Hon. Lasun Yussuff is the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, representing Osogbo/Olorunda/ Orolu/Irepodun federal constituency. In this interview with journalists, he explains why Nigeria should support devolution of power, his ambition to be the governor of Osun state come 2018 and other sundry issues. F DADA was there
The bridge that linked your town, Ilobu, with the state capital is about 105years, what step are you taking to ease the hardship on the one way bridge? I will start by saying that I bought my fi rst car about 28 years ago and I have always been driving between Osogbo, Ilobu and Ogbomoso through Ojutu bridge, and as a proud son of Ilobu, like I told my people two years ago, that anybody, within Ilobu township, that tried to remind me of what I should do to Ojutu bridge, is only trying to underrate my intelligence and my act of being responsible if I’m in a public offi ce.
So, there is nobody that can be more concerned about the bridge than my humble self, giving the fact that as I’m seated here today, traditionally, I am the head of appropriation in the House of Representative.
Th at means that, as long as I’m the deputy speaker, that bridge cannot suff er attention which has been demonstrated by me.
In 2016, the bridge was my input into the Nigeria budget and the contract was awarded based on 2016 budget at a cost of N584million.
But, let me say this for the benefi t of the Nigerians public, one of the most challenging aspects of the execution of our budget or implementation of Nigeria budget when it comes to capital project is one: our procurement act is too stiff .
Two, the procurement process is too laborious for any meaningful development to take place.
Th en number three, we have not as a nation decided on the method and the type of budget we want to be writing.
Are we going to be writing a zero based budget or we are going to consolidate and improve on the incremental budgeting system that we are operating now.
Th ey are two diff erent things.
Incremental Budgeting When you look at all these, they now constitute major impediment when it comes to implementing capital project and I will do the illustration viz-a-viz Ojutu bridge.
Like I said, Ojutu bridge was awarded based on 2016 budget, but up till today, the contractor has not been mobilised more than 15 per cent, and if you ask somebody to come and do N584 million job and you mobilised him 15 per cent of the job almost about ten months after.
As it stands today, the so-called local contractors, when I say local contractors, you know that we are always derogatory about what concerns us and Nigeria contractorsare not supposed to be tagged and labelled as local contractors, so, the so-called local contractors are being owed close to N5trillion and you can imagine the impact the money would do in an economy of ours of which the total budget of Nigeria as at this year is just N7trillion and people are being owed about N5trillion.
It is also in 2017 budget.
I have taken another step on the bridge because nobody can be more concerned than me.
OAU I was at a burial ceremony today where one Islamic cleric said there are three places where one must always honour when you are blessed: where you come from, where you are educated and where you are off ered employment.
I stood up there and I answered that I attended four schools around this place.
One incidentally, the state government was faster at AUD primary school where I started my primary school in 1965, is being reconstructed by the state government.
I attended Ifon-Erin Commercial High School, I have built the school as far back as 2014.
I’m currently rebuilding the modern school I attended.
I have a project that worth N50 million that is currently going on in the department of mechanical engineering at the then University of Ife nowcalled Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU.
Why is devolution of power not getting the support of majority in the House of Representatives and the issue of restructuring is not being discussed in the House of representative.
Let me begin to clear this.
Th ere isno perfect society.
Society evolves.
You begin to thinker on whatever structure that brings you together and one of the structures that brought us together in Nigeria as a country is the constitution, and those people who are outside, and they feel that Nigeria constitution is being attended to, or that we are not doing it in the right way, the fact still remains that all of us have a stake and the stake is very high.
So, the mere fact that devolution of power appeared in one clause of the constitution should fi rst of all tell you that those of us that are heads are more concerned.
If we are not concerned, we have the enormous power of making sure that it does not appear at all, together with my colleagues in the Senate, Distinguished senator Ike Ekweremadu.
So, the mere fact that it appeared as one of the areas that was to be amended should let you know that we are more concerned.
We are not riff -raff s, we are educated, we are deep, we know what devolution of power means.
Agitation Th e agitation of our forefathers for creation of state and local government is basically for devolution of power, in their own language, it is an attempt to try to bring government nearer to the people.
Why do you agitate for the creation of state? Why do you agitate for the creation of local government? Is just because you want government to come closer to the people and that is essentially what we have been undertaking from the days of General Yakubu Gowon in 1967, that is to keep dividing Nigeria into smaller unit in a manner that would serve that purpose.
But, having done that for a very long term, you still discover that the purpose is still not being served and what is the purpose, getting government closer to the people.
We are now left with myriads of challenges, human capacity, the depth of people who occupy executive position, the process of implementing government’s programmes, those who are going to implement government programmes.
Devolution of Power As an Engineer of about 32 years, I’m sorry, I know AutoCAD or design is important, but I don’t use computer because I know Nigeria is not at that level.
We are not there yet.
We should do things from fi rst basic principles
So, devolution of power is essentially means, in the case of the constitution, ceding power to the lower level of government.
Th e power at the centre, by Exclusive List of the constitution of Nigeria, is too heavy and so we just decided because of the clamour by Nigerians to make sure that we take some out of the Exclusive List and bring it down to the Concurrent List of the constitution, that is simply what the devolution of power is all about.
You will be talking about important area like Agriculture, Police, Land Use Act, Local Government Autonomy and the rest of them.
In developed countries, government at the centre are basically concerned about few things like central bank, you can call it reserve bank anywhere, the monetary policy, defense, foreign aff airs, those are the major things that other countries have already developed and get concerned about.
But, in Nigeria, if you want to get anything, you have to go to Abuja to get it.
Let me tell you this, if you follow the way we voted, you would know that those that don’t want devolution of power are in the minority and I will tell you why.
When you see things, please always do critical analysis because you are the one that we depend on to inform the public.
Th e clause, devolution of power in the House of Representatives, 220 people voted for it, we were only 20 votes short because we needed 240 votes.
Essentially, if we are talking about simple majority, devolution of power will pass.
In the Senate, I think it failed by about 15 or 17 votes.
If you look at it critically, people abandoned us when we were running helter skater all over the countries, organising seminars, doing workshop for ourselves and the public, telling Nigerians that we are about to undertake the process of amendment of 1999 constitution, people just felt that they are not concerned.
Power Devolution Attracted 220 votes I don’t even know what Nigerians think about us.
I’m sorry to say with all modesty, we are well educated.
We know our problems.
We know what we can do to get Nigeria out of problem.
Like I said in one other place that, imagine 469 people, are you saying we would not have 50 people that are well developed.
360 House of Representatives, 1 09 Senators, you think all of us are morons, you think it is only the criticism that is coming from people that can change Nigeria, you think those of us that are there and those that have come and gone are not capable of changing Nigeria.
People did not pay attention to us.
From traditional leaders to local level and the state level, they would have called the representatives and the senators to say it is high time devolution of power passed.
Th ose votes that we did not have, basically was because of that.
It is on record that devolution of power in the House of Representatives attracted 220 votes.
So, those who didn’t want devolution of power are in the minority.
I am using this opportunity to tell Nigerians that whatever we are doing there, whether we are shouting or fi ghting or smashing maze, people should pay attention to us because the critical moment when the attention is paid to us no matter, would be such moment and it could be once or twice in a tenure.
Functional LG Let me say this.
Somebody ask me, you want to be governor and you are voting for local government autonomy and I told the person, am I going to the governorship seat because of the local government money? Th at is another thing that you people should praise us for.
I know I want to be governor here and I know that by the grace of God I will be, yet, I was the major proponent of the local government autonomy and I know the implication, but, am I coming to govern my state because of local government money? Why wouldn’t I allow the local government to function on their own? Th e moment you allow local government to function on their own, you have relieved yourself from the burden of the state government to a greater extent even up to 75 to 80 per cent.
You can go out and say you are not doing well because your local government chairmen are not doing well and nobody will accuse you.
As far as I’m concerned, devolution of power failed because people refused to pay attention to us in the sense that they should have called their representatives and the senate, and we are going back to it.
Th at is the good news.
It is a continuous process.
When I became the chairman of the constitution review, there are some representatives faction.
One of the pledges I made was that we would get new amendment by the end of second year of this tenure.
When we resume now, we would think of some area that are important like sociocultural and political system to make sure that Nigeria does not die.
I would like to know why your party refused to speak on restructuring.
Devolution of power and restructuring are the same.
People who call it restructuring chose to call it restructuring while those who call it devolution of power chose to call it devolution of power.
I’m a member of APC and I’m the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
I’m the head of constitution review and we voted on the devolution of power, my party has spoken.
I’m suffi cient to represent my party.
Not that I’m suffi cient to represent my party, I represents my party.
My party has spoken.
It would have been horrible if we did what we did and there was no sign of devolution of power in those things.
Like I said earlier, it was a golden moment in the history of democracy and Nigeria public to have waded in by way of calling members and give them instruction to vote for devolution of power.
So, devolution of power or restructuring simply means there is too much power at the centre, cede the power to the state and local government.
Th at is why I said in all over the world, developed countries have come to the conclusion that government at the centre is only concerned about four or fi ve items.
Election, even in America is conducted by the state.
What is the centre doing with the police without the state and local government having their police, what is the centre doing with allocating money to UBEC? Despite calls from diff erent quarters that you should look into the confab, why did the present national assembly refused to look into it? I have the report of the confab on my table and the power points that were taken from the confab.
I’m the chairman of the constitution review committee, I consider the confab report from the fi rst page to the last page.
Let me tell you, the constitution of Nigeria is only bad in one aspect and that is what we are clamouring for by aking sure that we remove the power at the centre and devolve it to the states and local governments, once that is done, there is nothing bad about Nigeria constitution.
Th at is why I am giving you assurance that when we go back, we are resuming on September 18, we will start on that particular item all over again and I can assure you that in six months, we are coming to Nigerians to say that we are ready to vote, go and tell your honourable members and senators to vote for it.
As far as I’m concerned, as the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, my party has spoken.
Saraki spoke, Dogara spoke and once three of us have spoken, APC has spoken.
What’s the National Assembly doing about the ASUU issue? We have already waded in.
Th e chairman of Tertiary Education in the National Assembly, Senate, is attending to the issue.
Th is is the way we operate, if the Senate is attending to a programme, House of Representatives will not intervene, and if it is House of Representatives that is attending to something, the senate will not bother.
So, tertiary education chairman has been a part of the negotiation.
What advice do you have for Nigerians? Th ree major factors are holding Nigeria down, one is religion, ethnicity and free money.
If we are able to surmount these things, Nigeria will be great again and I know Nigeria will be great.
