BY SAMINU IBRAHIM

MR. Ibrahim Shehu Gusau is the Chairman, House committee on ICT. He  represents Gusau\Tsafe federal constituency in the House of Representatives. Elected on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, he bares his mind on burning national issues. Excerpts:

What informed the delay in the passage of the 2012 Appropriation Bill?
The executive submitted the bill very late and we at the National Assembly are expected to do judicious work on it. We at the Assembly, distributed the budget proposal to different committees, and those committees in turn looked at it critically.

But in between, the President sent it back for a reduction of about N400 billion at a time work was almost completed on the budget. We had to go back to the drawing board to find ways of bringing down that cost. So at the end, both the Senate and the House finished in a record time and sent the document to the President for assent. Surprisingly, we heard the President wanted to see the Speaker and the Senate President with regards to the budget again, that I think is what brought the delay.

Some legislators were reportedly fingered in the Police pension scam, what is the House doing to cleanse itself of the allegations?

You see the Seventh National Assembly is a different House, so if there is indictment, naturally investigations will be carried out; and at the end if anybody is found complacent he or she will face the law.

There are calls in certain quarters for convocation of Sovereign National Conference, SNC, to tackle certain national questions; do you think it is appropriate?

Ibrahim Gusau

You see by that action, you will be subjugating the powers of the National Assembly. From the 774 local government areas of the country, the people elected their representatives from each constituency; hence if there are issues to be discussed the members should be given the mandate to express them on the floor of the House. We have our procedures, motions are raised, and motions are supported, debated and adopted based on merit. So if there are issues that different sections of the country feel they want  discussed, they should call their members and brief them adequately on the major points.

A school of thought feels the National Assembly is allegedly shying away from topical issues, such as the national question, resource control, true federalism etc. hence the unabated call for national conference. We have a constitution that is adopted. Don’t we? Luckily, I am a member of the constitution review panel, I represent Zamfara State in the House of Representatives and you are aware Senator Ahmed Sani Yarima is representing Zamfara in the senate.

If there are issues in the sections of the constitution that Zamfara State for example wants corrected or any part of the country deems necessary, they should give us memo which would in turn be presented at the House. It is not a magic thing, there are procedures and guidelines. We all agreed to the 1999 Constitution and it is sacrosanct. We are not saying it cannot be changed; there is constitutional review from time to time. Any section that requires amendment could be addressed based on merit.

There are insinuations that the National Assembly should enact law to abrogate indigene\settler syndrome and also create constitutional role for traditional rulers. Do you subscribe to this assertion?

We cannot run away from the traditional rulership matter especially with what is happening right now in the country. In the past when a visitor enters a village, the traditional ruler must know the person’s identity.  But today, somebody living next door, you don’t know what business he does and that explained the reason  we have miscreants around us. So I personally support a role for  traditional rulers.

Giving the security challenges bedevilling the country, what effort is the legislature maqking to tame the Boko Haram sect?

We have different school of thought on this matter. From my own school of thought, I still believe dialogue is the way out because right now we are living in agitation.  You saw what happened recently in Kaduna. Unemployment is part of the problem. So we need to tackle unemployment. So, this is part of what the federal and state governments should address.

What is the position of the North with respect to 2015?
At the right time the North will decide.