The 10th National Assembly is expected to be inaugurated in June. Ahead of the event, federal lawmakers itching to emerge as Presiding Officers in both chambers of Parliament are leaving nothing to chance, even as the party national secretariat is yet to unveil zoning of the offices. In this interview with TAIWO AMODU, Honourable Timehin Adelegbe, who just won an election to represent Owo/ Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the tenth assembly, explains why the North Central should produce the Speaker.
Let us start on this note. The ninth Assembly is about completing its term. As a member of that chamber who recently won a fresh mandate, can you give us an appraisal of that parliament in terms of performance?
To the best of my knowledge and ability, the ninth Assembly is a stable Assembly, because if you look at the past, threats of impeachment here and there usually mar a tenure of an Assembly. However, this 9th Assembly has been very stable. That stability of the 9th Assembly, well the leadership style of the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaks volume. He has done very well for the Assembly. However, this will not be complete without a loyal deputy. His deputy, IdrisWase, has been there for him, he has done very well for him and the 9th Assembly has come out victorious. A lot of bills and motions have been passed which the executive has worked on.
So, the 9th Assembly is a success story which was led by a cerebral Speaker because the Speaker did very well, he is intelligent, he knows how to handle members, he has done exceedingly well with the able support of his deputy. So to me, the 9th Assembly has done very well. I can’t be reading out the number of bills and the number of motions that have been passed, we all know these. So, the 9th Assembly has been very successful, the stability is there, the co-operation of members has been there. So the only thing we can say is that we lost many of our members in the election which in democracy is okay.
The perception out there is that both chambers of the Assembly have been taken as a rubber stamp parliament; that it subordinated itself to the Executive. Those of you on this other side, you see it as building harmony between the executive and the legislature. What do you have to say to disabuse minds of those who keep saying that you did not put the executive on its toes?
No, I don’t really believe that because for this country to grow at this our period the Executive needs much of the co-operation of National Assembly. All we are looking for is for Nigeria to grow. We cannot grow when we are fighting. You don’t get best out of things when you are fighting. There are many ways of correcting the Executive through various oversight functions which the House is noted for and we have done that excellently well. So, I don’t believe that because many things go under between the executive and legislature but we don’t need to wash our dirty linens outside. All we want is for Nigeria to be prosperous and grow. So for the fact that we are not at daggers drawn with the executive does not mean that we are rubber stamp. We have done exceedingly well.
You just won an election which is considered to be very tough; your state is always PDP versus your party, the APC that must have been informed by your performance here. If you are to look back at what you have done, what will you consider as the high point of your stay here since you came to the National Assembly?
I think the highpoint of my activities in my Constituency is anchored on the experience I have before coming here. Because as a senior banker before coming here, I have seen it all. So, my coming here, I was not looking at making extra money or making wealth because God has actually blessed me. I think that period when I came was for me to have the legacy activities which I actually achieved. There is no community in my constituency that did not feel my impact either in transformer provision because there are communities in my area that in 50 years they have not gotten light. I went all ahead to do many of those things. There is no community in my constituency that you don’t not see my projects. I am not talking of cosmetic projects of boreholes or solar light, no, I built bridges.
So the result of our last election is just the performance of my governor, RotimiAkeredolu and myself. Akeredolu has performed wonderfully well and me too. We have done very well and our state came out first in terms of percentage in the whole country. So we have done very well and if you now move to the antecedent of our elected President, he is somebody that many of us believe in. If you happen to be in Lagos in the last 20 years and you are there today, you will give kudos to Asiwaju. If he is able to translate that template to Nigeria, then Nigeria will be better for it. That’s is why for me as a legislator, we need a legislature, the leadership that will be able to withstand the various reforms that will be coming from Asiwaju because I know he will come with various reforms which he will need National Assembly for.
There is this perception about National Assembly, both chambers of Parliament, trying to be in the good books of the Executive. Nigerians are of the opinion that it has stifled opposition and ultimately, the interest of the poor masses is at the receiving end of that warm relationship. What can you say about that?
I know what you are talking about. That is something delving more into the relationship between the executive and the legislature. Let me tell you, the truth is that we are all party men. The executive today is an APC government and the National Assembly too is headed by an APC leadership and before they come into National Assembly, they are from there and the party has a manifesto. The manifesto of the party which President Buhari stood on to become President is the same manifesto of the party that Gbajabiamila who is the head of House of Representatives also stood on to become the Speaker. So you don’t expect the two of them not to stand on implementation of those policies.
So, if you see that they are co-operating, you know that it is because they want to execute the real objectives and programmes of their party. So, it is left for the leadership to also find a way to curry the favour of the opposition to agree to those things. So if the National Assembly has been very smooth that means the leadership style of Gbajabiamila is a very good one.
The smooth, cordial relationship between the executive and the parliament is predicated on the fact that the ninth Assembly has a comfortable majority but the fear out there is that the emerging 10th Assembly might not enjoy that in terms of having a comfortable majority to pull through?
Yes, you are correct. However, you know we are all politicians. The structure or composition of National Assembly as we speak of the 9th Assembly is not a straight jacketed thing because no party can make claim to a huge majority. However, the trust we have is that the leadership of our party knows the right thing to do. We are all politicians, and we know about relationship building. Anyone that is campaigning now to be the Speaker has to carry everybody along. So that is why I said we are all politicians we know how to navigate on all these things.
That brings us to the issue of zoning of different positions in the National Assembly. They have four positions that are being contested for and by your standing rules which if I am not wrong you must be a ranking member for you to contest for speakership or the deputy. Now, from what you have seen with the current President from the south-west and his Vice from the North-east, which region would you advise the party to consider to zone the speakership and deputy for the tenth Assembly?
Well naturally, it is a very simple thing if we don’t put emotions into all those things. If you look at it generally, in the north there are three regions, in the south there are three regions. South-west has produced the President, naturally Speaker cannot come from South-west. North-east has picked the Vice President, naturally the Speaker cannot come from that area which means from the two bipolar level of south and North, two regions have left. So, in the north, we are left with north-west and north-central. And looking at the advent of democracy till today, North-West has produced four speakers. They produced Tambuwal, they produced SalisuBuhari, they produced GhaliNa’aba and they have produced AminuMasari; that is north-west.
So, morally this should not be a big thing. Naturally, it should just go to the North-Central without causing instability in the National Assembly. Yes, North-West has contributed hugely to the electoral victory of Asiwaju. Can we say because of electoral victory say we are going to block out South-East and South-South from taking leadership of National Assembly? No.
So in this case where will you put North-West which by people’s estimation contributed the highest votes for the President-elect if you are to advice?
In fact, if I am to advice, this is very simple, there is no way again that since North-East has picked vice-president, south-west has picked president, naturally the Senate President should either come from south-south or south-east. And since north-west has produced four speakers before, they should look into the area of deputy president of the Senate and allow North-Central which has enjoyed the luxury of being president of the Senate before now to taste the speakership. There shouldn’t be too much emotions in this. This is very simple.
So, even within that same north-central, can you narrow it down to an individual or it should be left open for any ranking member?
Well, if you look at it like I said, for now for me, we have three formidable members that are in this race generally. We have my friend, HonourableMuktarAliyuBetara, chairman of Appropriation, we are very close but he is from north-east (from Borno). Quickly people will say Gbajabiamila is from Lagos but do we continue to take wrong decisions always? A time will come that we should take the right decision. So because our Vice President-elect is from Borno State we will also go and pick Speaker from there. Nigeria is big, no matter the volume of what you want to have, Nigeria is big.
Now, the other guy is also my friend, Tajudeen Abbas who is also contesting from north-west. You should know that having produced four speakers from north-west, it is a place you don’t have to look at again. You have to take the interest of the country at heart not the volume of votes. Yes, the volume of votes is necessary but it’s not the ultimate because there are other positions that they can equally enjoy. So, my friend Betara this might not be the best time for him because the vice-president comes from his place and Nigerians we are learned and we know what to do.
North-West they should also be contented that they have produced four speakers before. They should allow north-central to take it. And coming to the north-central, we need to equally understand that in the 9th Assembly, I mentioned earlier on the stability that we enjoyed in this 9th Assembly.
With the brilliance of our speaker, with his cerebral attitude he has done very well. He wouldn’t have achieved it if he didn’t have a good deputy and when he was contesting at that time, the deputy was talked to and he slowed down for him to be the Speaker. So, IdrisWase is the natural successor without emotions. He should be a natural successor to that place and for him to maintain the stability of the National Assembly. Because if you don’t allow the party voice to matter and we allow somebody who is against the party decision to emerge then it will be difficult for the person to relate very well with our incoming President.
So, that brings me to the relationship between Wase and our Speaker, they have very good relationship. I know that at a time, our speaker, Gbajabiamila will raise Wase hands up because he has given him very good support. He is a loyal ally so Wase should be a natural successor. It is not a thing that we should be making too much noise on.
He should have the right of first refusal?
Yes, he should have the right of first refusal.
I am also aware that Wase has visited Akeredolu, the Governor of your State. Should that be taken that Wase has been adopted as the favoured candidate of the South-west Governors?
If you look at the explanation I have given, you will understand that me, I am Akeredolu person to the core. I believe in him because he is always not only courageous but straightforward. He has told me that what is fair is fair, Wase should be a natural successor to maintain the stability of National Assembly and also enhance the relationship between the Assembly and the executive. So, my governor he said that it is his own personal opinion. He said for his own personal opinion he is supporting Wase and north-central to pick it.
You know Akeredolu is not the person that will mince his words. So I have met with him, I have told him, he said (Timehin) please, it is not a thing you should think about. Can we take the speaker to the north-east where our Vice President is from or do we put it in the north-west where we have produced four speakers before and do we now abandoned the current Deputy Speaker? By the time a Speaker now emerge where will you place him? Do you want him to be a floor member having served the current Speaker diligently and loyally? So, he said he has adopted what he said and not only him, a lot of governors; Governor Yahaya Bello who will be the most senior governor on May 30 has also said this is where to go. Many of these governors will go on May 29 so it means he will be the most senior governor on May 30.
Statistics has it that only 60 members of the 9th will be returning and drawing from the arguments of stability and also going from the fact that parliament is about experience, knowledge, antecedents. Considering that a whooping number of 300 members will be stepping into the floor of the chamber for the first time ever. How do you think the next leadership will cope with this, in trying to stabilise early enough because stability is very important before you start talking about projects and laws?
Thank you, you have made a very valid point. Yes, less than 100 is returning out of 360. The turnover is very, very high. We have not gotten to that in this country where a member will stay there for life. If you go to western world there are some members of the parliament that have been there for 40 to 50 years but here it is difficult because Nigeria we have not gotten to that level. Number one, poverty level is very high so it brings in competition.
However, coming to the National Assembly that is where we need an experienced leader. And experienced leadership, Wase is capable, he has good character and he can deliver very well. He has been here for a very long time and if you look at IdrisWase like I said is a stable character. He came to this House as an Action Congress representative moved to the Action Congress of Nigeria and then to APC. He is a progressive to the core. He respects the party very well so I know that he has the capacity to galvanise support and ensure smooth relationship at the chamber.
Back to the House leadership, there were press statements released by some youths calling on the national leadership of the party and the president-elect to consider zoning of Deputy Speaker of the House to South-west and particularly they are calling that the office should be zoned to Ondo State. Only four of you are returning members out of the nine that Ondo State is producing.If you are offered the Deputy Speaker’s position will you consider it?
I think that we should take one step after the other. What is important now for our party is to come up with a Speaker that has the capacity. That is the centre point of everything. And before we will now say we want to look at the south-west is it not important we wait for the zoning of these positions? If the Deputy Speaker comes to the south-west, I think the leadership in the south-west will meet at one point or the other.
However, everybody is qualified to have aspiration to be deputy speaker. As we speak, people from Ondo State want to be Deputy Speaker, people from Ekiti state want to be Deputy Speaker, people from Osun want to be Deputy Speaker even in Lagos where they are still enjoying the Speaker today they want to be speaker. So when we get to that level first, let’s bring it to our area. If we are honoured with the Deputy Speaker, I know the leadership of the party will sit down to decide.
For me as a person, you cannot put a sweet in my mouth and I will swallow it because I have the capacity. Like I said, I came into the National Assembly having done well as a banker and I think my first four years is a huge success. So, there is no parameter or hardline you give that I will not qualify to be but I just believe in us doing one thing after the other. For now, the speakership position is important. We don’t even need to push it too much because there is a natural successor. All of us should galvanise our support towards IdrisWase.
You have just talked about zoning as promised by the hierarchy of the party. So you want to wait for that time before you will make up your mind but a lot of your colleagues are already making subterranean moves. Are you already making moves to at least galvanise support for yourself?
Well, I think that I will not liken myself to the era of Obasanjo where they just brought him from prison to come and become President of this country. So, naturally, I think I am doing that but it is not the first thing in my mind because I don’t jump guns. I am a loyal person to the core and I am answerable to my Governor, Akeredolu. Anything he tells me I will do. If he tells me to leave National Assembly today, I will resign, I will leave. So, that is my own life.
So if it comes to south-west, I know he will not take decisions on his own. He will sit down with his colleagues to decide where to put it and if it comes to Ondo State all of us here believe in the leadership of our governor. He will sit us down and we will look at it together. It is not a thing that I will be fighting for and we are all party men. It is what the party says that we will follow. If the party says Timehin take it, I will grab it.
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