By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Senator Ayo Arise is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who represented Ekiti North Senatorial District in the 6th National Assembly on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In this interview, he spoke about the Senate leadership, as well as people’s hopes and expectations of the new administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, expressing optimism of a better performance.
How do you see the emergence of Senator GodswillAkpabio as the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly especially bearing in mind the criticisms that trailed the executive intervention in the election process vis-à-vis the independence of the legislature?
The word intervention of the executive is misplaced as far as I am concerned. The party intervened and the head of that party is the president. If you send people to the Senate and you assume that these are members of your party, you expect their support for your policies and ideas to easily pass through the National Assembly. So, there must be a link between the executive and the legislature. And you can see it from those whom we copied the presidential system of government from that in every situation the Congress of the US is always working in tandem with the ruling party supporting the polices of the president. There is no way that can be called intervention. Intervention is when the executive deliberately goes into the chamber to influence voting during the election. After the election, the person who emerges as the president becomes first among equals. When I was in the Senate, the party came and spoke to us about who we needed to vote for and those of us who felt we needed to respect the view of the party voted for that person. There were other contenders, but it really didn’t matter to us because the party had taken a decision. That is the way it should be because if the party has no control over the presiding officers, then the party will have no reason to complain if the person begins to act against the interest of the party or the government.
The only thing that terrifies some of us is the kind of money we heard circulating among the lawmakers by these new day politicians. In our own time, it was after we had voted that we were given $5,000 as thank you. Today, we are hearing of somebody getting $50,000 even before getting to the voting process. It is ridiculous. We need to protect this democracy and move the country forward. You cannot say because you have money, you want to change the rules of the House. What kind of country we are? So, I am very happy that the intervention yielded results.
To many Nigerians, the immediate past leadership of Senator Ahmad Lawan was a rubber stamp. Do you share in this sentiment about rubber stamping?
I don’t know what they meant by rubber stamp. I don’t believe in this rubber stamp scenario. Don’t forget that we have members of the opposition in the same chamber. Some numbers of bills were passed by the 9th Assembly and most of these bills were written by the members. If there were anything that was anti-people, they would have raised the alarm. People like Ali Ndume and so many others would have raised questions if the bills were anti-people. I know that the way they vote right now is not the best. It is a gradual process. The ideal thing is for you to stand up and say, ‘I, Senator so and so, I am voting against this bill or I am voting in support of this bill.’ That way, your people will be able to know where you stand. What we are doing now with ‘aye and the nay’ still remains an elementary legislative practice. You can never judge accurately the number of people saying aye and those that say nay. Some of these things require adjustment and I believe that there will be improvement as we grow in our democratic practice. So, I don’t think anybody will be there to be a rubber stamp. At this level of our democracy, you cannot give every right to the opposition to do what they like because if they were so important, the people would have voted for them. They would have been the party in power. There is no sentiment about all these things. If at the end of the day you have a Senate leader that scuttled the policies of the executive, they will still blame the party, they are not going to blame the opposition. So, everything as a pro and con in this matter, I think what happened on the floor is a welcome development.
For the first time in recent times, the National Assembly is having representation from eight different political parties. What are your expectations from this kind of composition?
You will normally expect that the opposition will always want to work against whatever the ruling party is bringing to the floor because they want to protect their own interest. But as many as they are, they are still not as many as those from the ruling party. So, the ruling party will still have the majority. I do not expect anything different unless they want to start using money on the floor of the House and that will not be good for our democracy. This is more so that most of these monies were acquired not in the best of ethnical standard or integrity. It depends on who is the presiding officer, the minority will have their say, but the majority will have their way. That is the way it has always been in any democratic governance. It can only be a problem when they start to move in ethnic direction. And that will be very dangerous for the country. If we are looking at what will benefit our people, I don’t see why anybody will place ethnic interest above the national interest of the country. That a person is coming to the Senate from an opposition is even a privilege to speak in favour of national interest. I believe there is a minimum level of expectation from the Senators and they will carry themselves with dignity. We shouldn’t expect anything less. Some people might have got there by error, they must understand that they are holding that seat in trust for the majority of dignified people of this country. The Senate is supposed to be a breeding ground for the leadership of this country. So, we expect the best conduct from them.
The unity of the country has now become imperative in view of the recent past experience and the widening fault lines among the various ethnic interest groups. How do you see this happening under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
I think I like the way the president is moving with his new policies. He has promised Nigerians to build a great nation. If he continues this way, I believe that will be the end result. We will have a great Nigeria. In terms of politics of this country, he has proven himself to be a political genius. And he understands the fact that bringing Nigerians together from all ethnic groups to have a sense of belonging is very crucial. But at the same time, you are not going to say that because you want to bring the country together, you are not going to be careful in choosing those who will manage the affairs of the nation. As it is, I believe everybody will have his own share even beyond the mandatory ministerial positions. I expect that some people who have proven themselves worthy of appointment will be called upon to come and contribute their experience in running the affairs of his government even though for now, the people that he is putting in place are mostly people he had known and worked with before. And that should not be a surprise to anybody because the way it goes for Tinubu is the way it goes for every other person. They will always use people that they know and have played politics together. We have to be a little bit patient to see how he wants to manage the balance.
What are your thoughts about the recent suspension of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, vis-à-vis the reform of the financial sector he mentioned in his inaugural address?
It is not a rocket science for anybody to know that under Emefiele the financial sector was in a total mess. If we start judging from the exchange rates when he took over and what it was when he was asked to leave, it is not a record of success. It is one of the key points the president campaigned against during the electioneering. That the president recognized and moved very swiftly is one of the things people are giving him accolades for. Without even saying much, the head of operation already knows what needs to be done and he has liberalized the exchange rates. It is not as if he didn’t know before, but he was under somebody who had his own ulterior motive. His suspension does not need any soothsayer. People must begin to work with their conscience and have the love of the country at heart. It is when you have a country that works that you can enjoy your money. We should all think about Nigeria and stop thinking about ourselves.