THIS IS THE BEST TIME FOR NIGERIA TO HOLD NATIONAL CONFERENCE -HON. GBOLAHAN OLUSEGUN YISHAWU

It is no longer news that many sectors are begging for reforms in the country, especially the economic and security sectors. There have been several calls for a Sovereign National Conference to address critical issues like these, but many have discarded it as unnecessary.

However, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Gbolahan Olusegun Yishawu from Eti-Osa Constituency 2 feels this is the best time for the country to talk. The young, but active lawmaker believes Nigerian leaders need to do more to encourage the people to have a sense of patriotism, and that the legislators should be alive to their oversight functions on critical areas such as the petroleum sector to avoid the kind of revelation we are having in the on-going probe of oil subsidy allocation by the House of Representatives.

Gbolahan, an engineer by profession speaks on some other issue in this interview.

Do you see the arrest of Alhaji Kabir Sokoto as the end of Boko Haram in Nigeria

 The Federal Government should be alive to its responsibility in the area of security. Security is germane to the success of all businesses; oil business, local businesses cannot thrive where there is insecurity. The government should try to look into the issue. The National budget for 2012provides over 920 billion naira for security, which means the nation is doing something about it, this is very critical to what we are doing so that the economy can move forward. It is not just arresting one or two persons they should arrest as many people as possible that should be arrested. The people should not be afraid of giving the police vital information that could lead to the arrest because of the repercussion or anything.

But, beyond that, what creates insecurity; poverty, look at the country, there is high level of corruption, people believe that the country cannot provide for them, there is no social security, no welfare, it is 'me, me, me' first, we have to do something about that. In the developed world, when you give birth to a child, they take over the livelihood of that child from you, they see the child as a potential leader. Children are asset to the country there, but see the way we treat ourselves here, we are like pieces of furniture to our nation that can be disposed off. If the leaders start caring for the people; integrate people to see themselves as Nigerians to encourage and promote patriotism, then it would be better.

Many people have called for a Sovereign National Conference to discuss the future of the country, do you think Nigeria should be re-defined as a nation with what is happening in the north now

Well, we can choose to isolate it to the north, but it's everywhere, even in Lagos, we feel deprived, we don't have enough money to maintain ourselves, we are always having budget deficit. If you go to the east, they have issues, the northern part of the country might have reacted differently from other parts of the country, but we are all groaning. Call it Sovereign National Conference, call it National Assembly Summit, call it whatever, we need to speak now. Some people will say, we have the national assembly, we have states houses of assembly, they are the representatives of the people, yes, we are, but remember sovereignty resides in the people, so the more the merrier.  The more of our fathers, founding fathers, elder statesmen we can bring on board to discuss the merrier. I don't have more right to this nation than any other person on the streets, but the thing is that we cannot all be here at the same time, there has to be a kind of representation. It suffices for the elected representatives to do our best, if we can add more outspoken leaders within our nation to discuss, the better, we need to talk.

Many people have blamed the political class for the some of the problems in our nation; they accuse them of being corrupt. What is your take on this since you belong to that class

You need to define what you mean by political class, I am an elected officer, all the same, how many people from the political class have been indicted in the oil subsidy probe, the people doing the oil subsidy probe are politicians. They have not submitted their report, so you cannot blame the political class yet.

Cuts in… I don't mean the oil subsidy probe, I mean corruption generally

If you talk of corruption, where you don't enforce the law, people will be corrupt. The law must be made to work, for as long as they keep subverting the law, things will be done with impunity.  You can look at me today that I am selfless, I want to serve, but if there is no law to check me, it is not difficult to cross the line, 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.' So the laws of the land must be allowed to take its cause, law enforcement agencies must be allowed to do their work.  Enough of 'all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,' as long as we keep doing this, then there will be problem. If I steal, I should be prosecuted, if I defraud the government, I should be prosecuted or I do what I am not supposed to do, the law must take its cause, who knows if one office assistant somewhere is not also stealing money.  Everybody does it at its own level, it's just that the politicians, as they call it, have access to more money, and it's like its obvious when they do it, but it happens everywhere. Look at our roads, do you know how many people die on our roads everyday, but the day one aircraft crashes, everybody will say, 'oh God,' but every blessed day, people die on the roads because somebody somewhere is corrupt, the money for the roads have been stolen. My own take on that is that the law must work.

The House of Reps has been working on the oil subsidy probe, but how can we get out of this problem in the petroleum sector

The truth is that, we need a proactive government, not a reactive government, the House of Representatives is there, doing a good job, but we have the representatives there, who ought to have been doing oversight work on the petroleum sector. If everybody was up and doing, it would not have got to this level. All legislators must perform their oversight functions on the executive as at when due. Not one year, not four years, it should be quarterly, imagine if they had called all these people four years ago, six months into the life of the sixth assembly, it would not become N1.7 Trillion or N1.3 Trillion unpaid, may be it would be N300 Billion. All hands must be on deck.

Can we have a bit of your background

I am Gbolahan Olusegun Yishawu (GOY) and I was born on 8th December, 1967, at Lagos Island, Lagos State, to late Alhaji Modiyu Liadi Yishawu (Chief "First Alhaji) and late Alhaja Nuratu Ashabi Yishawu (Nee Nuru-Oniwo) both Lagos indigenes. GOY finished his primary education at ADRAO International School, Victoria Island, Lagos.

I attended Government College Lagos, Eric Moore, and completed O' levels and A' levels at Greylands International College, Bembridge, Isle of Wright, United Kingdom in 1985.

Same year, I was admitted to study engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1990. I did my National Youth Service at the Ogun State Polytechnic (now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic), Ojere, Abeokuta. Lecturing as a National Youth Service Corps member set a career tone for me in education and training which gingered him for further studies, obtaining thereafter the following qualifications - Master of Science, M.Sc. Computer Science (Unilag), Post Graduate Diploma in Education Administration, PGDE (Unilag), a Masters in Business Administration, MBA (ATBU). Currently, I am pursuing a Ph.D. programme at the University of Lagos.

February 20, 2012