By Emman Ovuakporie

Rep Daniel Reyenieju is a two time member of the House of Representatives. Against the background of the ridicule that was manifest in the immediate past, House, Mr. Reyenieju in this interview speaks of an internal purging with a determination by the new leadership to entrench a legacy that will be applauded by Nigerians.
Excerpts:

Do you think the Speaker’s  6-point legislative agenda is achievable within the life span of his tenure?
First of all I will say this is a parliament, and to go by defining the term parliament, it is a place where people meet and rub minds and take decision on issues. The agenda we have set for ourselves are not too tall so to say, however, it is not compulsory that everything there has to be accomplished. What if some of the issues there do not crop up? It means it will not be touched.

But having said that putting the legislative agenda before parliament is like recalling the consciousness of parliamentarians that we have a huge task at hand and this task must be accomplished because when it is in black and white people see it and I think we shouldn’t fail from what we have set out to achieve ourselves. I quite agree that there are a lot of issues in the legislative agenda which I think; they are some things that are not too new to us, we are talking about transparency, budgeting oversight, building a virile and strong parliament. That agenda to me is a welcome development and I see it as the right thing in the right direction of this seventh National Assembly.

I still stand to say yes, let’s see how it goes, we just started. By the time we come back from vacation that is when we will know if this agenda is going to work or not, by that I mean driving this agenda to a logical conclusion also depends on the leadership and members, all members must be on board, the leadership of the House must interact with all members, they must see all members as equal, because I tell you there are some times your attitude as a presiding officer could infuriate the members of parliament, and you make everything you bring to become zero.

Hon Aminu Tambuwal is one good character, he interacts a lot and I believe in achieving this (agenda) he needs to interact more with members. But then I believe we must not allow the kind of crisis we had in the sixth National Assembly to resurface in the seventh National Assembly and I think that is one of the reasons we have the legislative agenda, trying to streamline some of our excesses, what we did that wasn’t right in the sixth National Assembly and how we can get it right this time by remaining focused, being guided by the legislative agenda. The legislative agenda is like a Bible to Christians or what the Quran is to Muslims and what the constitution is to Nigerians that is just what the legislative agenda is to the House of Representatives members, it’s a private personal agenda set by us for us.

For this agenda to succeed there is one angle to it, yes we have this concept of separation of power, but each arm of government  needs one another to succeed, no matter how beautiful your agenda will be, from what has happened so far, many people are scared that this House of Representatives may not have the best of relationships with the executive arm of government.

With this fear then, how do you think this fear can be doused and the level of relationship that should exist between the house and the executive?

I do not see anything to be afraid of, like I said we need the relationship, we need our independence then we also need to be interdependent among the three arms of government, it’s a very delicate balance but one must be equal to the other but depending on the others, we would depend on the executive, the executive would depend on us, we would depend on the judiciary, the judiciary would depend on us and all of that, you see, interdependence is very key we must also see them as arm of government, we need the relationship but what has happened in the National Assembly should be a thing of the past to me if it refuses to be a thing of the past then we might be having some problems of mutual trust among the arms of government, but I do not want to see a serious government or serious leadership of the House taking that to the extreme and saying no, I am not going to be with you because of what has happened on June 6, 2011. It’s all politics and I think it should be seen as a forgone issue, I want to believe that the executive in the hand of the president has more than enough issue at hand to actually take care of other than looking at what was happening in just one arm of government which is the legislature.

Do you think the House under the Tambuwal leadership is in the right direction?
Yeah, I will say yes, because there is nothing to be done that we are not doing. We are sitting, we are meeting and now we are on vacation which is normal. There is nothing abnormal in what has happened between June 6 and now, but it might look slow to you.

What is your assessment of the amnesty programme for Niger Delta militants?
The Niger Delta, hmm, well I have to take a deep breath because I have some reservations about a lot of things about the Niger Delta viz a viz the way things are done. I am saying this against the background that I am from Niger Delta, a major stakeholder and I will tell you that I am personally not happy with the way  the amnesty programme is being managed, the placement of projects in the Niger Delta is being handled.

One, I would say this that we have the Niger Delta ministry and I come from an area that produces close to about 40 percent of  the total oil  production in Delta State, I don’t have a project maybe because I don’t have somebody at the helms of affairs.

That is not fair, that is not equity that is not fairness, but having said that, the issue whether the Niger Delta is being over pampered or has gained more than enough shouldn’t come up at this particular time. You see the Niger Delta is a very difficult terrain which most people don’t seem to understand. The cost of putting up a three bedroom flat in Abuja will not give you a foundation level of a three bedroom flat in Delta. Also the cost of building one kilometer road in Abuja will not give you the starting point of constructing a one kilometer road in Delta, which means it cost almost three to four times  to construct one kilometer road in Delta than constructing it in Abuja.