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    Saturday, April 13, 2013

    PDP WILL NOT FIND IT EASY IN 2015 -Lawmaker, Dayo Saka Fafunmi



    As a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Dayo Saka Fafunmi from Ifako/Ijaiye Constituency 1 is not happy that the Speaker of the House, Rt. (Hon.) Adeyemi Ikuforiji is being 'distracted' by the EFCC through prosecution over corruption allegation.
    Though he is not pre-empting the outcome of the case in the court, the lawmaker believes that Speaker is innocent as the allegations are baseless since members of the House have passed vote of confidence on the Epe-born lawmaker.
    Fafunmi, who is the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (Local) of the House, is also not happy with what is happening in the local governments across the country, especially in the North, where he said the people are being impoverished.
    He is also of the view that the merger of the opposition parties is good for the development of the country as he insisted that the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not met the yearnings of the people.
    The chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) spoke extensively on many issues in this interview he granted us recently.

    There was a protest at the assembly that you people abandoned your legislative duties, they said you ought to be sitting even when the Speaker is in court over corruption allegation, how do you see this
    I think we should appreciate the fact the parliament by virtue of relevant laws has right to regulate its sittings. As such, we are mandated to have a minimum of 180 days of sitting in a year and as long as the house does not run foul of this, I don't see any reason people should give the house a bad name. The house did not adjourn sitting because of the Speaker. If you watch the sitting last Thursday, it was only adjournment that was on the order paper because there was no plenary issue to discuss and it shows the other thing we can do is to make good use of the time by allowing the committees to do their jobs. We have standing committees and they are meant to do their jobs, for instance the Committee on Public Accounts (State) has been working, my committee too, Public Accounts (Local) invited some councils and we have been working. I could not make it to court this morning because when I got here they had gone and if I decided to go around 9a.m, they would be on the way back before I get there. I and other members of the House have passed a vote of confidence on the leadership of the House and even the Speaker and no member has dissociated him/herself from the vote of confidence. It is on that basis that members have decided to solidarise with the Speaker, it is our personal decision. Some of our members went to  Ogun State now because Osile Oke-Ona, Egba, Ogun State, Oba Adedapo Tejuosho is celebrating his 75th birthday, is it because of his birthday that the House adjourned. I usually respect people, but when civil societies like Civil Society Network Against Corruption speak, I am surprised, I respect the civil societies, but their duty is to criticize constructively, once we err, they should put us on the right path. But when it is the same society that now wants to generate chaos in the society, it leaves much to be desired.
    Part of the problem is that the House has not educated the people enough to know that the function of the legislators does not end on the floor of the House. What happens on the floor is just about 20 to 30% of the activities of the lawmakers. So, for anybody to say the House is not sitting because the Speaker is going to court is unfair, we respect them; they should equally respect our rights and privileges as a people.

    Many people have said that the Speaker is being persecuted because of some of his ambitions or but other feel it is one of the ways to check our leaders, what do you say to this
    A lot of people don't even understand the case that is in court, I happened to be in court one day, when the EFCC lawyer was making his own submission and he said so many things to the extent that the Speaker collected money, but he collected the money on behalf of members and they have not come out to deny that they collected money from this man, it is not as if the money cannot be traced or that he did not follow the normal procedure, so what is the bone of contention. Most people don't understand, for you to establish a crime, there must be two basic elements; physical and mental elements, now these basic elements, you have to proof that when this man collected the money, he wanted to enrich himself, but if you cannot prove the mental element, you have no case. That is why you will hear some cases and you will be surprised, the position of the law is what the judges use to determine the case. If you cannot prove it, the case becomes watered down,
    that is why when judges give their verdicts, those of us, who are not learned in law express surprise. The judge does not have right to make law but to interpret the laws made by the lawmakers. I have read through all these allegations and I have listened to the submission of the EFCC, I can tell you that they don't have any case to make. What is even in the money laundering act, when the EFCC lawyer said it in court, one of his colleagues cautioned him that he didn't understand what money laundering is all about. It is only ill-gotten money that can be laundered abroad, money that you can't trace its source or which is gotten illegally. But this money, we were able to trace it; the lawmakers have not denied that they collected money. Having established that, I want to say that issue here is more of persecution against a trusted man. I have not seen the release of the Civil Society Network Against Corruption, but what is being done is more of persecution because this man has been the Speaker of the House for over seven years or almost eight years, is it now that you want to say he stole in his official capacity. He didn't collect the money personally.

    Do you see the corruption case as a set-back for the House
    Yes, it has affected the House, I must tell you, when the mind is not settled, you cannot do much. A man, who goes to court and comes back home is the one that can congratulate himself. If you are before a judge, anything can happen. No man will have a settled mind before a judge even if you have a good case, until the judge makes his pronouncement, the court has to decide. Nobody has control over what the judge would say, so we are apprehensive, sometimes when we sit down, we feel disturbed, I must say most members are disturbed, if it is something else, they should iron it out, but if it is about money, I don't think there is anything there.

    Do you feel this is the best time to call for immunity for speakers of houses of assembly like leaders of other arms of government have
    Part of what we proposed is for the leadership of the legislative arm of government to have immunity, it is not as if it will not make them answerable for offences committed in office, but it will not serve as a distraction to them, while in office. It would enable them concentrate fully because whatever decision that is made on that seat was made in their capacity as speakers, not in personal capacity. I would be part of those that would canvass for immunity for the leaders, I am not asking for immunity. The heads of executive and judiciary have immunity, why not the legislature.

    Your party is part of the new merger of parties, which became APC, and people are saying that the PDP still have the majority. Do you see the PDP losing power to the opposition in 2015 with the merger
    For us to have meaningful development, we have to strengthen the opposition. If I should take you back a bit, during the UPN and NPN days, the NPN was controlling the federal, while the south-western states are being controlled by the UPN, another party; PRP was controlling parts of the north through Balarabe Musa and Aminu Kano. We discovered that the PDP has always been using their size and influence to suppress every voice of the opposition. If not for the leader of our party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, do you think there would be any opposition party in Nigeria today? If everyone has taken to his/her heal and kept quiet, what would have happened. If not for the likes of the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who is ready, even on his bed to criticize wrong actions of the government, what would have happened? It is the voice of the opposition that would put the people in check and they would say 'ah, these people are
    watching us; we cannot afford to do this.' That is the beauty of democracy, which is why the merger of ACN, CPC, APGA, and ANPP would be a formidable team that would challenge and possibly take over from the PDP. The most important thing is for us to have a meeting of minds, people who are ready for the change, who are ready to be agents of change. I have seen that in the leadership of the parties, I have seen that in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and in people who believe that Nigeria deserves a turn around. If the people buy into all these programmes, it would be better. It is not the party that determines, who gets to power because democracy is about people. If people are tired of bad governance, if they are tired of not having light because if you don't have electricity no nation can develop, then they would do something. Any nation that refuses to have inter-modal train network can never develop, you can't build enough roads that would meet the
    demands of the people, especially if you are over populated like Nigeria, there would always be over-concentrating of human beings in a certain part of the country. If there is a fast-moving train between Lagos and Ibadan, a lot of people would build their houses along the corridor between Lagos and Ibadan and it would lead to overall development. But because the roads are not safe, there is no light people cannot come here to establish industries and there would be no work. When there is no light, there won't be security, even if you want to use camera, without light, it is impossible. We cannot continue to use the money we get from the ground, from our natural resources and use it to import fuel, we are not moving forward. We generate resources from the ground; use it to import fuel and burn the fuel with generators for electricity. We should de-emphasise the use of generators, let there be light everywhere and see a possible turn-around of the nation.
    The federal government should remove power from the exclusive list to concurrent list, I know that power is concurrent, but it is only generation, each state can generate, but you cannot distribute except in an area not covered by the national grid and tell me, which area is not covered by the grid in Lagos State.
    Eventually, it is like putting a restriction on us, that is why Lagos cannot generate light, so let us liberalise the sector.

    You are in charge of the Committee on Public Accounts (Local), what would you like to see in the proposed local government reform and what have you been able to change in the system since you became chairman of the committee
    I have been able to make the councils conform to the dictate of the law, that their books must be updated and kept in a manner that the true position is reflected in their books. The changes I expect in the local governments is to give them more powers, they should be able to generate certain productivity that would stimulate developments in their councils. More importantly, most of the councils are being monitored by EFCC, it is not an aberration, but they should be allowed to do their jobs. I have been able to let the chairmen know that the money that comes to the councils is not their personal money, but money for development. So, I criticize local governments, I chastise local governments, compel those who do not meet 40% capital projects. But, as I speak to you, Lagos local governments are doing well from what I can see. When you try to do a compaism between them and their counterparts in the north, you will appreciate the fact that this is where a semblance of true development is taking place.
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