9th Assembly Did What Previous Assemblies Couldn’t Achieve – Taiwo

Hon. Musibau Kolawole Taiwo, popularly called HKT, is the lawmaker representing Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Lagos constituency in the House of Representatives. In this interview, he expresses his view that the National Assembly is misunderstood by Nigerians, why the 9th Assembly has performed better than previous Assemblies, faults the South-East region over claim to the presidency, among other topical issues. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts: 

 The 9th Assembly is rounding off and the Assembly came at a critical period, with challenges of COVID-19 and so on, how would you describe the Assembly as it relates to the way it tackled the challenges facing the country? 

I have been a close watcher of the National Assembly before I went there, so I would say that the Assembly is not treated fairly by Nigerians. With the problems that you have mentioned; COVID-19, economic meltdown and the rest of them, the Assembly was able to make laws in the areas that nobody believed we would ever make.

For instance, the Assembly was able to return the Electoral Act. The Electoral Act that midwifed an election that would be acclaimed as the best in Nigeria so far with the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the rest.

Let’s remove the political aspect of it, politicians would say anything they like. But, by every standard, even from the comments of observers, the election was judged as the best we have ever had in Nigeria. Aside from that, the Assembly midwifed some laws that would change Nigeria forever, for instance, the decentralisation of transmission of electricity.

There are so many other laws that the Assembly passed that Nigerians ought to look at. This is the first time that most members of the Assembly lost re-election, particularly those on the minority side. The returning members are so few that if the new incoming members want to hijack the Assembly they can do so.

But, of course, we have a law that would prevent them from doing so. The returns didn’t really capture the works the Assembly did.

The returns are so bad, the people voted against many members, yet the Assembly did what the previous assemblies were not able to do. The involvement of the leadership of the Assembly in the crisis that occurred in the country is unprecedented.

The leadership is always at the centre of discussions of every issue. I remember, when we had this problem with the labour union, you would see the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President involved.

They are doing more than just making laws, they put the people first. People talk about the lawmakers making money, I have been there and I can say that there are more lies than truth in what they say. When I got there, I thought I was going to see money, but I am not richer than I was when I went there.

So, I can easily say that they are the most misunderstood set of people in Nigeria. Some of them make money because of the Nigerian factor, but it is not all of them, which means there is no equal reward. Some of them take loans, which they would pay for the four years they would be there. I didn’t see any “Ghana Must Go,” when I got there.

The only time I saw “Ghana Must Go” on the road, when I got there, I only saw heavy books there, not money. People say they fly them to banks, I didn’t see such. 

If new members of the National Assembly are more than the returning members, will this not affect the performance of the 10th Assembly? 

I don’t expect that because the precedent would be anchored by some people and the National Assembly is not where you would want to be a rascal. If you come with the mind of a rascal, you won’t catch the eye of the Speaker. There is a way they do things there that the more ranking you are the more powerful you are on the floor of the House, the more feasible you are and the more you can catch the eye of the Speaker. 

There have been agitations that the South-East should produce the Senate President since they were not given the presidency of the country as the South-West is going to succeed the north, what are your thoughts? 

The National Assembly is not an ordinary institution. It is not a place where you can just say that the South-East must produce the Senate President or whatever. For instance, the Senate has 109 members and the way they reason is different from the way people outside do. The returning members would be looking at those that are aspiring.

These are the people that they have mingled with for four, eight or even 12 years, so they know them. Your behaviour to the people you want to rule, the committee of elites you want to lead matters. You are not their superior really, you are just first among equals. You want to lead the committee of elites, people that know their left from right, all those discussions outside wouldn’t work there. Many things would come into play, so it depends on how far they can trust you.

The party can say this is where they want to go, but this is even dangerous. It’s easier at the Senate now because the APC has the majority there after the last elections, but in the House of Representatives, the APC doesn’t have an absolute majority there. Absolute majority is when you have more than half of the seats, but now APC has about 170 instead of 180, that is half of 360. So, they would need the support of others.

National Assembly

The way they vote in the House of Representatives is even different, they would wait until the senate finishes its own. So what happens at the Senate determines what happens at the House of Representatives. They would want to balance it. The issue of saying one zone hasn’t tasted the presidency before doesn’t come in because we have six zones and the one that has tasted more is the North-Central because of the military guys that are from there.

How many presidents have come from the North-East? Why are we deceiving ourselves? The north is very careful, it is the southerners that are careless. They would not say this is a particular zone, we keep saying the north. The North- East has not produced the president before and what is the difference between the North-East and the South-East? Why are we deceiving ourselves? Why do we make it look as if we have committed murder? Even in the United States of America, Illinois has produced more presidents than New York.

If not because former president Donald Trump won then, Hillary Clinton is also from Illinois, former president Barack Obama is from there too. It’s about you coming out to sell yourself. The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi was campaigning with religious and tribal sentiments. There are some states that wouldn’t listen to you, when you talk about religion. In the South-West, we don’t put religion at the front burner.

If not because of some South-West religious leaders that have become powerful and control their followers in Lagos, he wouldn’t have won there. But, look at the other South-West states, it was as if there was no religion. There are some states in the South-West, where both the governors and the deputy governors are Christians. Even there is no Muslim governor in the South-West. But, we didn’t put it on the front burner, when somebody came and started using it, we knew he wouldn’t go far.

What I expect the South-Easterners to do is to find a common ground to relate with other Southerners. If they now zone it to the South, then they can leave it for them. You cannot lord it over others. They have the economic power already and people would think twice before giving them political power. They are behaving like lords already with economic power. 

Looking at the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, it was as if the National Assembly didn’t rise to the occasion and prevent him from doing some things, an example is the issue of the naira redesign policy…….. 

(Source: Independent)