INTERVIEW WITH HON. GODFREY GAYA

INTERVIEW WITH HONOURABLE GODFREY, GAYA .

Honourable Godfrey Gaya is a member of the House of Representatives representing Jaba/Zango Kataf Federal Constituency of Kaduna State. In this interview with our Correspondent, AARON OSSAI, he spoke on the ten years of the legislature and ten years of uninterrupted democracy among other burning issues. Excerpts

QUESTION: How do you rate the Legislature in these ten years of our democracy?

ANS; the legislature has done marvelously well. At a time there was no government except the legislature. That is the truth. Nigerians were always waiting to hear the outcome of the decisions, resolutions and investigations of the parliament. From 2007 till date the parliament has done very well. I went into the archives and discovered that we have passed for third reading over 100 bills in the last two years. That means debates successfully conducted on the second level and passed to the third. Those that have been concluded and passed through third reading are up to 50. The United Kingdom Parliament decided on 450 bills in fours years and only five succeeded in going through the third reading. So if you compare that with our own situation in Nigeria , we will have every course to beat our chest eulogizing ourselves for doing a very wonderful job. Of course you know that it is not every bill that we pass that the executive will assent to. But the most important thing is that Nigerians are aware of our thrust and thinking and our direction or purpose. So whether the executive passes it or not, the truth is that Nigerians would have been informed of the thinking of the legislature as regards their well being. So in that wise, we have done exceeding well. That is outside our over sight functions, that is outside our appropriation, if you add all these, may be you will score us 100 per cent or 99.1 per cent.

QUESTION; Sir , Nigeria has just celebrated 10 years of democracy. What is your assessment of the journey so far?

ANS. Well, I will say so far so good. And again we give glory to God for allowing us to have gone through ten years of undiluted democracy. You see, if we talk about democracy in Nigeria , the temptation is to compare us with other countries with advanced democracy like the United States or the United Kingdom . And to some of those countries for over 200 years they had veritable democracy and for us to have spend just ten years and we are already enjoying those dividends that come about with democracy, I will say Nigeria has done so well. So for ten years, now Nigerians are conversant with what democracy is all about. Nigerian will normally prefer it to the most liberal kind of military dictatorship, so for me, I think we have done well and we should do everything to protect and to nurture this democracy so that by the time we attain the golden age of 50 years in our quest for democracy, we would have enough reason to celebrate and we will have enough reason to prove to our electorates that democracy remains the best form of government where every body is a participant, where everybody is an actor, where your basic rights are protected, where everybody is a stakeholder, so I think for ten years of democracy, Nigerians have every reason to thank God for ten years of uninterrupted democracy.

QUESTION: Nigerians have not been able to get the required dividends of democracy due to poor implementation of annual budgets, as a federal legislator, what is the way out?

ANS: Well, the House of Representatives being the Peoples parliament passed a resolution recently seeking to address the poor implementation of annual budget in the past nine years. You will agree with me that by December last year, we were able to implement our capital budget to the tune of only 30 per cent and you know also that the capital budget is the aspect of the budget that affect an average Nigerian, you and me. We are talking about capital budget on liked roads, housing and anything that links A and B and provides for A and C. Last year it was very disappointing that we got only 30 per cent of the huge allocation to capital project implemented. So this year when we saw that it was already May and the same scenario was going to repeat itself, we decided to call with a loud voice that the executive arm of government must wake up to implement the capital budget so that an average Nigerian on the street will be touched by the expenditure of the government. So the parliament is in it and we are up on our toes we are also mandating our committees who have oversight functions on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be up their responsibilities by ensuring that every kobo that is budgeted for the capital projects is spent before December 2009. So the committees anytime from now will go out to the ministries to see what has been earmarked, what is to be done and whether it has been done or not so that an average Nigerian who has no access to salary or to any other thing in the recurrent will feel he is part of the government. You will agree with me that it is when the capital project is really in action that a who may be is a gravel seller can supply to the road construction company a Nigerian who is a brick seller can supply block to the Housing construction company and like that and like that the economy trickles down, so the parliament is not happy with the slow pace of capital project implementation and would use our oversight functions to insist and to ensure that before the end of the year, our capital budget expenditure goes up to between 95 to 100 percent.

QUESTION; Sir, the President is accusing the legislature of sabotaging the budget implementation by the way they always tamper with the figures he presented to them which in turns makes it difficult for the executive to implement. How do you react to that?

ANS: Yes, we are a young democracy. But in every other democracy in the world, when the budget comes to the floor of the parliament, it is assumed dead on arrival, dead because whatever proposal the executive has, it is subject to inputs from the parliament. And you know the parliament is the only arm of government that is closer to the people. Everybody there represents a constituency. It is you that know what your constituency needs and not the executive that are appointees. So when the budget comes to the floor of the House, it is expected to be dead on arrival so that every member of the parliament will have an input to it to address the need and the peculiarities of his constituency. So it is expected that the parliament must have an input, it expected that the parliament will add what is needed in the budget, it is expected that the parliament will remove what is not needed in the budget because we know the needs of our people so at the end of the day what we will pass back Mr. President is what the Nigerians whom we are representing actually needed. So if Mr. President now tells you we tamper with the budget that is not what it should be because any budget that comes on the floor of the parliament is dead on arrival it he did not need the parliament, he would not have brought it to the floor and of course if he did not want to implement what we suggested, he should not have signed it. Now he has signed it and it has become a law and it must be implemented to the later.

QUESTION; Since Nigeria rejoined the comity of democratic nations in 1999, the major problem has been the electoral system. INEC has not been able to conduct a free, fair and acceptable elections, what do you think is the way out?

ANS: We welcome first and foremost, the electoral review panel set up by Mr. President because we all know that it was the inadequacies of our previous practices in electoral system that warranted Mr. President to form the Uwais panel and every Nigerian including you expected that the electoral reform report could a basis for Nigeria’s further elections to be so conducted in a way that everybody would be proud of our elections. We have several examples from the US , from Ghana from India from South Africa of elections where everybody is allowed to vote and the outcome of the voting is reflected in who becomes the winner. So if we do not learn from these other countries, I do not know when we shall learn. It was out of patriotism that everybody supported the Uwais Panel. Now, the recommendations of the Uwais Panel is coming to us in view of bills from the executive and of course you see what happened at the Senate and the same thing that happened in the Senate will definitely happen in the House of Representatives. We are representing our people and we can never pass any bill that does not conform with our yearnings and aspirations so when the bills come, we will look at it in two ways- does it conform to the report of the Uwais Panel? Does it conform to the provisions of our constitution, does it conform to the electoral Act of 2006, if the answer is no, then we can never be party to it.

QUESTION; Another pestilence in the nation’s ten years of democracy is the 1999 constitution. The National Assembly attempted to amend it but it seems there is a stalemate. What is happening?

ANS: No, there is no stalemate. There is no where in the constitution that says the review must be jointly done. So it simply means that both chambers can go there independent ways, review the constitution and harmonize where there are grey areas. Already the House of Representatives has started their own last week and we are going on and I am sure the senate is doing the same thing. At the appropriate time when we need to harmonize, we harmonize, we have done so when it is time for Appropriation Bill debate, we never sate together to debate but at the end we pass the same figure. So I do not see why Nigerians should become apprehensive if we are not sitting together. We can seat separate and harmonize latter and end result will be the same thing. So Nigerians should be rest assured that the parliament is very serious and should not allow anything to derail that need to review our constitution. We know that there critical areas that must be reviewed so that we can have the desired progress and the desired advancement politically.

QUESTION; One other issue in the constitution that is attracting attention is state creation. As a federal lawmaker, do you think there is the need to create more states in the country?

ANS: Certainly, the way it is now, if we must respect the constitution of 1999, we can not have states created now because the procedure is so cumbersome and almost impossible. So the amendment will make it more pleasurable, so that it give the states or the people that are agitating some leeway to actualize their dream. Of course, one hundred per cent I believe that Nigerian should be more than 36 states for one reason there are some areas that for reasons of practical development should have a state so that there would be a fare sharing of the natural resources so that it can go equitably and can go down to the grass roots. I support creation because I know state creation is for development, It is for equity, balancing and fairness. So taken the four factors together, I will one hundred per cent as a parliamentarian support that there is the need to create more states out of the present 36 states. But of course, it must be in such a way that they meet all the criteria that are going to be set in the review or in the amendment of the constitution.

QUESTION: Past and present regimes have been making concerted efforts to eradicate corrupt practices in the system. What to you is the level of success or otherwise of this fight?

ANS: Yes, we are in the era of due process, era of respect to the rule of law, and the era of fight against corruptions in all its ramifications. Of course the parliament were the first to cleans itself of corruption and that was why as a parliament to remove our Speaker when we felt her dealings were not in conformity with the thrust of the government. So if we have gone that far to cleanse ourselves of corrupt practices, then you can believe us and support us to fight outside against anything that would appear or look like corruption. So the parliament especially the House of Representatives is in the vanguard of fighting anything that looks like corruption.

End