Lawmaker representing Ajeromi Ifelodun Federal Constituency, Lagos State, in the House of Representatives, Kalejaiye Adeboye, speaks to DANIEL AYANTOYE about the country’s constitution and the call for a national conference, among other issues
Many believe that the 10th National Assembly like the immediate past may end up as a rubber stamp to the executive. What is your view about this perception?
What gives people such an impression is probably the emergence of leadership. It is erroneously believed that once the executive has a hand in the emergence of the officers of the legislative arm, they will become a rubber stamp but the truth of the matter is that all over the world, there is no place where parliamentary leadership emergence goes without some level of lobbying.
As independent as the United States of America is, the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly always has active influences which translates to government influences. Republicans want to have the leadership and the Democrats want to have the leadership. Nobody is allowed to run a democracy anyhow. We are running a guided democracy and unless you run a guided democracy, you will not have a sustainable country.
So, the synergy between the National Assembly and the executive is a sine qua non that nobody can fault. I don’t believe that the assertion is correct because the relationship does not remove the independence of the legislative arm. For instance, if you listened to the news yesterday (Tuesday), you would hear how much the National Assembly cried about the devaluation of the naira and there had been a lot of criticism about governance.
As a lawmaker, I have not spared the executive in terms of urging them to make life more meaningful to the average Nigerian. However, the executive arm is there, and we will do our jobs as the legislature. We are supposed to legislate and make laws that can be very useful and help in reshaping the destiny of the country. Law-making is instrumental to having a dynamic, vibrant, economically durable, and sustainable country.
The National Assembly has been silent since the allegation of certificate forgery against President Bola Tinubu. Don’t you think it is high time the lawmakers spoke on the matter?
There is a need to understand that in a matter before the court, laws of the land prohibit anybody from making a pronouncement on it. Our law and order in the National Assembly prohibits us from adjudicating over a matter that is before the law court. Don’t forget that the National Assembly is a configuration of all the political parties and ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. So, who shall we support?
If the Assembly supports the position of Atiku, will they not accuse it of bias? If it (Assembly) says Tinubu didn’t forget the certificate, will they not say it’s an APC agenda? For us, it is unethical, unparliamentary, and unethical to make a pronouncement on a case before the court.
There have been allegations of job racketeering in federal ministries, departments, and agencies which many believe is an embarrassment to the country. As a member of the Reps committee investigating it, what can be done to eradicate the menace?
Yes, as a member of the ad-hoc committee that was set up by the National Assembly to look at that problem. I will tell you that we have sat and the report will be presented. We found a lot of abnormalities in the various ministries, agencies, and parastatals. Until that report is out, it is prejudiced of me to start making judgments, but I must admit that what we found out is that jobs were been sold out by some of them and they do not advertise when necessary. It is a statement of fact but I think the National Assembly will make its decision known very shortly.
What is the cause of this menace?
The cause is that every Nigerian wants to beat the law. The law was made to be obeyed but people circumvented it. And when this is done, except there are sanctions and punishment for people who circumvent the law, such an act (job racketeering) will continue. This is because everybody wants to circumvent the law. The executive, legislature, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies will continue to do their best but we solicit the cooperation of Nigerians because those circumventing the laws are Nigerians.
There was a report that the House of Representatives committee investigating the problem has been engaging in extortion of money from heads of the MDAs. How true is this and what is your take on it? Do you see the investigation achieving its purpose and bringing perpetrators to book especially since nothing was done by previous committees?
I am not the Chairman of the committee, I am just a member. So, I am not in a position to speak on that, but all I know is that there are procedures in everything. You lay your report before the House, and the House will pass a resolution on it before it is passed to the executive arm for implementation. We cannot implement it. Sometimes you think nothing was done but it’s not like that. It’s just because the procedures are not fully followed by those who are supposed to complete the circle. It’s about everybody doing their bit. If I do mine and you do yours, then the cycle will be completed. But if I do mine and you don’t do yours, what do you expect me to do?
There have been calls for a new constitution because of some perceived deficiencies in the current one. What is your take on it?
You can change the constitution 1,000 times. Britain does not have a rigid constitution, they have written and unwritten laws. They believe in treaties, conventions, and others. The laws are very skeletal and yet they keep a sane society because people do sane things. You don’t say because there is no law then you can go ahead to cut off someone’s head. You are expected to know that morally, it is not right. It is not about changing it. You can change it a thousand times, it doesn’t change the society.
There must be a revolution of the mind. Every mind of Nigerians must be revolutionised. Everybody must be determined to lift this country. We cannot continue to be pessimistic and not patriotic and expect things to work well for us. Yes, times are hard but why must we feel hopeless? Anyone who is hopeless and not proud of his country is not fit to lead. We must imbibe into ourselves the nationalistic tendencies as a people for us to move forward. Manners no longer fall from heaven; the days of manners falling from heaven are over.
Are you saying there is no need for President Tinubu to call for a national confab?
What is the essence of a national confab? The national confab is like an aspect of a government because whatever you pass in there must be passed to the National Assembly. So, why don’t you encourage a vibrant National Assembly? One that is more nationalistic and more concerned about the suffering of the people so that all of those reforms that make you convene a confab and at the end still pass through the National Assembly and then they (Assembly) will pass them (reforms) to the executive. For instance, you agree at the national confab that the National Assembly should be scrapped and you expect them (the National Assembly) to approve the resolution to scrap itself. It is not going to work.
People have suggested that they should go back to the Oronsaye committee report. If there is a need to revisit that National Confab report, let the new government pick up the document, dissect it, and implement what is still relevant, because some of the things you passed 10 years ago may not be relevant again in this time and age.
Nigerians are currently facing hard times due to the increase in the cost of living. However, some are saying that government officials, including federal lawmakers, are influencing the allocation of huge resources to themselves. Don’t you think there is a need for a cut in the take-home pay of members of the National Assembly to save the economy?
I’m sorry to say that paupers don’t come to the National Assembly. Everybody here is a person of substance that has certain levels of livelihood. Even running through the election should show you that it is not easy for anybody to find himself in the National Assembly and I can tell you that what I receive is not commensurate to what I earn when I am not here and it applies to most people here. All those stories that journalists are reporting are mere speculations.
If I tell you that the allowances that are paid to us for accommodation for four years cannot rent accommodation for one year in Abuja, and I swear to God, my creator, that this is exactly the situation. The money is deductible from your salary every month. If we mention our salary, they will say our allowance is too much. What allowance? I visit my constituency in Lagos every weekend to see my constituents. The amount I spend on travelling, if you remove it from my allowance, has already been reduced to half.
You are not even paid constituency allowance, only constituency project. Nobody gives you money to set up a constituency office. It is mandatory by law that you must have a constituency office. Setting up my constituency office didn’t cost me less than N8m. Ask, is my allowance N8m? Yet I’m not complaining because I know that Nigerians are suffering. While I’m not advocating that the money is small or big, I want the public to remove the erroneous impression that the legislature receives huge pay.
No matter how bad the society is, you will not bring in fools. You still have to bring in sane people, intellectuals, and people with experience, ideas, and vision to put the country in order. You don’t pick those kinds of quality people from the streets. When I was coming to the National Assembly, I thought I would meet people who would be sleeping in the chambers and people who were not ready for governance, but the calibre of people I met here are people of diverse experiences.
They are all people of intellectuals with great capacity and quality. Gone are the days when you see bench warmers in the National Assembly. We struggle with filing and having your motions listed. I have moved two motions since I resumed and I still have about six motions pending, struggling to be listed. I have two bills outstanding that have not been listed. The way you are struggling to get your motions and bills listed, 360 people are also struggling. So, the competition is very high. The calibre of people is very profound. The quality of the 10th Assembly, I don’t know, but I saw what the Assembly did and I doff my hat for them.
The persistent FG-Labour faceoff has been a thing of great concern. What do you think can be done to bring an end to the disagreement?
Have we ever thought about increasing productivity? We still depend on a mono-economy. We cannot grow if we don’t diversify. A nation that cannot feed itself will suffer abject poverty.
But the level of insecurity has worsened to the extent that bandits don’t allow people to go to their farms. What can be done in this regard?
The major cause of insecurity is poverty. If we banish poverty, there will be no insecurity. We need productivity; we need to boost the economy, patriotism and maintaining good self-esteem are all things that will take us out of the situation we found ourselves.
The House of Reps has called on the CBN to put measures in place to stop the free fall of the naira. Do you think the naira can regain its strength now that it is not even among the strongest 20 currencies in Africa?
If you don’t boost your local economy, your naira cannot rise. Look at the days of the groundnut pyramid, the cocoa industry of the West, the rubber plantation of the Mid-West, the palm oil. I was in Malaysia about 15 years ago; I visited the library where they displayed the palm tree, and palm kernel that was brought from Nigeria. Today, Malaysia is one of the top exporters of palm oil, and we are not rated in any class. But those were what we were known for before.
Our major problem today is the discovery of crude oil. It came and turned everyone into a petrochemical contractor. We abandoned the farms and embraced modernisation and the advent of religion took away a lot. Before, you couldn’t embezzle community money, they would invoke Ogun or Sango to kill you instantly, but now, we continue to swear by the Bible and Quran, because the days of the new covenant that Jesus Christ brought are here and we are living under the grace and anybody can embezzle money and get away with it.
Are you advocating that they should be swearing with Ogun, Sango, and other traditional deities?
I don’t mind, but are they active? They have gone to sleep. For me, let us work hard. Nobody is talking about the fact that hard work pays. What you see in the young ones now is Yahoo and Yahoo Plus. So, we are in trouble. But there is hope for Nigeria. We must also appreciate the fact that God is a Nigerian because no matter how difficult we may think our problem is, God has endowed us with the coping capability.
Twenty-eight states attracted zero foreign investment in the last six months. This is not a good indicator of employment and the economy. Do you think state governors are not doing enough to attract foreign investments?
In a state that is not secure, what will foreigners do there? One of the things attracting foreign investment is security and provision of basic infrastructure.