Honourable Aliyu Ibrahim Gebi represents Bauchi Federal Constituency of Bauchi State in the House of Representatives. In this interview with CHIBUZO UKAIBE, he shares perspectives on his legislative agenda, six-year tenure proposal and several topical issue.
What is your take on the 6-year single term proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan for his office and governors?
As legislator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, unfortunately you would not get the right answer that you want as I cannot discuss it. It has not been presented to the House. As far as we are concerned, it is mere conjuncture and speculation because it has not been brought to us. But as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I personally feel that this epitomises the chaos in our polity. If an individual has been given the opportunity to spend 4 years at the helm of affairs of the highest office in the nation and you have not achieved one goal out of your agenda, what makes you feel that when it is elongated to, say one term of 12 years not even 6 years, you will achieve what you are expected to achieve? It is nonsense as far as I am concerned.
Enough is enough, we have too many issues, the issue that you will take ten years to solve, if you are a serious person in one year we will see your direction and say yes this person is good, he must continue, he has our mandate. We need people that will work. That breath of fresh air that has been promised; we want to see it because we believed in it. But we are yet to see it. So please let us see the breath of fresh air, let us breathe the fresh air so that we can say continue for 10 years. We want to see somebody that will come and fix our country – address the issue of social injustice which is paramount, the decay in infrastructure, in society, the comatose education system as enshrined in our legislative agenda which is a path that any rational government should follow. We need somebody to come and fix all that. We are not all born to be president, I must concede to that.
Do you see the House compromising on this issue?
We will not compromise, we dare not compromise. The emergence of the National Assembly is an act of God. It is as simple as that and God in his infinite mercy and wisdom has put Nigeria on the path to redemption so who are we to say we will go against God?
We will not compromise, even if a few do, I assure you that the majority will not. Having said that, whenever it is presented to us, we discharge our responsibility without fear or favour. We will do it to the best of our ability to protect our various constituents, to defend our greater constituency, the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So whatever we do, will be, and must be for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we will not compromise that.
What is your legislative agenda?
I keep getting the same question over and over again. My agenda is the same agenda that our leader, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal declared formally to the nation. It is the same agenda that every legislator has, though it will be on a lower level. My agenda is to rebuild a fragmented society; to give confidence to a disenfranchised people and to restore the dignity of our people because collectively our psyche has been eroded by years of misrule and misrepresentation by a few people. We must give back power to the people. We are a parliament representing the people. I am representing the people of the Federal Constituency of Bauchi. So I must represent them.
What is the way forward to ensure timely passage and implementation of the budget?
Like I told you, whatever we are going to talk about now has already been talked about. Our legislative agenda is clear, whatever you don’t understand, talk to our leaders, contact me, come to the House, visit our website. We supported and passed the FOI Bill, and we are the first to implement it to the full. The legislative agenda is clear. Whatever is good for the nation, to move the nation forward we must adhere to. The problem we have with budget implementation, is that it is not presented in time; so I will appeal to the executive, let us do this on time so that we don’t slow down the processes of infrastructural development in Nigeria.
Let us be on time, now that you are interviewing me, am I not on recess? But we are here working; this building is full of legislators working. But this is not what people expect. But as I like to say to everyone that cares to listen, it is no longer business as usual, it is business unusual. The Speaker is upstairs working; we must turn this country around. And I am glad that if the president wants to partner with us, he will find us as willing partners. In fact we will so work with him that at the end of the day, he will have our pictures, all 360 of us pasted on his office corridor, saying this are my brothers and sisters, this are the people that helped to turn Nigeria around. If you want to work for Nigeria, we are willing partners.
But if you don’t want to work for Nigeria, you will find us very difficult to work with. But as for the budget we will restructure it, we will bring it back to the way it is supposed to be. It is supposed to follow a calendar process, meaning from month to month, this is what has been prepared, from this month to this month – this is what obtains, and so forth. We must do that for the sake of our people, we cannot hold people to ransom and the country cannot move forward because the budget has not been passed. No! We cannot hold 140 million Nigerians ransom.
Things must be done as and when due. This is why our leadership which we believe in, otherwise we will not have elected’ them, because we believe this people have what it takes to make sure that the House discharges the mandate given to them by our various constituents have made budget passage a top priority. So back to the budget, we will rectify it, to the way it is supposed to be.
On corruption, do you feel the EFCC and the ICPC should be merged?
Whether you merge them or not, we know for a fact that the EFCC has done a very good job, nobody can dispute that. ICPC has also done a very good job; now the people that are, clamouring for a merger. I don’t support it. Don’t rock the boat there is too much corruption. Maybe we need more anticorruption agencies, maybe the agencies are too few and over-burdened. And the police should also be strengthened and empowered. It is all based on investigation and forensic analysis.
We need to create more agencies until the last corrupt person is languishing in jail. The merger is not about merging a company so as to create more wealth for the shareholder, No! We are trying to tackle corruption, which is a pandemic, it has eaten at the core of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So I, personally, as an individual, do not believe in the merger and I will fight it also as an individual.
But collectively as a parliament we will look at it holistically and see how to strengthen and fortify the war against corruption. But on the whole, the EFCC has done very well. For the first time we have seen highly placed individuals in handcuffs. They must be encouraged to continue their commendable work.
On the minimum wage controversy, why do you feel some states don’t want to pay? What is the way forward?
You see we are back to what I said before – social injustice. This is something we have debated on the floor of the House. We said government, should pay. We have discharged our own obligation as representatives of even the people in labour, FG, states please pay. These people’s demands are not crazy, they are not outrageous. N18,000 naira minimum wage is not too much, yet some banks are saying minimum deposit is 25,000 naira; this amount is insignificant. I participated in the debate and I said our, governors are very intelligent, creative people. If they really want to pay, they can find some creative way of doing some magic. Or is it because elections seem so far away. Four years is not a long time, my brother, if we are alive 4 years will come and pass right.
I empathise and sympathise with labour, N18,000 is not a lot of money. And these people, their demands were initially N50,000 but they dropped it to N18,000, pay them for the love of God, for the love of the Nigerian nation. If they cannot truly pay, let them reach out to their elder brother, the federal government to help them.
Labour are very humane people, very patriotic people; without them there can be no nation. If they see that these governors are really sincere about paying, labour are not unreasonable people, they can make adjustments but you cannot renege on agreements. We cannot as a nation be seen to renege on agreements. It is a blemish on our nation. Let them pay. Let those who too much money loan to their poorer brothers in the other parts. They have a Governors Forum; let them come with a creative solution. By the Grace of God they will pay.
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