political zones is not an exclusive preserve of the party. It’s not anything unusual, it’s not anything unheard of. It’s consistent with global best practice in advance democracy around the world. As a matter of fact, in the United States, the executive would not only be interested in who leads the Senate. The elected vice-president is actually the president of the Senate to let you know that the extent to which even though the constitution emphasised the needs for separation of powers, yet the same constitution emphasises the needs for check and balances among the three arms of government.  Back home in Nigeria, definitely even the minority parties will still do their zoning because principal offices also exist for minority parties.

Out of the 10 principal positions, four of them will go to the minority; which are the minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip. As for me, the fact that our party has come up with a zoning formula and some people are not happy about it, is still part of the game.

What is most important is the ability and sincerity of the leadership of the party and of the President and as the leader of the party to ensure proper dialogue among different stakeholders and negotiate where it’s necessary to ensure that no geo-political zone is left behind and no strong or relevant stakeholder is left behind and the party is in the process of doing that.

There have been a number of meetings and I know more meetings will still hold before the inauguration. The whole essence of this is to bring all stakeholders to a round table and to further review this situation and explain things to ourselves. Nobody is going to take chances when it comes to having the right leadership for the National Assembly. But, it’s a process and I think the zoning itself, the protest and everything going on are all part of the process, but we will arrive at somewhere.

 

President Bola Tinubu  is just a few days in the saddle, but Nigerians are complaining and grumbling about the subsidy removal and the hike in price of fuel. What is your take on this and how do you think the government can quickly address the pains Nigerians are passing through at the moment?

Well, I congratulate Bola Ahmed Tinubu that this decision was taken ahead of his resumption of office. Tinubu as the the new president did not take this decision. The 9th Assembly working with the former president (Muhammadu Buhari) had passed the 2023 budget, and in that budget, provisions were only made for oil or fuel subsidy until June of 2023. In other words, whether Tinubu talked about it or not, in our budget, they would have be no money, not one naira to fund fuel subsidy beyond June of 2023. So all the president has done was to bring this issue to the fore by letting Nigerians know not just that fuel subsidy will be removed, but by sincerely telling people fuel subsidy was gone because that’s the truth.

What is left for our president and its administration is to be able to show capacity, show a scientific understanding of what is to be done as way forward; there must be some crucial approach to this. Fuel subsidy was a scam. It was not in the interest of the masses of our country. It was not the people who were benefiting from this so-called fuel subsidy. It was just a cabal of oil marketers and big players of the oil and gas industry who were profiting from this whole thing. And these are the same people behind even some of these protests that are going on; they will fund this protest.

 

Specifically, what do you expect the Federal Government to be doing or should  do to address the prevalent situation in the interest of the masses?

What is most important is that government must be ready to descend from an Olympia height to the level of explaining things to the people so that they can understand. I know Nigerians will understand with this new administration if they are made to understand what is actually going on, and I know the government is in the process of doing this.

There is an manner of engagements going on with the stakeholders; engagements with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the organised labour circle. There are engagements with the civil society, there are engagement with the top echelon of the forth estate of the realm, the media and all those who need to know so that we can all work together in letting Nigerians know that at the end of the day,  all these artificial scarcity been created by oil marketers, all these attempts to take advantage of this development by making the pump price much higher than what we can afford are things that will come down. They are going down and by the law of velocity, whatever goes up must come down. And I think it’s a matter of a few days or weeks, the market will stabilize and Nigeria will be the better for it.

 

As a prominent son of Ekiti State and a serving lawmaker, how will you access Governor Biodun Oyebanji administration using his six points agenda in the last 200 days?

I will say so far so good; he has demonstrated capacity in building consensus with different stakeholders, he has demonstrated capacity in ensuring that he did not inherit the liability of previous administration, either in terms of public perception or in terms of engagement with stakeholders across board in Ekiti. He has not only inherited the strength of the previous administrations he has refused to inherit the negative vibes that people might have against them and I think all of these are coming together for him.

Personally, I’m impressed with what we have seen. He has shown that he understands what it takes to relate with the people as a leader, he has shown that he understands what it takes to govern even with the limited resources that are available, defining the priorities of the people, paying workers their salaries, ensuring that pensioners lives are not left in a misery and also ensuring that minimally within what is available, the infrastructural development within the state does not stop. So for me, all of these can only go to show that he understands what it takes to govern and by the grace of God, we will give him all the support that he needs.

 

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Oyedepo, Enenche, others not fake for supporting Obi – Primate Ayodele 
The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has cautioned Nigerians from referring to Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Paul Enenche, and…

WEEK BRIEF: Tinubu Presidency, fuel subsidy saga and NLC war drums  
On May 29, Bola Ahmed Tinubu became the 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was sworn in as President of Nigeria by…

Why I sacked Auxiliary as PMS boss — Makinde   
Following the clash of interest that ensued between the former Chairman of disciplinary committee of the Park Management System in…

I met my wife virgin at 21 — Isreal DMW   
Superstar Davido’s aide, Isreal Afeare aka Isreal DMW, has responded to critics who were trolling him over his…

The fuel subsidy issue   
DURING his inauguration speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that the era of…

SERIE A: Victor Osimhen becomes first African to win Capocannoniere award     
In a historic achievement Napoli striker Victor Osimhen has become the first African footballer to…