Hon. A M Ari is a federal legislator representing Nasarawa/Toto constituency in the green chambers of the National Assembly, our correspondent Doris Igwe caught up with him recently in his office where he spoke about the National Assembly and the work he is doing to improve the quality of life in his constituency.
Q: Kindly give us your objective accessment of the 9th assembly in regards to it’s ability to check the excesses of the Executive?
When you say an objective view, I can understand it from this angle, it’s all about the oversight functions of legislations. The 9th assembly, I bear a witness that many of my colleagues do go for oversight functions. In the committee I served, I think I have attended not less than 8-10 oversight functions and during the cause of those oversight functions, I am sure we did the best we could to ensure that what is expected of us was deligently done. This is because it’s not about seeing the project yourself, as it is today, in the national assembly, we have different professionals in different committees. Let me take one good example of the oversight that we had, am a quantity surveyor by training, we went for an oversight under committee on works to oversight the contract work or project work of road construction: Abuja-Kaduna-Kano express road, during the cause of oversight, we have other road engineers: civil engineers, mechanical engineers, architect, quantity surveyors, as I mentioned, we were all there, including the lawyers as part of the team. we went to see the road ourselves, at certain interval of the journey, we stopped by the way to ensure that we see the life of the project, where it requires our test, we try to do a manual test, you know we have different types of test, there are test that you take to laboratory to come out with the result the way it concentrate, there are other test of stability, sale bearing capacities, engineering wise, there are test you take with your eye guage, when it comes to quality and some little instrument that does not require some high level of technicalities, you will bring it out and make use of the instrument that you measure the depth, the thickness, the width, the required road size, is available, then come up with the results. having done that, we were able to discuss with the management of the company that is Julius Berger, asking them. lot of questions, that is where our colleagues, the lawyers that are in our midst also come in, because to every contract there is always offer and acceptance, after acceptance, there must be considerations, after considerations, there must be intentions to enter legal facts/practice. all these terms are clearly spelt out. On the other part, Julius Berger has offered that they can do the job within the specified period of time and in the other hand again, the government of the federal republic of Nigeria accepted the offer. But what remains is considerations, which is payment and I’m sure, what the federal government have paid the company is more than the work they did after we majored. It means, when it comes to considerations, government has done her part beyond the limit. The intentions to enter into a legal practice, what are the right grounds, agreements on ground, contract terms, how do you want to execute your awards, to every contacts, to every production or construction, three key things are important; one, quality, that is, standard of the element that you are producing, two, time lag that you are producing it, three, cost of that production, it is so important. You can compromise two so that the first one attain the required level. You can compromise time, if it is stated in the book of agreement that you are doing it in two weeks time, but at the cause of execution, either because of the weather or whatever, you are able to extend the time to two days, it is a compromise in other to achieve the quality. If you say you want to do it at the cost of ten naira, in the cause of the execution variations, recession and other factors that might inclined can also influence the cost to go up. Inflation as well, but when it goes up, it means there is a slight compromise from the side of the cost in order to achieve the desired quality. So when you talk of quality, you don’t compromise it, so that is why the lawyers in our midst has to come in. Indeed, the oversight functions helps a lot, and we did a lot and I can commend the 9th assembly on this. You can bear me witness that going through the social media and television, you will see a lot of report that so so committee has gone for oversight functions, call for investigation in the committees, the 9th national assembly are doing their best. In other words, if I can take it in just a minute, in my own committee, youth committee where i’m serving by the special grace of God as the deputy chairman on youth development. On youth, several oversight was conducted in several NYSC orientation camp. Going to orientation camp, you will understand there are two things basically: one, everything that has to do with the infrastructure in every camp is a sole responsibility of the state. So it is a kind of partnership between the state and the federation. So we go to the camp to inspect the kind of food that government appropriated to corpers, the kind of clothes they wear, the kind of environment they sit and the kind of skills they are acquiring, and when it now comes to the infrastructure, whatever the level of infrastructure we are ready to find out, we do meet the executive governors of that state and discuss with them, we even go round the facilities and see how it is, we are calling your attention based on the recommendation and request put forward from the management of the youth corps’ camp, this is what we saw, we are soliciting for you to sit up and make it habitable. That is the obvious justification that I can tell you about the oversight in the 9th assembly. If you now ask me my personal opinion, I can still tell you that we are not achieving more than 60% why because, it is one thing to oversight, it is another thing to influence changes that is required. Not only to go for an oversight, we went for oversight, of course televisions has showed it, papers has carried it, but what is the result, do we really actually achieve what we want? For this road work I said, quote me anywhere as a member of the committee, what is the result? I can’t tell you this is the result of the oversight, instead when my chairman, Hon. Bichi was like, look we must give you time lag to complete this project, otherwise the Hon. speaker will discuss it with Mr. President if you are not capable of handling the project they should be give it to somebody who is capable to complete it within the specified period of time. Yes, they agreed with us, they said no no no sir, we can do it within the specified period of time, but before you know, after the oversight, they came up with the result that oh! this project, they can not even finish it in 2022, what for? it means the oversight was not useful, quote me anywhere. So, most of the oversight that we are conducting in the national assembly, the issue is what is the result
Q: Whose fault is it? is it from the contractors or is it that the federal government is not making resources available for them to carry out the work?
It is our fault. It is the members fault.
Q: How sir?
Some years back, you can recall that Nigeria had a sitting president, but he is not a democratic president, either a military or head of state. It is when the national assembly comes to be that it made democratic set up where there is legislatures, who has the right to caution whatever is going wrong. Only this Arm as a third tiers of government that has the right to even bring Mr President down, talk more of the ministers, MDAs, DGs and what have you. we are the only sector that have the right to do that. Why is it that today, our right is not there, then we should check ourselves. we must stand on our position before things will go right. whoever, being a minister or MDAs that we ask to correct him, if he refused to be corrected, we should come, not to disgrace him on the television, people to see me, okay, I am honourably Ari, I can speak good English, and say okay, this man from my constituency is speaking, he is terrorizing the man, it’s not about terrorizing, we are partners in progress, you are a minister, or you are a director, or you are MD to this organization and of course I am also a member that is oversighting you on one side right, we are stakeholders, it is the question to tell you that okay, N20 million was appropriated to you to execute so so project, you have not done it based on the terms and conditions, what Happened? If there is any explanation that is not worth taking, tell him, do it. You must not shout to the public, you must not take him to the television, put pressure to him, he must it, until he refuses to do it on the final note, take him to the authority that he is suppose to be taken to simple.
Q: In other words, you are saying that as far as oversighting the executive is concern, the legislature hasn’t done enough, that is why the changes are not occuring?
Yes, to me.
Q: What do you think is responsible for these abdication of these responsibility on the part of the lawmakers. Why do you think they are shying away from calling a spade a spade?
It’s time. time is the responsible factor. Time is one of the factor that is responsible. You know, you cannot change everything overnight. 9th assembly is not the first assembly. There are other assemblies, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th assembly, if there is something wrong with those assemblies coming up, I think we are bringing it up, what is responsible is time because of the antecedent in the past. I am happy that we are putting it right now, but that does not mean that because I’m a sitting member, I’m giving myself the credit 100%, so anything responsible is the time because we are just leaving the military era, whatever the first assembly after the military, you will see the adjustment will just be coming gradually, gradually until the day…if today, 9th assembly were able to achieve what we were not having, I believe in 10th assembly, if we can do same, will be more better then, we are going in the right direction.
Q: In other words, you do not subscribe to the notion that the 9th assembly is a rubber stamp of the executive.
It’s not. Why I said that we are not the rubber stamp of the executive; two things will clear you: number one, we call for retreat with the executive part of the government which we had in the villa, there and then the Senate president, my boss, the speaker, Gbajabiamila, look at the paper they presented before the executives, they say it the way it is. If I can quote what the leader of the house said, before Buhari, he said, I am going to say it the way it is, I quote him, that is one. Number two, for the 9th assembly to agitate that Mr President must appear before the assembly, if we are rubber stamp, can we ask him to do so? it’s a clear answer, we are not rubber stamp, but we are partners in progress . people thought in other assembly, like I said were chaos, okay, we should be fighting before they know that we are working. It’s not. I said it in my statement, it’s about you presenting yourself in the television and people will say that you are working, let’s see the work’s effect. it’s not about that.
Q: We would like Nigerians to know what your assessments are so far regarding your expectations before coming to the house. Have things happened as you expected so far? One year after?
When you mention expectations, I can look at it as a relative terms. What Mr A is expecting could be different from what Mr B is expecting. Even the country itself, what is the country expecting for the year, it turns to be a different thing because of the test from the Almighty Allah like the issue of this covid-19 pandemic, it has automatically changed whatever the expectations is.
Q: As a lawmaker coming to the house, you have a vision of what and what you would like to attract to your constituency, the kind of intervention you would want to make in the life of your constituents and the opportunities that you will explore to make those things happen. What are these expectations?
I give thanks to God that I have achieved that this mandate. Number one, in two local government that I am representing, Nasarawa-Toto federal constituency, one of the local government, that is Toto per say, the entire Toto community as a local government, only one village that had light, and I promised electricity to my constituency which I did. As I speak to you today, go and check Nasarawa Toto federal constituency, there are projects worthy of N400 million that are ongoing now, about electricity and I believe that in the next twelve months they would be commissioned, couple with what we input in the budget of 2021,it’s going to be a history in that local government when you talk of light and power generation. it’s part of the expectations. If you now go to my other local government, Nasarawa, there is one renown village/town they call Loko, where they took former Emir of Kano, Sanusi to, that area has no light and it is a commercial town, from there you can enter inland water way transportation, you can travel with your goods and everything from that village down to Lokoja but they didn’t have light, now I am bringing them light. as I speak to you today, if you get there you will see people working. what I have input and what I am bringing to them surely, God sparing our lives, they are going to have light. My expectations again, I said, when I get there, I have to improve education in my constituency, when I went, coincidentally, during the WAEC, there was Corona pandemics and I found out that some of my constituents may not have what it takes to pay the WAEC you can imagine what the children will turn out to be. Recently, I have to work with my SAs in the office. I have 23 SAs in my constituency secretariat we had a meeting, we came up with a position, I paid the WAEC to every public school in my constituency, I came up over 2000 candidates which amount to over N33 million, it’s there in the record. Today in my office, if you look, this is the award that I had: best member, 9th assembly in the northern region that gives much to education, the record is there. These are the expectations and I give thanks to God that I was able to achieve that and I am sure, I can do more if God spare our lives and time come 2021, 2022, 2023 that is ahead of us, my people will benefit more.
Q: What would you tell Nigerians as to your take on the leadership style of the current speaker, Femi Gbajabiala, what do you think about his leadership style what would you say?
Oh! Fantastic. He is a man that has Nigerians at heart, he is man who cares for the members that come from all the constituents and whoever cares for the members that comes from all constituencies, cares for Nigerians at large. He gives room to is members to improve on what we are doing to better the lives of our constituents. He is a man that whatever issues you have, he is always there to be with you, that is the role model leader that we have today in the national assembly. Femi Gbajabiala, it’s only God that can reward him with his leadership style, he always tell us, irrespective of the political difference, come out and say it in the floor as it is. If you now go to where he is sitting in the chamber, behind his back, you can see where he wrote ‘joint task force, nation building’, he said it himself, nation building is a joint task force, that is why he does not discriminate when it comes to committee sharing, he makes sure he gives you a committee base on your capacity and capability without bias and that is what helps things move as expected. A man that has honour and respect of the members. Am sure with this little I said is enough to tell you what kind of person that he is as a leader.
