Like oil-producing areas, people living in ports areas also need a commission —Rep

The member representing Apapa Federal Constituency of Lagos State in the House of Representatives, Dr Adesola Adedayo Samuel, envisages a harmonious relationship between the executive and the legislature in the current dispensation in the bid to deliver quality service to the people. BOLA BADMUS brings the excerpts of the interview:

LOOKING at the prevailing situation across the country, in what area is the National Assembly going to be of help to the president in delivering his mandate to the people?

Our roles are complementary, the government stands on three tripods, you have the Legislature which is the most important; you have the executive and you have the judiciary. I believe that the 10th Assembly will work with the president, but they are not going to be a rubber stamp Assembly. There are areas where we can disagree even if we are of the same family, we can disagree on issues. And I trust President Bola Tinubu that when it comes to, if you have very good point, he is somebody who takes the best argument. He wouldn’t say that because this comes from him, he must be correct, he is a balanced president. And I’ve been saying this even before he was sworn in, even while he was campaigning that, out of all those candidates at that time, President Bola Tinubu is a very balanced personality. When you have a superior argument, he will support you, irrespective of where you come from.

What should be the priority of the 10th National Assembly?

I’m sure that the leadership will come out with an agenda. But I’m telling you, there is no agenda that is greater than our Constitution that says that we should make laws for the good governance, for peace and for security. So the Assembly is going to come up with a robust agenda, they are going to build on the 9th Assembly that was led by Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila. So you can expect an improvement because the 9th Assembly was an improvement on the 8th Assembly. So you will not be thinking too much if you expect the 10th Assembly to also do better.

On the constitution amendment process, which has been on for some time now, is the 10th Assembly going to continue with the exercise?

Yes, every good government, every good legislature will look at what their predecessors have done. And we also look at the current circumstances; you don’t throw away everything because it is a continuum. If you throw away their own, you also will leave there one day and they will throw away whatever you have been working on. So, if we have a situation where they have been making a bill that has not become a law, we will revisit it. For example, we are definitely going to revisit the Bill on people who want to travel out of the country. You can’t hold people ransom, if there is good government, if they have good salary, they will not leave. And I was telling some people, I said ‘Japa’ is not new. The Israelites left their homestead and went to Egypt. They ‘Japa’ to Egypt, but when situation improved, they came back. So we are going to revisit the Bill.

Are you considering a bill for the establishment of a Port Area Development Commission as proposed by your predecessor?

Government is a continuum, all the bills that my predecessor raised, even if they had not been passed, I will follow up on them, in the interest of my constituents. Apapa has ports. We also have communities that have ports all over the country, I think those communities should come together and do something and get something from the government. Like the commission that had been set up for the North-East, for the oil-producing areas, there should also be a commission that takes care of people that have ports across the whole country. I believe that apart from that, I come from an area where there are a lot of slums and government has to set up a committee or a programme to alleviate suffering in these slum areas. They are all over the country, it’s not only peculiar to Apapa, we have slums spread all over the country and I believe that the time has come for legislators to come together to sponsor bills across the geopolitical zones in respect of that.

What is your take on the Students’ Loan Bill signed into law by President Bola Tinubu?

I think we should allow its implementation, let’s see how it works first, if there are areas where we can modify it, the National Assembly will not hesitate to come back and look at it. When you have a programme, you cannot know the areas where you need amendments. We also amend the constitution. But let us give it a trial. It has worked in other countries, why can’t it work here? At least, if a student is desirable of going to school, it should not be because he does not have money. And I’m sure that that kind of loan is not for everybody, you won’t expect my children to take student loans even if I am not a legislator. I have been a medical doctor for 43years, I should be able to sponsor my children. Even if my mother were alive, my mother could not benefit from elderly stipends because he has a son who can actually take care of her, so all these things need to be fine tuned. I don’t want to believe that it will not work. Let us try and see whether it would work or not. There are students who want to go to school and they have no parents or have no support from the community.

How would you assess the steps taken by President Tinubu so far?

Very excellent steps, even those who didn’t vote for him are already applauding them. Any economist or any Nigerian, who loves this country, will know that the fuel subsidy payment is not in the interest of the masses. Yes, we are going to have some initial hiccups but, as we go on, they will roll out palliatives in the area of transportation, in supporting the farmers, in supporting the aged. All these things will come. You know the gains you are going to make in fuel subsidy removal is massive. It will go into infrastructure, it will go into transportation, it will go into loans, it will go into supporting the farmers. One thing I want us to do for him is to pray to God to give him good health.  He means well for Nigeria and you can see that in the way he had spread his key appointments. There is no area that he has left behind, even the Southeast. Already, we have somebody who is Chief of Naval Staff from the South-East, we have not had that for a long time. For eight years, the former president was there, the people from this region cried, nobody listened to them. But even without any urging, he made it possible. All of us cannot vote for one candidate; now, as I said, election is over, the thing that is next is governance.

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