August 20, (THEWILL) – Sarafadeen Ali is a member of the National Assembly representing Oyo South Senatorial District. He speaks with AYO ESAN about fuel subsidy removal and what Nigerians should expect from the 10th Senate, among other issues. Excerpts:
The effect of the removal of fuel subsidy is harsher than Nigerians expected. What is your take on this?
Well, this has become an inevitable thing. The Federal Government has done this and I think it is in good faith. Whatever the people are going through, I believe it is not going to be for long because the government has promised to back it up with palliatives that are expected to cushion the effect and hardship of the subsidy removal.
I know it is a difficult time for Nigerians now and honestly, no one is excluded. We shall come on top of it at last and not too long.
You said the pain is affecting all of us. Don’t you think that President Bola Tinubu was impatient to have removed the subsidy without coming up with a plan on how to cushion the effects on the people?
Whatever the situation may be now, the main issue is how to move forward and for the government to ensure that the palliatives work and have impact on all Nigerians, especially the downtrodden. What is expected of the government, which will enable the citizens to get its impact at this trying period, is to invest the money removed from the subsidy to sustain education, health, infrastructures and invest heavily on agriculture.
The investment on agriculture should not be the priority of government alone at this crucial period in Nigeria; it should be the responsibility of all, the state governments, local governments and even the rich individuals. If there is plenty of food, the problems will be minimised. This is even going to help local industries grow, with the provision of raw materials for local productions.
What I would also like the government to do is to ensure that Nigerians have adequate power supply to help local artisans that will need it to work. The welders, hairdressers, carpenters, tailors and a lot of small businesses need power to grow.
The situation has reached a stage that the government should endeavour to make its policies work to favour the masses.
In addition, we should not forget the issue of security. Whatever we gained from the subsidy removal should go for the provision of security machinery that will help to curb crimes. We have to equip our security operatives to be able to tackle both internal and external aggressions.
What do you think the 10th National Assembly can do about local government autonomy?
This is one area in which both the legislature and the executive must work to ensure that the local governments are properly funded, so that they will be able to perform their obligations to the people at the grassroots level.
I have been a chairman of a local government area and I know how things work there. As lawmakers, we just have to make sure that there is proper legislation to enforce the autonomy of local government councils.
Although they will still have to be supervised by the state, their budgetary allocations are expected to be intact for them to function effectively.
During your campaign you made a lot of promises to the people. Now that you are in the Senate, are you going to keep your promise to provide the dividends of democracy to the people?
Yes, no doubt about that. I made promises and by the Grace of God, I will keep them. I am not new in governance and I know that the people of my state, especially, those in my senatorial district will be looking forward to what I will do. I have not gone back on the promises. Apart from making laws, I will try my possible best and ensure that a lot of programmes that will benefit my people are initiated and executed.
I am very passionate about education and empowerment of the people. There are many areas to be covered and I will, by the Grace of the Almighty Allah, do my best not to let my people down. You know I am a grassroots politician and that is the reason why I just have to make my people feel the impact of being at the National Assembly. I will also collaborate with my colleagues in the other two senatorial zones, to make sure that we bring laudable projects to Oyo State.
Oyo is governed by the PDP, not by your party. Conflicts often break out between lawmakers and state governors who are not in the same party, especially when it comes to projects. Some governors always think the party where federal lawmakers belong will take the credit for the projects and use it to campaign against the sitting government. How do you want to take care of this?
I think we are in the same state. Whatever projects brought by us the lawmakers, even if we are not in the same party with the sitting government in our state, are for the people and not individuals. The benefits which these projects will bring are for our people collectively. There is no way programmes for the people will be executed without carrying the state government along because whatever the case may be, we are all working on how to improve the welfare of our people.
As far as Oyo is concerned, all federal lawmakers from the state have good working relationships with the Oyo State Government and we shall work together to alleviate the our people’s suffering, despite the fact that we belong to APC and the government is PDP. Don’t forget that we used to be members of the same political family and we know ourselves.
Can you give us some hints on what Nigerians should expect from the 10th National Assembly of which you are a member?
Let me say this clearly, the present National Assembly will be different from the past ones because there are seven political parties involved, both at the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is unlike the past when we had two or three political parties that were prominent in the Assembly. This means that there is going to be alignments and realignments and it does not mean that if a party has the majority it will use that as an advantage over the others. The present situation does not call for that and all the political parties this time around will work together for the good of our people.
Does it mean that there will be no rancour at the National Assembly?
There will definitely be rancour. You disagree to agree. That is what life is all about. But just as I said earlier, the 10th Assembly is going to be different from what we used to have because it is now a place where the ruling party in the majority cannot lord itself over others. But I can assure you that all what we are going to do will be in the best interest of the people.
Election Litigations: Group Advocates Amendment to Constitution
The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT) has advocated further amendment of Nigeria’s Constitution to allow conclusion of litigations before the inauguration of winners that emerged from elections.
The school’s Director, Dr Sam Amadi, made the call at a launch of a report titled on “Election without Democracy: Explanatory Notes on Nigeria’s 2023 elections.”
The event was organised by the Centre for Public Policy and Research (CPPR) in partnership with ASSPT, to review the outcome of the 2023 general elections and provide recommendations.
Concluding the litigation before inauguration of the new administration, according to Amadi, will solve half of the challenges the country is currently facing as well reduce the burden on the judiciary.
“In the report, we looked at the build-up, preparation and others.
“There shouldn’t be any government formed when there are pending court cases yet to be concluded. It is actually illogical to ensure all cases end before inauguration.
“People should not be disfranchised, the electoral umpire should be transparent and accountable, and INEC should make rules based on fairness and not bias,” he said.
Amadi said that the report also suggested a committee should be set up by INEC to review all petitions from aggrieved parties.
He said that such review by the committee would help the aggrieved party to either be satisfied with the outcome of the election or head to court to seek redress.
“After the election, INEC should sit with its team or committee and receive petitions from parties for review.
“When they approve all results, the next stage is swearing of elected leaders.
“If these are done, it will reduce the cases of elections in court because they have been resolved through fact-finding law application procedures.”
Amadi also advised Nigerians to accept the decisions of the judiciary on the various litigations at the judiciary.
“Nigerian judges are well trained and have the capacity to do justice. Once the court has spoken, we should all obey them,” Amadi said.
He also commended Justice Flora Azinge, the Chairman, State and House of Representatives Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano, who publicly raised an alarm that some individual lawyers arguing their petitions before the tribunal, attempted to obstruct the course of justice with financial inducement.
Azinge, addressing the open court on Tuesday shortly before calling the first matter, revealed how a senior member of the bar offered one of her staff N10 million bribe for onward delivery to the panel.
Speaking further on the group’s report, Amadi said in spite of the promises by electoral umpire, the elections still recorded some challenges.
He said that the report already submitted to INEC contained facts and observations on different areas of the election, including electronic transmission of election results, and INEC’s adherence to its own rules and regulations in the conduct of the election.
Amadi advised INEC to ensure that it adhered to its rules and regulations at all times in the conduct of elections.
“All elections are done according to law, and there are laws that state who’s qualified to run for an election.
“If we don’t follow our laws according to who is qualified to contest for an election, then the rule of law is defeated,” he said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
