…Impresses on State Assemblies to show independence in decision making
OSAS EMMANUEL
The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, has expressed optimism that before May 29, all the bills ratified by the National Assembly including the Local Government Autonomy Bill would be rounded off and passed across to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
Omo-Agege gave the hint yesterday while briefing State House Correspondents after his visit to President Buhari at the Presidential villa, Abuja.
While noting that the delay in concluding the process of constitution amendments is not from the National Assembly, he stressed that the obligation as imposed on them by Section 9 of the Constitution as been fulfilled and the baton passed to the State Assemblies, as in the case of Local Government Autonomy.
This is as he impressed on the State Assemblies who are yet to vote on the bills, to show a level of Independence in making some of the decisions, even as they try to work in consonance with their state governors in taking these positions.
“We have up to, and inclusive of May 29, to round the up and get this ratified bills across to Mr. President, notwithstanding that this is an election season, some of us are still able to multi-task but I’ll like for you to look at it from the context of where the challenge is coming from,
“We, as members of the National Assembly, have obligation and the obligation is one, come up with the areas where we believe changes to the Constitution need to be made and in doing that we’re supposed to reach out to the entire citizenry, get their views, collate the same, get the National Assembly to debate and vote. This is the obligation imposed on the National Assembly by Section 9 of the Constitution.
“I can tell you that at the National Assembly, we have fulfilled our part of that bargain, what is now left is to get the concurrence of 24 Houses of Assemblies of the states. That is also a Section 9 obligation, but this time, imposed on the State Houses of Assembly.
“As we speak, my mistake, if I knew this question was going to come up, I probably would have spoken with the Clerk of my committee before walking in here, but I know that notwithstanding the brouhaha over this, the states have been meeting and they’ve been taking positions on most of these bills.
“I don’t know how many right now, but the bigger challenge we have, frankly, it’s not so much all of the bills, it’s the bill dealing with the local government autonomy, both financial and administration, those are the two critical issues. But there are other bills, most of them have passed, we’ve gotten more than the required number of Houses of Assembly for some of those bills, but what matters to us, which is the priority to us, which is a big priority of Mr. President, is this issue of the local government autonomy and that’s where we’re having challenges and that is because of the position of some of the governors, who believed that they should not be in support of this.
“But my personal view, not speaking for the National Assembly as a whole, my personal view, the obligation is actually imposed on the state Houses of Assembly and not on the governors and I would have expected that the State Assemblies will show some independence in making some of the decisions, but it does appear that… I can’t fault them for working with their state governors in taking these positions, but we believe that with time, we’ll be able to resolve this.
“The President of the Senate has reached out to some of the governors, most especially through my friend, the governor of Kaduna State, to reach out to his fellow governors. Kaduna for instance, has already voted. Kaduna has voted and has transmitted. Of course, we won one, we lost one.
“I think Kaduna, if I’m right, if my memory serves me right, I think they approved at administrative autonomy, but they voted down financial autonomy, if my memory serves me right. But the bottom line is that they have voted, all that the Constitution requires is take your vote and bring back to us.
“We would have been happier if we got both from Kaduna State House of Assembly. But most of the others have voted for both administrative autonomy and financial autonomy. So I’m confident, we’re working, my brother, my colleague in the House, the Deputy Speaker, is also reaching out. We’re confident that in no time, we should be able to get the requisite number.
“I pray for the local government autonomy, but like I said, that’s not the only bill, actually we transmitted 44 bills, if I’m right, 44 bills, but these two appear to be the most critical to a lot of stakeholders. So please don’t rush to judgment by labelling this exercise an exercise in futility.”
Fielding questions by State House correspondents on his position as regards the President’s request on CBN Ways and Means, Amo-Agege said that “as a senator representing Delta State and speaking as the Deputy Senate President, I have an obligation, as most of you know, to support Mr. President and this time will not be an exception. It’s a decision that was taken. Basically, all they’re asking for is ratification. These are monies that have been expended through legitimate means, using the Ways and Means device. There is no allegation of any wrongdoing.
“Here, basically, any name you call it, they asked him for ratification of a decision that has been taken for monies already legitimately expended. So Mr. President has my support, always has my support and he has my support on this one and I believe that majority of my colleagues, I do not speak for all of my colleagues, of course, but I believe that majority of my colleagues will support Mr. President.”
Speaking on his visit to the President, he said “As you know, it’s customary for most of us to visit Mr. President during the Christmas and the New Year. But as most of you know, I’ve been embedded in my campaign for governor in Delta State. And as a consequence of that, I was not able to make the visits and also because of the Christmas celebration I have to dash to the US for a couple of days, and I’m back and I thought, before commencing the second round of my campaigns, I have to stop by and visit Mr President. That’s principally, what brought me in addition to discussions of issues of national affairs.”
