From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
In the run up to the 2027 general elections, there are several bills before the House of Representatives seeking the alterations of the Electoral Act. One of such bills is a proposal to remove the power to appoint the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the President and vest same on the National Assembly.
In this interview, the sponsor of the bill, Honourable Jesse Onuakalusi said that the proposed legislation, if passed into law will help to guarantee the independence of the electoral umpire. Onuakalusi, a member of the Labour Party( LP), representing Oshodi/ Isolo Federal Constituency II, also bared his mind on other national issues.
Some of your colleagues have sponsored bills a single term of six years for the President and governors, as well as rotational presidency, what is your take on these issues?
You know there are three stages of bill passage. The first reading, the second reading, the committee, the third reading, before assent. Definitely, once you are here, you are meant to come up with ideas. The alteration of the Nigerian constitution requires 2/3 of state Houses of Assembly. So, it is a process. At the end of the day, it will be presented for public school scrutiny. And the public will decide.
Just like I have bill on the appointment of INEC chairman. My own position in that bill is that it should be thrown open and canvased. And when it is thrown open, the qualified people will apply and when they reduce the number, it will come to the National Assembly which will vote for who should be chairman of INEC. The aim is to ensure that the chairman of INEC is independent.
So, my own bill on the appointment of INEC chairman is that the National Assembly should be the one that will appoint who will be the INEC chairman. It has already gone through first reading. It will be going for second reading.
When the National Assembly appoints -the members will vote and whoever gets 2/3 majority will be the INEC chairman; that makes a lot of difference.
Another bill I have, which have gone for second reading, is the bill to ensure that we patronize made in Nigeria goods, especially in auto mobile and other agencies. So those bills, when they go through, would provide that if Nigerians want to buy a car, they must first of all, look at home and see the ones that are available; except when there’s no option that you can purchase outside.
But what are your thoughts on single tenure and rotational presidency?
It is just to show the life of inclusion, inclusiveness; because it gives every region an opportunity to have a bite at the cherry. I believe strongly that if you leave room for rotational presidency, the agitation, the issue of marginalization will be reduced to the barest minimum.
So, I subscribe for a rotational presidency where people will be allowed to present their best at their own time; it is practised in Switzerland.
Beyond your proposal on appointment of INEC chairman, what do you think can make elections in the country more credible?
The issue of electronic voting, transmission of result upon voting, counting result upon voting through electronic means. After accreditation, we vote and it will now hit the collation center, that will go a long way. So, we need electronic voting in Nigeria. That’s the only way we can check corrupt practices in the collation centers.
How has it been, representing the people of Oshodi/ Isolo Federal Constituency II in the last one year?
It has been a momentous time. It has been a challenging moment. That has been a period of facing things you
don’t know about. Politics is all about life and there’s politics in your home.
In the National Assembly, by virtue of Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution that established the National Assembly, we are meant to make laws. So, when we came on board, it is our mission to ensure that we were able to present bills and motions that will improve on the life of our people especially the welfare of Nigerians. But we discovered that there are a lot of challenges in the system.
The last administration performed poorly in leadership; that the present administration inherited a lot of problems. We approved the 2023 supplementary budget, just to cushion the effects of food challenges, because of insecurity in the nation; but it did not go far knowing that the population of Nigeria is over 200 million. There’s no amount of food that the government can supply that will be able to cushion the effect.
In the area of bills, we have done a lot of this. I think I have over 20 bills. And I have about 16 motions strictly meant for the welfare of Nigerians.
The first bill I sponsored here was building skills acquisition center in my Constituency and in the other 359 federal constituencies. Because education is key, I have a motion on building libraries, especially e-library in the 774 local government areas, because the more knowledgeable your people are, the lesser level of poverty; the lesser, the number of insecurity.
We have moved motions on the flooding in our areas. My constituency, once it rains, the whole place is flooded. And that we experienced during the last week. But all these resolutions we have passed, find out, there is a challenge of implementation.
So, one thing is to move a motion and the House will resolve; another thing is for the Executive to implement it. So, there is a gap, seeming gap between the resolutions passed by the House and the execution by the Executive.
I look forward to a manageable position where every resolution passed is taken by the executive and implemented. And with that we will be able to solve a lot of problems.
We have passed a lot of resolutions which the Executive haa not been able to implement. That is one. Secondly, the economy of Nigeria is not in good shape.
The President upon assumption of office made a profound statement that fuel subsidy is removed. But there was no laid down preparation for it. And that’s what caused the high rate of inflation and other areas, give a lot of challenges to Nigerians. But I think they are working hard to see how they will be able to tackle it.
A lot of people see the parliament as the answer to all the problems, but that is not it. The parliament is meant to make laws. The parliament is meant to represent the interests of the people and it is Executive that executes those laws.
The parliament make laws, the Executive executes it. That is the challenge with the resolution we pass. If all resolutions are implemented, I want to tell you there won’t be insecurity in Nigeria.
Why can’t the parliament insist on the execution of those resolutions? The parliament is empowered to oversight the Executive and the impression out there is that the parliament most often play to the gallery?
If you have been following parliamentary debate all over the world, you find out that there is a parliamentary role. What you do, you oversight. You make corrections, call to order, about the events that are happening and ask the Executive to do it. It is the Executive that implements . So, this issue of playing to the gallery is a word used outside. But you are a journalist in the National Assembly, so you know whether what we are doing is playing to the gallery or presenting the challenges we have in Nigeria.
The parliament presents the problems. That is why you see us calling ministers and others to come and account for the money that has been appropriated to the agencies and we insist in doing that. That is the only way we can oversight and see that things are done. So, this idea of playing to the gallery, I don’t know what you mean by it.
After the last general election, there were exceptions that we were going to have a National Assembly where the opposition will be vibrant. One year after, has that confidence been justified?
Yes to a reasonable point, the opposition has played its role. And that is why you can see that most of the bills that are passed, you can hear their voice; but you must understand in any parliamentary system, the majority will have their way and the minority will only have their say.
Our voices are heard. We make our positions known. When we don’t like issues, we raise it and say no. This is not proper. But the majority will always have their way. But the opposition will present their own. And their voice will be heard. That is normally what happens.
After the last general election, the three major political parties have been in crises, the PDP, NNPP and your party, the Labour Party. What does this portend for opposition politics…
There is no crisis. In every family, even in your own family, there is misunderstanding. In my own Labour Party, there’s misunderstanding, which is always prevalent in every family. So, every family manages their own crisis and their own challenges. So, we are managing our own. There is no rift, as portrayed in the media. Most times, what you read in the social media is not what it is.
Even in my family, in your own family, people when they are aggrieved, they go to court. It doesn’t mean that the focus has been lost. But the important thing is for you to disagree to agree. And not to disagree to disagree completely.
Do you subscribe to a merger or a kind of coalition of opposition parties to wrest power from the APC in 2027?
You know politics is a game of interests. It is still too early to talk about it. In the course of time, things will evolve and when things evolve, we will be able to know the next thing to do. But there is always need for an alliance. And people are talking to themselves on the best way to ensure that we will be able to present a formidable team, a formidable party in 2027.