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There are wide spread believe making the rounds within and outside the state of high level compromise by the legislature on the Government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello. Majority of Citizenry were allegedly not happy with the legislature on the unholy alliance with the Executive on issue that concerns the welfare and development of the state which they considered the allegiance to be tantamount to the growth of the state. But in a swift reactions, the speaker RT.Hon. Matthew Kolawole in a chat with some selected Journalists on Sunday in lokoja, debunked the insinuations, said there is no water tight seperation between the two any where in the world, rather a complementary relationship.
He also promise to mobilise over one thousand delegates for Bello’s presidency.
Exerpt.
The thinking of man is not the same with God . Kogi state House of Assembly is not a duplication or a rubber stamp as people think we are. What we are doing in the House is to build good relationship with the Executive, because there is nothing to gain in confrontation. If there is crisis between us and the Executive , the growth of the state will be retarded. It will draw the state backward and the people will be affected.
The Executive Bills sent to us have to pass our legislative scrutiny. It has to pass through first, second , third readings to committee and public hearings before we pass it. For instance, if the state needs a loan for the good of the state and the Executive approach us , we have no choice not to approve as long as we consider critically the benefits to the generality of the people, we have to pass it.
The Executive would always send us a letter requesting us to approve for a counterpart funds . For example, the State Universal Basic Education SUBEC will request us to approve their counterparts funds to access grant from the UBEC, we have no cause not to accede to their demand., because when the fund comes, it will be used to upgrade schools across the state, so if we deny them opportunity of accessing the loan–the counterpart fund– the state will lose out of the benefits from the Federal Government who will not care a hoot whether you access the funds or not. It will not speak good of us to use our legislative powers to draw the state backward., hence , all we need to do is to encourage the Executive to do something meaningful for the people.
By and large , I think the relationship which I call legislative and executive relationship is really helping the state to move forward.
In a state where there is legislature and Executive conflict, the two arms of Government will loose and there is nothing the state would gain from it. That is why we decided to be quiet to do our jobs peacefully and I don’t care what people, whether we are rubber stamp or not , what is important is, we are justified by what we have done .
For instance, if the Executive sent us a bill, which we call executive bill, we have to pass, we have to do our own job by first, second, public hearing before we approve.Will you call this process rubber stamping.
His relationship with members.
I have never been a boss to anybody, if you know me too well, you will know I don’t act bossy . No way.. The truth of the matter is , we have 25 members from 25 backgrounds and mindsets . Some want to be this , after my tenure, some want to be called honourables while some are in the House as a ladder to move to another level To me I don’t see me being bossy to anybody because I’m only opportuned to lead them today as one among equals. And I tell you, if I have been a Lord to them, I know them , they would have removed me long ago. In actual sense , you can’t be bossy to your colleagues, because we are birds of the same feathers. Being a speaker does not mean you know more than them and any attempt to show that you know more than them, then , you are running yourself into trouble.
Financial Autonomy.
Although the presidency has granted us financial autonomy and set up implementation Committees, for kogi state, for example, the Executive arm of government is operating what I called ” partial Autonomy”, because the allocation they are giving to us at the end of the month still kept coming, It is not a total autonomy, like saying what do you have in your Budget, we want to look at the budget and give you money based on collateral. The truth of the matter is this , it is a collective issue in the Federation.
The president has approved the autonomy by signing into law the financial Autonomy bill and then he went further to issue executive order , but the Executive order he issued, I’m sure the governors went to court to challenge not the Executive order but subsection of the Executive order which direct them to do some certain things for the judiciary. The autonomy affects the two arms and as the matter is in court , it is invariably affecting the legislature.
However, the basic arrangement needed to kickstart the financial Autonomy in kogi state is met by the government.
The Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello has signed into law the Kogi State House of Assembly Service Commission ( kGSHASC) which is one of the conditions for you to be financially autonomous. The commission has been working close to a year now.
Another thing is the fund management bill, which is the second leg of the autonomy which has also been signed into law. For now we are waiting for the outcome of the litigation to know exactly were we are.
Poor state of the access road to the Assembly complex.
As a legislature, we are concerned with appropriation of funds , the execution of the funds is left with the Executive arm of the Government.
We in the legislature has no powers to force the government to spend the money appropriated. The Executive may have their priorities different from ours. We are pushing them to prioritise the road. We are not the only ones using the road even the Executive does. But I believe for now , the zone 8 road to Crusher may not be their immediate priority, but something is going to be done. Essentially, what we have done is to capture the road into the budget and this is where our powers stopped. However, we will continue to intensify lobbying until the road is reconstructed.
Again, you talk about , members operating close to a year without official vehicles that will aid them to perform their legitimate duties, we are only empowered to appropriate funds, the execution is in the hands of the Executive arm. Sincerely speaking, I think the state is facing huge financial challenges as a result of the outbreak of Covid 19 through out 2020. I’m sure this challenge must have been the major reason for not distributing the official cars to members. However, by the grace of God , the members will definitely have their cars this year.
You recently adopted a motion calling on Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the 2023 presidential election, what would have inspired you.
You know governor Yahaya Bello did not say he want to run, it is we in the House of Assembly, after looking at the history and we discovered that under the present Democratic dispensation, nobody from the north central has been president or vice President, and we felt there is no cost for anybody to have ambitions even that of Presidential ambition. What we have done and doing is to urge him to contest the presidency which I believe he will win. If you look at his antecedents, he has what is called lion heart. He has achieved stability in the area of security, women empowerment, Education, Agriculture and what have you and we thought it wise , that after achieving all these, the next port of call should be the presidency.
He is our leader and it is when the leader is moving up on the political leader that the followers would also have the chance to move up.
Where we are now is at the level of consultation. He has not giving answers to our call but I’m sure he has begun consultations. I have called on men of God to keep praying for him to win. His winning will have multiplying effect on the state, the moribund Ajaokuta steel company will be revived and lots of jobs would be created for our people and for us in the state to produce a president of the country, it would be a replica of 1901 when Kogi was the first capital of the nation. So we need to join hands to ensure he wins which means bringing power back to its original domain.
Like I said during the motion, we are going to mobilise, move round the 36 states House of Assemblies to lobby our colleagues to buy into our brand.
And as you are aware, members of the legislature are automatic delegates of their parties, and if you put together APC members in the 36 state legislatures , we are not less than a thousand delegates which is a huge advantage for him. We are going to move from states, to local governments, to wards to canvass for him, and it is like a child’s play now, it may become a reality. So , to me, we are not going to say Ogah contest , we are going to move into the political trenches to lobby would be delegates for him.
