Rt. Hon. Mayowa Akinfolarin is a former Deputy Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly. He also represented Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo/Odigbo federal constituency in the House of Representatives. In this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, he speaks about efforts of President Bola Tinubu at developing Nigeria, the legislature governance in Ondo State.
The emergence of Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa as the governor of Ondo State has thrown up arguments and permutations on the zone that should produce the next governor since he cannot seek re-election constitutionally, what is your take on the development?
Saying that the present governor cannot run for eight years is a constitutional matter that requires interpretation by the Supreme Court. I strongly believe that there is a need for the people to test what the constitution says, if there is an interpretation of the Supreme Court that says he cannot run for eight years, then it is not for me to say maybe governorship should be retained in the south or go to Central or North. The major thing is everybody is looking for good governance, everybody is looking for someone that can give them a good lease of life. It all depends on the prevailing situation and availability of the right aspirant that earns the confidence of the electorate. I also contested and I am from the south, who says I cannot contest again? So it is anybody’s game.
So you don’t believe in zoning the governorship to any senatorial district of the state?
I am not talking about zoning, we are talking about if the present governor cannot contest again, if it is automatic that governorship should stay in the south, but I am saying that it is a game that is open, if we have a formidable and good candidate from the south, he or she will take it, if it is from the north or the central he will take it, I am from the south and I contested the last time and I don’t think there is anything that says I cannot recontest, it is not something that one can say categorically that this is the way it should go. Politics is dynamic, so it can go anyway, but we are not there yet, it all depends on the interpretation of the court
As a chieftain of the APC and someone that also contested the ticket of the party, in what specific areas do you think the governor should intervene on the lives of the people of the state?
I spoke to him sometimes ago and I made it clear certain things he needs to do. I advised him that he should do some signature projects that would outlive him, some projects that will take care of the party and the electorate. There are some projects that he would want to use to immortalize his name. So as much as possible, he must be fair to all manners of people that he will come across. My advice is for anybody, either the present governor or whoever that happens to be at the helms of affairs is to have the fear of God and should know that people are suffering and you need to take care of their needs. Yes, you need to build roads, schools, hospitals but there are some projects that are welfare in nature which will take care of the immediate needs of the people, that will take away the hardship being faced maybe as a result of some of the policies of government and some of these policies are necessary because the fear of not implementing them is what is causing problems for us now. So if we have some of these policies that are affecting the people in a negative manner, what a responsible government should do is to look for a way of reducing the hardship
Talking about policies, President Bola Tinubu’s presidency has been implementing some policies that seem to be making life difficult for the people, how do you think the federal government can handle this?
I believe some of the policies made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are what successive government before him had been running away from because they didn’t have the capacity and the courage to face the crises that would come out it. For example, for over 20 years all the refineries in this country have been comatose, none of them is working, people will go to the Central Bank collect dollars and sit in their rooms making millions of naira at the expense of the good people of Nigeria, but someone just came and say we must put a stop to these. Yes, it might not be easy, people are talking of increase in pump price of petrol, if we don’t do this thing, somehow the situation will continue and it is a way of saying tactically and strategically we are legalising corruption. But this is a man with courage, who knows that people will complain but the only thing that is constant in life is change, the inability of a leader not to take decision is what will affect the society in a negative manner, a good leader must be courageous enough to take decision, although it might bring hardship but the aftermath of the decision is wat is important if a leader fears to take decision because people will complain that means he is not fit to be a leader, this is a man that inherited an administration with a lot of flaws, a lot of shortcomings and he is not complaining, he is just forging ahead doing what he thinks will favour the country, I think the man should be applauded for having the courage to take some difficult and dangerous decisions, dangerous in the sense that no president who is not sure of himself will take such risk, he is taking risk, some people will say let me wait, till after getting my second term before I will do these things, the man is a selfless person, who is not thinking of what he wants to get, I am not saying he is a perfect person. Talking about fuel prices, gradually the thing is going down, it used to be over 1000 naira and now it is over 800 naira, dollar is also coming down gradually. When you take very strategic decisions like that people are bound to complain, but your ability to weather the storm is what is important, with the way things are going at the end of the day we would still have cause to celebrate Tinubu.
You claimed that we will have cause to celebrate Tinubu, but for how long should the people wait and considering the manner this government is looking for money, particularly with the controversial Tax Reform Bill?
The issue of tax reform is a different thing; this is something that is going to work in favour of the downtrodden, the tax reform is a policy that will make sure that each state workers hard to get more revenue, people are only looking at the VAT aspect, but the less privileged will pay less tax, it is a kind of reform or reorganization, but because of some areas that some of our brothers in the North considered not favourable, like the issue of VAT which is just an element of the reform, the real reform is for the downtrodden. However, for the contentious areas, I think with right discussion and deliberation, the thing would be resolved, but the tax reform is something that is laudable and all of us as Nigerian should support.
As a former lawmaker, how would you rate the 10th Assembly’s performance, particularly its contributions to the development of the country?
Presently, the National Assembly is doing well, the lawmakers are making good laws. We have a very vibrant and functional National Assembly, from the contributions on the floors, we have seen situations where the Senate or the House of Representatives adjourn because of heated debate. They are doing exactly what is expected of them, the budget process has no crisis, in terms of being watchdog to the executive, I don’t see them as being docile.
How would you describe the belief of the people that the National Assembly is just a conduit pipe to syphon the resources of the country without much contribution?
It is either people with that belief arrived at it out of ignorance and they don’t know the working of government, even in civilized government and democracy, in America, Britain and everywhere, the fact that you are a different arm of government does not mean you should fight other arms, there are areas of collaboration. The president cannot spend a kobo without being passed by the legislature.
The problem in this country is that they pay unnecessary attention to the activities of the legislators, that is why people will be shouting about the only car they acquire and that is very inconsequential to the kind of leakages we have in this country and the people are not talking about them. Before one can become a House of Representatives member, minimum, you will spend over N500 million. When I was in the House of Representatives as running cost and other things, they paid us N7.5 million, I could not save N500, 000 out of the money because every week before I got home you will see constituents doing marriage, burials, one function or the other, so every weekend I got home I spend minimum of N3 million and there are four weeks in a month. So many times people think these lawmakers are enjoying, but they live on loan and that is why you see immediately they are out of office they find it difficult to survive because the money they earned as they are collecting it the people outside there are collecting it from them and it is these same people that will be complaining that the money they earn is too much. I have seen so many of those that left the house or the Senate two years ago who cannot take care of their needs, they cannot take care of their families. Some of the responsibilities we put on legislators’ heads in Nigeria don’t happen in other climes, in South Africa, hardly will you know your representative because it is the party they vote for and not the personality.
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