Rt. Hon Abiodun Mohammed Fadeyi is the Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly who also represents Ona-Ara state constituency in the House. In this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, he speaks about the legislature, the controversy around local government autonomy, among other issues.
How would you rate the contribution of the legislative arm of government to the development of democracy since 1999?
We have three arms of government, the judiciary, the executive and the legislative arms of government, you will agree with me that military incursion has affected democratic rule in Nigeria but with the return of democracy in 1999 till date, it has been a smooth sail so to say, and it is obvious that during the military interregnum, the legislative arm of government is usually the target one, so for me from 1999 till date, appraising the legislative arm of government, I will say we have not done too bad, but there is room for improvement because with our 26 years of democracy we are still growing. Certainly, we will get there one day, we cannot compare our legislative arm of government, whether at the state or federal level with what we have in America where democracy has been on for over 100 years. However my conclusion is that the legislative arm of government is still learning. Although, so many political observers in Nigeria have observed that the legislative arm of government is still wobbling, I know we can do better and we will get there one day.
What do you mean when you agreed that the legislative arm has been wobbling?
The rate of turnover in legislative arm is high. In the US, for instance, you have a situation where legislators are returned to serve as many terms as possible, some spending more than 50 years. The former President of United States, Joe Biden was in the senate for close to 50 years before he became president, so what makes a good legislator is the rate of return of the legislator. If a legislator stays in the parliament for like 15 to 20 years we will see better quality from such legislator compared to someone that is coming in as a fresher. It becomes very difficult to understand the technicality of legislating, for a new legislator it will take two to three years for him or her to begin to understand the detail of legislative process and at that point another round of politics comes in. Some have argued that legislators should be given right of first refusal if they want to come back, a leaf from what is happening in Lagos State some legislators in the state have been there for like three to four terms and you can see the better quality of legislation in their parliament. However, in Oyo state, the Speaker is spending his third term and we can see the quality because of the years he has spent in the state parliament.
Don’t you think the politics of zoning that we practise around here will not allow legislators to spend many terms/years in office?
That is why I said our democracy, when you look at the legislative arm of government, is still evolving, it is still a process, a time will come when all those things will be put aside. Yes, others too want to benefit from the largesse, but the most important thing is for the legislator to do the needful when he gets to the parliament, I know some parliamentarians, even at the National Assembly, who don’t really contribute because they don’t understand the technicality of legislating, but when somebody comes often, he or she would have mastered the rudiment. When I was a special assistant if the National Assembly between 2011 and 2015, I knew some members who when they came in, they didn’t know their time table and their schedules, drafting of a motion became problem for them, not to talk of a bill and the primary responsibility of a legislator is to make good laws for the good governance of the state or a nation. So when a new person comes in and doesn’t know what they are supposed to do, it becomes a problem. On the problem of zoning, one day we will pass that level.
The legislative arm of government, to many people, is just a conduit pipe to siphon money or a place for people to make money, what is your reaction to this kind of belief?
The argument on that is that our people need to read more, and we need to talk more on governance in Nigeria. This is because the level of understanding of governance for some of us is still very low. We have the executive, the legislative and the judiciary arms of government and there is what we called separation of powers. The executive cannot do certain things without the approval of the legislative arm of government, the judiciary is there to interpret the laws, but the executive is saddled with the responsibility of executing policies in the area of infrastructural development and economy and what have you. There is no way you can do without the legislative arm of government, whether we are praticising parliamentary system of government or the presidential system. Assuming we are running a parliamentary system of government, the executive will come from the parliament, the Prime Minister will come from the parliament. For example, the issue of budgeting which is a critical document for the executive, the executive cannot spend money without the approval of the house, whether at the state level or at the federal level. A case at hand is that of Rivers state where the Supreme Court asked the governor of that state to go and represent his budget to the state assembly. So if the legislative arm is not that important, the Supreme Court wouldn’t have said that. So our people rather need to understand the workings of the legislature, it is not a conduit pipe and we shouldn’t make that mistake. Before we went of Easter break, the Oyo State House of Assembly passed a motion on looking at the laws we have passed in the past and we came up with the law that created Amotekun, to revalidate the law and see whether the law has been functioning the way it should. The executive cannot create the security outfit on its own without the state law, an agency of a government cannot be created without the law of the state. So for me the legislative arm of government has done tremendously well, but we can still do better.
The Oyo State House of Assembly is viewed as an appendage of the executive that whatever the governor brings before it has always been approved, what can you say to this?
The yorubas will say “oni’lu kii fe ki o tu”, which literarily means the owner of a town will not want it deserted. We are not dummies and we are not rubber stamp legislators. Assuming one is a legislator and there is a project ongoing in his or her constituency that would benefit the entire people of the constituency, for example, my own constituency, the road construction from Olorunsogo to Dagbolu in Ogun state, the governor has graciously approved. It is a dual carriage and it is a federal government road, but the governor has gone into it to see that the road is done and I am from Ona-Ara and the governor brings the request for loan for the infrastructural development, will I turn it down? Definitely I won’t turn it down. Most of the requests that the governor of Oyo state has brought into the house are not for payment of salaries. Most the requests are for infrastructural development, and we are seeing the result. Oyo state as of today is the third contributor of IGR to the federation account, after Lagos and Rivers state and this is as a result of the conducive business environment in the state and this is equally as a result of infrastructural development. We talked about the recently commissioned independent power plant, we are talking about roads linking towns and villages. That is the reason why executive brings request and we know it will not be used to service salary or other emoluments, but for infrastructural development, I will rubber stamp it because it is for the benefit of our people. So our people need to understand that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. They just brought to my notice a bridge that has collapsed in my area, I am going to move a motion on it, I will visit first and begin to lobby the executive to reconstruct it, so when they put the request forward to the house, should I now say we are not ready?
The state assembly has oversight function over local government and the Supreme Court has made a pronouncement over local government administration but several months after the judgment, it is yet to be implemented, what can you say to this?
The Oyo state House of assembly has been performing its constitutional role in terms of oversight of various local governments in the state, we recently passed the budgets of the local government areas, meaning that they submit all their projects here, which is according to the constitution and we approved them. On the issue of the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy, it is better we put the question to the APC-led administration, to ask them if they are serious about what they intend to do because the constitution is clear. Without amending the constitution to allow for the scrapping of joint account committee, that judgment will be lying there just like that. When the judgment came up, the state governor in his wisdom set up a committee in Oyo state which I was a part of to represent the house to look at the judgment and see how we can adapt it. I must say that in as much as we want to agree to what the apex court has done but there is a lacuna in that judgment. Section 162(3) of the constitution deals with the situation and without amending this section, that judgment will be very difficult to implement because what is really happening is that the APC-led government is playing to the gallery. Everything is not about politics, realistically, there is nothing wrong in local government autonomy, is it not for the development of our various local governments? But you shouldn’t just come and make a pronouncement, there are processes for everything. Now a judgment has been made, eight months down the line but there is no implementation, whose fault? Oyo state is ready to implement the judgment but the federal government is not ready. Who is deceiving who? We need to understand the technicality behind some of these things, that judgment to me is political, I stand to be corrected because If you really want to give autonomy to the local government, all the president needed to do is to call the state governors together and explain to them. We should not forget that the process of amending the section of the constitution will still have to come to the House of Assembly during constitutional review as they will need two-third of the state Houses of Assembly to amend the constitution. What I am saying in essence is that for local government autonomy to work, there must be sincerity of purpose.
As a second term member of the House, how have the people of Ona-Ara benefited from your representation?
Like I said that I just got a report about a collapsed bridge in my area, I am going to move a motion to draw the attention of the executive to it, that is the primary responsibility for which we are here, making laws. I have come up with some laws that are benefitting, I laid the bill for eradication of open defecation in Oyo State and my people are enjoying it because UNICEF took it over and they have been providing toilets, boreholes around the constituency. I have been reaching out to my people in terms of empowerment, but what is most important to me is employment of our people, not so many of them understand that but my priority is to see my people in government offices and other areas. Through my office I have been able to secure more than 300 jobs for my people in Ona-Ara. Apart from that, we are building a block of classroom that we will be commissioning very soon, we have done repairs of boreholes, but the most important thing is to get engaged with them, even outside government work we have been able to secure employment for them.
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