Hon. Shehu Barwa Beji, All Progressives Congress (APC) member representing Bosso/Paikoro, Federal Constituency of Niger state, doubles as Deputy Chairman House Committee on Labour, Empowerment and Productivity. In this interview with AHMID LAWAL, Hon. Barwa chides the Federal Government for its inability to repair Minna-Abuja road and other issues.
Your experience as a first time legislator in the National Assembly?
So far, I have spent one year plus despite Covid-19 interruptions within the year, that gave us a compulsory break in the course of our duties as legislators. The period cut short our work in the National Assembly; however, we thank God for everything. I have gotten a lot of experience so far as a lawmaker and it has given me more experience than what I had before, I also have an in depth knowledge about the workings of a legislature, in terms of motions, bills and oversight as well as reaching out to constituency matters and if there is any bitter taste in my journey as a legislator, it’s the expectations coming from the people which is beyond our reach. The people forget that we are not executives and there is no financial vote for us to execute projects in our constituencies. As lawmakers, our duty is to make laws for the betterment of our people and the nation. But the reverse is the case here when people expect you to execute projects, build roads, schools and solve their financial needs, as such if you are not doing what they want , they begin to compare you with the executives and others which is worrisome to us.
But despite that as a politician one needs to go out of his way and do the needful in order to make them happy. Also the media on their part are not helping us to pass the message to the people regarding our duties as legislators who only make laws for the country and conduct oversight but they emphasise on the money lawmakers are earning , which is not friendly to us at all.
Lawmakers don’t have security votes or money meant for projects, they strictly live on salaries alone. And the public misunderstood us in this direction which is our biggest problem.
We should not forget that the legislature in our nascent democracy is newer than any other arm of government. This is because both the executives and the judiciary have been on ground before lawmakers, from when Nigeria got its independence to the military regime there was the executive arm of government as well as the judiciary but the legislature is new. The interruption created a huge gap for the legislature which was able to stabilize in the fourth republic and we are the worst hit by the society and the media.
That is why I said the National Assembly is newer than both the Executives and theJudiciary because of military interruptions and we are working to sensitise the public on the workings of the legislature.
What are your legislative interests?
My legislative interest is on security though I haven’t sponsored any bill but I have raised two motions on insecurity and sponsored a bill which has passed first reading. We all know that insecurity is one of the challenges we have as a nation, which is also the main cause of governance. Without security there won’t be a government. And insecurity is one of the reformations that led to the emergence of governance in society today and without it, there won’t be any need to form government. As a Lawmaker, I raised a motion on insecurity for the government to have a legal framework on it so that there would be safety in the land. I raised a motion on the floor of the House and resolutions were passed and actions were taken. The first one was about insecurity in the National Assembly, it was becoming almost an embarrassment to see protesters trooping into the premises of the
National Assembly without being stopped by security agencies and they went ahead to invade and gained entry into the premises as they shouted here and there. And my concern was that what if something happened, who would have taken the blame. So I had to raise a motion on that seeking for more security to beef up the area and probably stop any protesters from gaining access to the main entrance of the national assembly. This is not just about the members but staff and legislative aides and also visitors who might be targeted as a result of the protest within the premises. If there is no security in the National Assembly where else do you need security again?
The second motion was on my people in Niger state. There are three local government councils that make up my constituency, they are Shiroro, Munya and Rafi. These local governments have been raided by bandits, kidnappers and other criminals that affected a little part of my constituency within the Adonu Isho axis of Paikoro local government council . I feel that since my people were also attacked in their farmlands and the attack became severe that farmers left their lands and deserted to cities for safety yet the bandits went after them, like places in Kagara even though it was not under my constituency but I felt it and collaborated with the member involved so that I will raise a motion on that for the federal government to deploy more security to curtail the activities of bandits within the area . Before then, the Executive Governor of Niger state, His Excellency, Abubakar Sani Bello had complained over the issue but the federal government sent in some security personnel with aircraft to survey the environment within, which the bandit adopted gorilla tactics and withdrew and the moment the security men left the area, the bandit come out from their hiding places and resumed full operations which made me to move a motion asking the federal government to provide or build a military base there in order to curtail bandits’ activities. I said temporary surveillance within the vicinity will not help matters but a permanent base where the bandit will be checkmated on a daily basis. Also in the motion, I raised the issue of insecurity within the Federal Capital Territory , Abuja. I said that the FCT is not safe for people to live because kidnapping and banditry are on the increase which is a global embarrassment to us as a nation, people are being kidnapped daily in Abuja and nothing is done about it, I said that something needed to be done to stop the acts and also in the same motion raised in the House, I put a reminder to Mr. President to deploy more security within Niger state in order to stop the bandits from gaining further access to other parts of the state because if it continues, it might lead to anarchy which will be disastrous. I said in the motion that if the vices led to anarchy, we will be going the way of Rwanda and Somalia.
Since then, there is a lot of improvement now. I must say because the military deployed by the government were able to confront the bandits, peace has returned to the area.
What’s your take on the poor allocation to Minna road in the 2021 budget?
Let me tell you that a year ago my Governor came to the National Assembly with his commissioners to complain about the bad state of the federal roads in Niger state, and that the lawmakers should do something very fast hence it is the only road linking Abuja and other states. Why Minna road is more prominent is because it links us to Abuja, the allocated fund is very meager this year and some other federal roads in Niger also got less allocations, that is to say, it cannot be done this year too . We the lawmakers caucus from Niger state have raised an issue concerning the budget of last year and said instead of splitting small allocations to various roads in Niger which will not be constructed, why not put everything together and construct Minna to Abuja so that it will be repaired once and for all, then subsequent years, the federal government can concentrate on other roads within the state one after another but nothing is being done. The federal government should concentrate on doing Minna road and after that complete other roads within the state which will be better but it keeps on allocating a small amount of money to the roads which is not enough for the contractors to complete it.
This is not the fault of the contractors but the federal government who is paying less attention to Minna road by allocating a small amount of money to it that cannot be enough for contractors to complete them year in year out, which is a source of concern to us . Let me tell you that the contract to repair Minna road to Abuja was awarded by President Olusegun Obasanjo to Yar Adua and Goodluck Jonathan yet it has not been completed. This is getting to twenty years now, even if they were doing it little by little, they would have gone far with it by now. It’s quite unfortunate and we the citizens are feeling it day in day out even the ones they did before are already in deplorable state.
What is your committee doing to reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country?
There are so many forms of employment, either private, government or self-employed but we have a major arm of government that is in charge of creating employment to citizens, the National Directorate of Employment, whose function is to create employment to its citizens but they are under-funded. If you allocate much funds to them and allow them to perform their function, you will discover that they will reduce the rate of unemployment in the society. I myself am a beneficiary of NDE when they started in 1987. I benefited from their agriculture loan and used it to establish my farm, and became self-employed. It was not just the loan but they trained me in the specialized area I wanted to do in agriculture and within two years, I was able to pay them their money and stand on my own. NDE has so many programmes for the youth, ranging from skill acquisition to training and empowerment but they are being under funded.
Your take on the recent protest in the country?
The beginning was good. They had a reason and a good case but as usual as it persisted, criminals took over and destroyed it. That is what happened and also political opponents leveraged on that and waded in to tag the APC-led government bad, as they saw it as an avenue to blackmail the present government allowing criminals to loot public and private properties. In a democratic regime, protest is allowed which is good for our democracy but we should also do it with limit, because
the moment you allow it to linger it turns into another thing, of course. When they started the protest the government reacted immediately but they persisted and allowed criminals to take control which end result was devastating leading to wanton destruction of property and killing which was not the aim of the protest. But the protest opened a window for the government to look inward and think of more things to do for citizens.
