BY DAPO AKINREFON

MR Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, popularly referred to as MOB, was a two-time Commissioner in Lagos State. He was elected on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to represent Ado-Ekiti/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency, Ekiti State in the House of Representatives.
In this interview, Bamidele, who is also a lawyer, gives reasons why he is unable to fulfill his electioneering promise of surrendering his constituency allowances to his people, takes a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for calling on the Speaker of the House of Reps to resign his position and ventilates on how the ACN is settling its internal issues.
Excerpts:

WHAT would you say you have learnt so far as an elected member of the House of Representatives?
Definitely I will say by the grace of God, I am not overwhelmed but I must say there has been some form of realization which helped my understanding of the workings of the National Assembly and my own understanding of what I will be able to deliver as an elected member of parliament.

 But I am happy that almost most of what I felt would be the situation and what I thought I would be able to do remain intact. Out of sheer ignorance, I must put it that way; I had  said to my constituents that I would surrender my constituency allowance to a management committee that would comprise party leaders and members of the civil society and some community leaders to determine how to apply such allowances and to what projects. Again, I had also said, out of my own consciousness of wanting to give something back to the system, that I would donate and surrender my salary to the use of my constituency and how that would be applied, would also be determined by the fund management committee.

Constituency projects

But getting to the National Assembly, I realized that elected members of parliament would not be given constituency projects allowances, because there is nothing like that. With respect to my salaries, I remain committed to surrendering my salary to my constituency, especially those for the months of June and July. The money will be paid into an account, which will be managed by a management committee, which we are setting up. Basically, it is important to note that the idea of surrendering my constituency project allowances, it is not anything that will happen because members of parliament are not given constituency project allowances.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, said recently that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal must quit office. What is your reaction to that?

The call was extremely unfortunate and I also want to believe that even though Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is the chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, what he has said is not in consonance with the position of PDP as a party.

For once, I will want to believe that he has not spoken for the party. To begin with, I believe the statement is in direct confrontation with the popular feeling of Nigerians through their representatives in parliament, it also smacks some form of allergy to the independence of the legislator that we are all clamouring for.

Confidence of members

360 elected members of parliament should be able to determine who their leader would be. The Speaker must have the confidence of the members of the House he wants to lead for you to be able to perform such a role.

I think PDP should consider itself lucky that in a parliament where you have 160 members from opposition parties, you have a Tambuwal, a member of PDP, who enjoys the overwhelming support and confidence of people who are elected on the platform of opposition parties, including the leaders of opposition parties.

PDP cannot have it better. We did not just support anybody; we supported somebody who had been in the house, who understands the workings of the legislature; who also has been above board. He also a credible member of the civil society, I am also impressed that he is a member of the Body of Benchers.

It is not about South or West, North or East, it is about credibility. At what point did former President Obasanjo become so committed to the South West that he is now talking about Tambuwal resigning in order not to stop the macabre dance called the PDP zoning arrangement. He did not just say he should resign, he also prophesied very rightly that if the Speaker and his deputy do not resign, that might mean the beginning of the end of PDP. For me, it is a prophecy that will be fulfilled, because Tambuwal and Emeka will not resign. So, it will be in the interest of Nigerians for PDP to die because there are other parties that would absolve the good people in PDP.

*Bamidele

Being on the floor of parliament for two months has shown me that there are people of like minds in PDP. For us, there are people in the house, who talk Nigeria and not PDP, for us those are the issues. It is not about where somebody comes from. And if anybody would resign anyway, because they want to fix the zoning palaver in PDP, it does not have to be Tambuwal. Tambuwal was not the only person that was elected, they should go back to the roots and how the problem began.

 Would Chief Obasanjo have called on President Jonathan and the Vice President to resign in order to fix its zoning problem? Why Tambuwal? It shows lack of respect for our democracy, it shows lack of respect for the rule of law, it shows smart of an allergy to the independence of the legislature, which this country needs so much, because the legislature is the backbone of our democracy. The nation has an unusual parliament and time will tell because we have our own tactics.

Recently, members of the House of Representatives invited the Central Bank governor to shed more light on the proposed Islamic Banking, but Nigerians believe that he was not well drilled.

Well, we are parliamentarians elected by the people, to be criticized by the people. We are the ones to be criticized by the people; we cannot criticize the people and we will not. The current parliament is determined to engage in best parliamentary practices and if we are going to do that, it will also involve you admitting that you have erred. To that extent, the appearance of the CBN governor and the manner of response by the members of parliament, to me, was not just the best that could have happened.

With respect to whether or not the CBN governor was asked questions, I would insist that the House of Reps did not make any mistake in that regard. To begin with, let me emphasize that there is no law or rule or standing order that says members of parliament must ask questions from people that they bring to address the parliament.

Sometimes, we can ask you one thousand questions, sometimes, we can ask you to take a bow and leave. In respect to why or not questions were not asked, the presiding officer, given the mood of the nation, as reflected by the gesture and body language on the day the CBN governor appeared, was convinced that allowing members to ask questions on the floor of the house that would have led to a situation that no one would have been able to predict.

Obviously, there was a polarization of opinions because members of the House are Nigerians, they represent different interest groups. The CBN governor had also said, specifically, on the floor of the house that Anambra state in the east had bought into the idea of Islamic banking. He had said different things.

Financial institution

Members from Anambra were there, they did not believe what he was saying, and they had their own issues and denied what they described as allegations by the CBN governor that Anambra had borrowed money. The Banks and other Financial Institution Act makes it very clear that no bank or financial institution shall adopt a name that has a religious connotation.

We are not opposed to non-interest banking, but must you give it a religious name at a time that we have a lot of security issues on our hand that we are trying to deal with? Some people are trying to exploit religion and you know religion has never been our problem with us; but people try to exploit all these things to divide and rule.

Part of the concern of Nigerians is that don’t use our banking sector again as a platform for any religious agenda. These are issues that must be handled with a lot of caution. For us on the floor of the House of Reps, we felt that joining issues with the CBN governor was not going to make so much difference; it could only make matters worse. Like we have said, at the appropriate time, we will take appropriate decisions that we think is in the best interest of this nation.

The activities of the Boko Haram sect has been generating heat in the polity, what is the House doing to address the insecurity in the nation?

The House of Reps is also concerned with the security in the country. The leadership of the house is working with the executive arm of government to also lend hands to the on going collective efforts and trying to address issues of security. But I believe Boko Haram is something that should be handled with a lot of caution; it should not just be condemned as a crime, but it should be viewed as a crime with a variance.

It should also be viewed as a crime with possible political undertone and connotation. We didn’t just condemned the Niger Delta militants, we addressed the issues and I believe that while we are doing whatever we have to do to combat crime and end the ongoing onslaught, like Boko Haram, there is also the need to fairly engage those who the security network of this country have identified as the people behind the Boko Haram onslaught.

In other words, let’s not just
condemn it as a crime that is being perpetrated on the streets, we must address it as a political issue and as part of the reactions to the socio-economic and religious manipulation that is going on in this country. There is need for socio-economic and political justice. Today we are talking about Boko Haram, tomorrow it could happen in the Southeast or in the Southwest or in any other part of the country.

But if we allow justice to flow down like water, there will be less things to worry about and at the end of the day, you will be able to come up with a standard. If we don’t have a standard by which Nigerians are treated, there will always be disgruntled elements and as such as possible, in addressing the issue of Boko Haram, let us match physical provision of security through arms and ammunition with intelligence.