The member representing Ibadan SouthWest constituency II in the Oyo state House of Assembly, Hon. Oluwafemi Fowokanmi Adebayo, in this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, speaks on the legislature as an arm of government, the challenges facing it and his activities as a lawmaker in the state.
You have been in the Oyo state House of Assembly for over six years, how would you describe the experience?
One has to start by thanking God because for one to be chosen to represent his people is a privilege, it is not anybody’s right because everybody is qualified as it is written that many are called but few are chosen, so to be privileged to be among the chosen ones, one should thank God, it is God that determines who leads and who does not. My experience as a lawmaker in the Oyo state house of assembly in the past six years has been fantastic, it is like when a student is undergoing first degree, second degree and Ph.D. so the stage I am now, I will say I am in the second-degree stage because I have passed through my first term and we have acquired many experience and knowledge regarding legislative tasks, duties and assignments that will enable one to function maximally in any bigger assignment relating to lawmaking, be it in the state or national assignment, I have learnt a lot, it is like one is building the foundation so that structure can be built on the foundation later on in life.
What are you going to say to the claims by some people that the legislative arm is just a conduit pipe to syphon money without adding any value to the populace?
If truly we are going to practise democracy, the legislative arm of government is essential because we serve as a check to the executive at the same time we make law for the state. When good laws are not made the nation will be in chaos, distress and anarchy will be anywhere. The legislative arm is doing a wonderful job, but the way we practise our politics in Nigeria is different from the way it should be practised, the way the executive influences the decisions of the legislature in Nigeria is too obvious for the masses to know and this ought not to be, they are supposed to be a separate arm entirely that function according to their stipulated duties outlined for them by the constitution. However, but sometimes, too often, the legislative arm dances to the tune of the executive. For instance, what is going on in Rivers state with the declaration of state of emergency by the president, there were complaints everywhere about it but the way the National Assembly just approved it. This showed that there is an influence somewhere, but as time goes on, as we are maturing in our democratic practice, we will get over it, every nation experienced such in the past, so in the stage of growth as time goes on the independence will be fully enjoyed as it is being done in the developed world, but presently there is the need to have a functional legislative arm of government that can truly check the executive.
There seems to be relative peace in the Oyo state House of Assembly unlike when they change Speakers at will, what is responsible for this relative peace?
When the governor of a state is functioning appropriately, meeting the needs of the people, it makes the jobs of the state lawmakers easier because the government is like a channel that should provide peace, security and others for the people and the governor is trying in that area. The next thing is for the assembly to support the governor. Looking round now, one will find out that the development rate in the state in the last six years under Governor Seyi Makinde cannot be compared with any that we have had in the past, so there should not be any need for the lawmakers making contrary decisions to attack the government that may cause the House to be divided. Also, the leader we have, our able Speaker is operating with the kind of wisdom that is excellent, he has been able to harmonise the house, with the opposition party members and the ruling party members. We are in one accord because the leadership is carrying everyone along, there is no division, everybody is equal. So if we are looking for the reason we have peace in the house it is because we have a leader that is able to unite the members irrespective of their political affiliation and we are also working in line with what the state needs.
The belief in town is that the PDP-dominated house cannot oppose the governor on anything because the members were handpicked by Governor Seyi Makinde, what can you say to this?
We have had like two or three proposals from the executive that were rejected. There was a bill by the Civil Service Commission where they want to join all the civil service loan facilities to be under the commission’s, loan facilities like the TESCOM, SUBEB and so on but the house returned the bill to the executive. We said it should be separated as it used to be and the bill was silent. Secondly, early last year, on the issue of the circular road, the executive brought a request for a N150 billion loan and we discovered that it was not in the budget, we returned it that they should provide for it in budget amendment, they did that, we asked them to do the amendment as supplementary budget and that was done after three months. It is people that are not used to the workings of the house that will think that because the members are not fighting and not throwing chairs they are not opposing the executive, we do it maturely according to the constitution. When we discovered that something that is not according to the law is brought to the house, we call the executive to make amendment in a mature way, the house is not sleeping, we are working accordingly.
Talking about the influence of the executive over the legislative arm, how do you think this can be corrected?
Nigerian democracy is passing through the growth process, it won’t be done overnight, we are just having 26 years of uninterrupted democracy, as time goes on maturity will come with the growth, that is how it has been in other developed world. The more we practise democracy, the better we become. So as we progress we will get to a point where there will not be room for anybody that does not have anything upstairs to say he wants to represent or lead the people in any level of governance, so as time goes on, the autonomy that the legislature needs to function will come, as the executive is manipulating it, dragging and doing calculation, it will get to a point that the system will fix itself, a leader will come and enforce it like what is about to happen now with the local government autonomy that the federal government is trying to enforce that their allocations should be coming directly to them so that the grassroots can truly feel the impact of governance. When the local government is freed from the executive that is how every arm of the government will be free.
As a former chairman of the House Committee on Education and presently the chairman of House Committee on Tertiary Education, how would you rate the standard of education in the state?
On education in Oyo state, the present administration is scoring high mark with consideration it gives to education, both the basic and the tertiary. This is the first time that LAUTECH will not experience industrial strike in six years, since this administration came on board. Before, the university was known for strike and it was being managed by two states that were in the same party, the APC, now that the institution is solely owned by Oyo state it is functioning right, students can easily calculate that they will spend four years and it won’t exceed. Secondly, this administration has been able to upgrade the Alayande College of Education to a University status and it is offering degree courses, before now it was affiliated to one University in Ekiti state and it was stressful for the students to obtain degree but now it is easy. The present administration has also fully taken over the running of the Abiola Ajimobi Technical University, which was being previously run like a private university, in the next few months, the school will be enjoying everything from the government. The government has also introduced free education in the basic education level where people are not allowed to pay anything and the children of the poor can attend school without any fear. Free textbooks and notebooks were given by this administration. What is in the plan this year is the renovation of all the schools across the state, it is already in the budget. Also, this is the first government in the state that will be allocating over 20 percent of the budget to education in line with the UNESCO standard. This is also the first time a government would employ over 20,000 teachers within six years. To me, the present administration is doing greatly in the education sector, had it been that was how the past administrations had handled education the level of decay we have in basic education would not have been there.
As a member of the House in the last six years, what are your personal achievements in lawmaking and others that you think have affected your constituency positively?
I have contributed to making of so many laws and motions and I have also been able to do my best to affect the Ibadan South West constituency II. Naturally, a lawmaker should not be laying claims to construction of roads or buildings for the masses because our duty is to make law, but the way we found our politics, people expect you to show to them what you were able to do. During my first term in office, we were able to organise three different empowerment programmes for our people. We also have a skill acquisition centre where people were trained in many skills like fashion designing, makeup, hair dressing, barbing while equipment were provided for them. Also, towards the end of the first term, I was able to sink seven boreholes for communities that lack water. I also singlehandedly repaired the Bolumole community bridge with millions of naira. We have also moved many motions, which include the motion on ‘Urgent need to check unapproved collection of fees and levy from public schools”. When the government newly banned collection of fees, some teachers were still collecting such through the PTA, so we had to raise a motion to stop it. We also moved the motion on the need for the accreditation of some courses in the state-owned tertiary institution. There was also a motion on the need to evacuate illegal kiosks and shanties on the highway and public school fences. We also had the motion on the need for reintroduction of adult and non-formal education in the state.
The former administration had stopped all the centres where they were having adult education with a claim that there was no money, I moved the motion that the state government should repower the ministry of education to have at least one centre per local government and the state government approved it and now they are having two centres per local government. I also brought the Education Trust Fund amendment bill to make the board get more sources of income to cater for the education development of the state.
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