By Michael Agbaji
Minority Leader of House of Representatives Hon. Kingsley Chinda, says providing credible opposition is not noise making but getting the job done that will be of benefits to all Nigeria.
Hon. Kingsley stated this in Abuja an exclusive interview with the members of National Assembly new media forum on the journey so far and some National issues.
According him, providing credible opposition depends on the way we looking at it, You know so many Nigeria want hear opposition parties making noise and attacking the government in power but we are assuring Nigeria that the kinds of opposition the 10th Assembly are providing making things work for Nigeria and speak less he says”.
He further say, been opposition will not make condemned all policies of government in power but understanding what government is doing if is the interest of mass or not example, since the government came came on board, you understand they have been grappling with economic issues, such as survival for Nigerians with the removal of the fuel subsidy and the fiscal policy that came on board that be had on masses,for us as opposition we can not oppose fuel subsidy remover but we can mount pressure as opposition to ensure right things is done for me the is functions of opposition holding government accountable to the people.
He says, the position of us as opposition is the implementation of those programmes; how well is implemented to impact the lives of ordinary Nigerians,we can also ask if Nigeria are actually feeling the impact of that palliatives.
According to Hon.Kingsley, the engagement of the house with the Service Chiefs, is to know well our service chiefs are doing to secure the lives of Nigeria, you saw how deep the questions were, how free people were allowed to clearly express themselves, because we know that, that’s the security sector. It’s a very delicate part of our government and our society. And that’s why we had to go into an Executive Session for them to tell us truly what is happening because every week, we have not less than two, three motions on security on the floor of the parliament. And every week we observe one minute silence for those who have been killed, who ordinarily would have been alive today. We are worried with that, and that’s why we had to take them on very deep issues, which we cannot throw open to the public. But I will tell you that it was very successful. Some of the answers were satisfactory. The areas that we disagreed with, we also made them understand that for this, we don’t agree.
He further says,the Parliament will continue to engagement because we actually understand that Nigerians are interested in what is happening and the next time they will come to the house for further engagement, we expect them to tell us the report that as the last time this was where we were and today this is where we are. These are the improvements we have made. So I will say that it was a very, very big success. It was completely different from what security boots used to be.
On the issue of Ajaokuta steel company,Hon,says,no country develop without developing the steel sector because every infrastructure will depend heavily on steel and so as long as you continue to import steel, it will be difficult to develop local industries, car manufacturing industries, and several aspects of construction you requested. And so, attention will be given to that sector very strongly, as much as attention will be given to power. Now back to the bill. I pray that that bill sees the light of day
He says, look at the oil sector today, some of the oil companies are beginning to backtrack because we to encourage our local content to bringing them into that field. Further says by so doing Nigerians will beginning to participate and beginning to be big players in the oil sector because of the local content. He said the gain made in the oil sector, there is a need for us to start early to make the same gain in other sectors – ICT, Agriculture, construction and every facet of our economy. Encourage Nigerians to be big players in these sectors, not just to import but build manpower. But technology, and even the hardware and software. If we say a percentage of this must be localised or ABC must be given to locals. It means that we must begin to develop our local capacity from day one.
He explained that, mining going in some parts of northern Nigeria today, if we develop it, I’m sure that very soon we will forget that we had oil because you have precious stones that are more valuable than oil that will fetch the country more money than oil.
Well, they’re all lying there. And because they are not organised today they are being stolen. You have people come from outside the country to illegally mine them. The cost is of no value to the country. So what we are trying to say is not just myself, you agree that that bill was sponsored by myself and 38 other members and I can tell you that more members are even interested in seeing that it passed into law. And my prayer is once it is passed and implementation starts, we’ll see massive development in the country. We’ll also see issues of employment generation. I mean, the crisis will have to do with the security issues and that to me if part of the reasons is that people are unemployed. People are hungry, it’s poverty which leads to some of this crisis.
What if you provide a proper avenue for people to generate money? I don’t think that anybody will want to go into crime if you have the opportunity of making money legitimately. And so that is one of the things that this bill will do for this country. However, it will be open to public hearing.
On the recent called by former president Jonathan that off-cycle should be stop, according to Hon,Kingsley, already house is proposing a bill that we’re processing to unify the electoral system. So I agree with the former President Goodluck Jonathan. The off-cycle election has not been helpful to us. If you look at it critically, it is just for the benefit of the individual involved. Not just the larger society. You have a situation where you begin to plan for elections almost all year round. And if we continue that way Nigeria will continue to be in election in the next four years, because we expect that we’ll have more off-cycle elections as elections are being nullified by the judiciary and fresh elections conducted.
He says, all election should be run like that of National assembly that even if you come yesterday or not they be no off-cycle election,its even possible for all election issue to concluded before sworn in but I will not preempt the bill Nigeria see it he Say’s some people were sworn in. So if we go by that trend, what it means is that they will come after us. So I think that the proper thing for us to do is both the legislature and the executive, at any point in time that you are sworn in, at the end of the term, everybody goes and the election is conducted. So I agree with Jonathan that there is a need for us to look inwards that.
On the issue of education research,according to him, don’t believe that the quality of education can improve with the meagre budget given to it. It’s not possible. Let me give you an example. We all go out of this country to get education elsewhere, where we feel we can get a better education. How much do you pay for it? What is the cost of school fees in London? What is the cost in Canada? How much do we pay to send our children to Ghana? If you pay the same in Nigeria, you will get the same quality education. But ordinarily, when you provide cheap education you are likely to get cheap knowledge because you need money to equip the laboratories and bring them up to standard. So for me from the minority end, perhaps before the budget is fully debated, we’ll need to look at every sector, look at internationally accepted standards for education, for health and all that and see how well Nigeria is completely compliant with them.
