Reacting to the controversy trailing the House Committee leadership which was constituted last week by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, member representing Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru federal constituency, Hon. Goodluck Nanah Opiah has absolved the Speaker of any blame.
In an exclusive interview with DAILY POST’s Atek’ojo Samson Usman in Abuja, the lawmaker urged the aggrieved members to overcome political sentiment and get prepared for governance which Nigerians expect from the 8th National Assembly. He added that President Muhammadu Buhari had not been fair to the Igbos in his appointments so far while also calling on him to assign grade ‘A’ ministries to Ministers from that zone.
Excerpts:
As a former Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly before becoming a federal lawmaker on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, how would you react to outcry of the ruling All Progressives Congress that Speaker, Yakubu Dogara was misguided in the allotment of Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship of House Committees that was constituted last week?
Thank you very much . My name is Goodluck Nanah Opiah, I represent Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru federal constituency of Imo State. The Speaker just got through with House Committees. First and foremost, I want to commend him for that aspect of legislative leadership. I’m sure you know that since inauguration, we are just having House Committees being constituted and you also know the importance of committes in our oversight legislative functions. For me, the House of Representatives will be able to discharge its functions comprehensively now in terms of oversight functions, in terms of lawmaking, in terms of representation.
As per reactions of members, we are 360 members in all. The Committees used to be 89 in number, but the Speaker through his own ingenuity was able to increase the number to 96. It is not possible that all the 360 members chair the different Committees. It is not possible that all 360 members would be Vice Chairmanship of House Committees. Mr. Speaker has done the best he could within the available number of offices. Sincerely speaking, I cannot condemn him, for me, he was fair, the constitution of Committees covers all political parties in the House including parties with smaller representation like Social Democratic Party, APGA and so on. Every geopolitical zone is covered, every States of the federation is covered. For me, he did a good job.
But in an exercise of this nature, you will find people who are happy and those who are not and believe me, you will find people who will never be satisfied no matter what you do to please them and that is the way I see this exercise, but I will rather advise everybody to be calm and get prepared to their functions because everybody is a member of one Committee or the other. We should be prepared to excel in our oversight functions which is core legislative functions and by so doing, the House will be happy for it, the nation will be happy and as well, the Speaker will be happy that he put committed people to various Committees.
More so, nothing is permanent. If opportunity comes, he would leverage on shortcomings anywhere. As I speak with you, he is working hard to further recognize those who for some reasons are not happy in order to make up in one way or the other. There are other legislative assignments to be done, there are so much to be done and no one can do everything at a time and as time goes on, there will be Ad-hoc Committees, there will be legislative delegations and all manner of things that require to be handled by the House. He has been able to put round pegs in round holes.
I am not saying this because I’m a Chairman of a Committee, because if I’m to assess and analyse, I wish I had been a Chairman of one other Committee or the other.
With Committees leadership shared almost equally between the ruling and opposition parties, do you think, the opposition will discharge its functions in line with the manifesto of the ruling party?
I hope you know that political parties were the vehicles that brought us to National Assembly. It is just like boarding a vehicle from here to Kano and after arriving at a garage, passengers would disembark and the vehicle goes away. Political parties are the vehicles that brought us here as Parliamentarians and we are no longer playing party politics, but we here to legislate for good governance premised on welfare of Nigerians. What we are out for is to execute our legislative agenda for the 8th Assembly which has been our focus since it was adopted on the floor of the House. It is not about philosophy or agenda of any political party, what we have now is the agenda of Nigerian people.
There was no problem with PDP members heading any Committee, when PDP was in Power in the last 16 years , members of other political parties also chaired Committees as well. So we cannot as PDP members interfere with manifesto of the ruling party. What we do is to legislative which is common to all of us irrespective of party differences. As elected members of the House of Representatives, we are here to protect the interest of 360 federal constituencies across the federation.
We are now in the last quarter of the year. What can you boast of since the inauguration? What will be the guarantee to your constituents that you will pursue their interest?
Since June after our inauguration, I have been able to raise my voice on array of issues, through legislative agenda. I have been able to incorporate those things that directly impact on my constituents and I have moved motions of urgent national interest. Sincerely speaking, the only area we have not done well is the area of oversight functions because of the inability of the Executive to be properly constituted to enable us go into Ministries, agencies and parastatals and as a result of this, there has been inactivity on part of the government. Things are standing still. No award of new contracts, those awarded by previous administration are not funded. There are federal roads in my constituency that are bad which the Federal government is not doing anything about and the state government is not helping matters and everything is lying comatose so to speak. I hope that in 2016 the interest of my constituency will be properly captured to be able to provide infrastructure for the people and I do hope that the President should realise that the people who voted for us also voted for him to take action in a manner that things should be different from what it used to be. We are hopeful and be rest assured that it will not be business as usual for my federal constituency. We cannot continue to be neglected, we cannot continue to be marginalised, my constituency is the only oil producing federal constituency in Imo State.
The other day, you raised concerns about exclusion of Igbo people from the present administration. What is your view now that Ministers have been nominated and screened awaiting swearing in?
Nothing has changed. The five South East States are supposed to be constitutionally considered in terms of Ministerial nominees. In other words, there must be Ministers from all the five States and so there is no favour anywhere and nothing special by Buhari administration. I pray that Ministers from the South East extraction will be given grade ‘A’ Ministries because as it is, we have been shut out completely. The Ministers are supposed to meet the President once in a week to discuss issues affecting their various Ministries. The other core appointments he made are those working with him on a day to day basis and there is no single Igbo person from the South East and this calls for concern.
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