INTERVIEW: I thought I would be handed N300 million once I resumed at National Assembly

Festus Adefiranye represents Oke-Igbo/Ile-Oluji/Odigbo Federal Constituency of Ondo State in the House of Representatives. In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES’ Temidayo Akinboyo, the lawmaker speaks on his experience as a first-time lawmaker in the lower chamber, the autonomy of the state legislatures, constituency projects and other sundry issues.

Excerpts:

PT: You have spent almost a year in the National Assembly as a first-timer. What has been the experience so far? What are the challenges?

Adefiranye: Let me first give glory to the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to represent my people. By 13 June, we were one year in the National Assembly. The experience has been so awesome, though this is not the first time of my legislative activities. I am coming from the state assembly but the experience in the National Assembly is quite different from what is happening in the state assembly. It is about your capacity, what you can do, how you can lobby your colleagues, and how you are so determined to make sure that you deliver the dividends of democracy to your people. So I can be here and just sit in my office, be rolling chair and at the end of four years I may have nothing to show for it. So, National Assembly experience is a very good experience that everybody may like to have.

PT: You were in the Ondo State House of Assembly between 2019 and 2023 as a state lawmaker, and now you are in the House of Representatives, two different terrains. How do you compare and contrast the two law-making bodies?

Adefiranye: There is no way you will compare the legislator at the state level with the lawmaker in the National Assembly. The gap between the two is just too wide because the state assembly has no autonomy. A state assembly is like the extension of the executive arm of the state government. There is nothing you can discuss on the floor of the state assembly; if the governor does not sanction it, there is no way it will fly. Even if you move it, the speaker will manage it to the extent that you will not be able to discuss it. You are free to say or discuss anything at the National Assembly because of the autonomy. If there is any issue that is going on, what you need to do is to consult your constituency. Once you consult your constituency and your constituency gives you the go-ahead, and you can speak for them on that issue, nobody will disturb you from saying it, unlike the state assembly. Let me tell you this: The autonomy of the state assembly when they tossed it to the state assembly, you know this is a factor that is going to affect them, we still worked against it. Why? Because the governor did not want it. So, as of today, the state assembly bill has been to the National Assembly more than two or three times but when the National Assembly passes the bill, when it gets to the state assembly, it will fail because we need two-thirds of the state lawmakers to pass that bill. So that is to tell you that anything that is happening in the state, the governor must give consent to it. So, the state assembly and National Assembly, you cannot compare them. It is like you want to compare death with sleep. So there are big gaps.

For me, the experience has been a very wonderful one because I already learnt all the processes, the rules of law-making and what not at the state assembly before coming to the National Assembly. Although I may be a fresher here, I already have some background experience from my stint as a state legislator. So until when we have state autonomy that is when you will be able to compare what is happening in the state with the National Assembly.

PT: How many bills and motions do you have to your credit so far? Any specific impact of the motions moved? What about the state of the bills? Has anyone passed?

Adefiranye: Between June 2023 and now, I have sponsored four motions. I will sponsor the fourth one by next week (after the interview was conducted). The first motion was the one I moved that the road from Ore to Ondo to Akure be dualised, and we thank God that my colleagues in the House supported the motion. I am very glad to tell you that the design of the road was included in the 2024 budget. Hopefully, the implementation will also be included in the 2025 budget. My second motion was the one I moved when we had a disaster in Ore, when a tanker got burnt and destroyed several houses. I moved the motion at the floor. My prayer then was that NEMA should take it up and try to compensate all the people affected by the fire. I am still following up with NEMA to ensure that prayer is attended to. I also moved a motion that the electricity project that they started from Oke Igbo to Awopeju to Igbo Olodumare years ago and later abandoned should be revisited and completed for the benefit of the people in my federal constituency. That motion has been transferred to the committee on electricity which by now should have visited the affected communities. I have to do a follow up on this.

So far, I have sponsored a bill whose importance cannot be overemphasised. The bill is about the establishment of the Federal College of Nursing and Midwifery in Oke Igbo, Ondo State. I realised that there is no Federal College of Nursing in Ondo State. It is my contention that the school, if approved, will produce qualified professionals that will take care of our health facilities. The bill has passed through the first reading. It went through the first reading in October 2023, passed through second reading in February 2024 and last Monday on 27 May, it went through the public hearing phase which attracted a lot of people from my constituency, including prominent traditional rulers. We are waiting for the report of the committee. I believe the committee will support it when they present their report to the House.

PT: How do you cope with the many demands of your constituents, which are sometimes out of the purview of your legislative responsibilities?

Adefiranye: The question you have asked now is the headache of many lawmakers. People cannot distinguish between the executive and the legislature. They believe everybody must get money, and honestly, our statutory responsibility is to make laws. What is happening here is worse than my experience at the state assembly simply because I am in charge of a federal constituency. You know, the demand, there is no way, it is just too much. I don’t turn off my phone. Although the calls are just too many and even come at odd hours, I try as much as I can to listen to them and do the best I can within the limit of the resources at my disposal. But I must also add that our constituents should try and be considerate when they call us. The issue of request, that one there is nothing you can do to that because you have a lot of requests. People in the hospital, people who want to pay school fees, house rents, marriages, the wife wants to give birth, a naming ceremony, a lot. And here, the impression they have is that immediately you resume at the National Assembly, you are going to collect N300 million. When I came, I was expecting N300 million.

PT: Did they give you N300 million?

Adefiranye: I was expecting my N300 million, I’m still expecting it till today. If I tell you the housing allowance they gave us for the four years you will not believe it. The house that I rented, the money they gave me is not enough to pay for that house. You know I am saying it on camera now. The money they gave us for four years, because they gave us once, is not enough for the one year of the house I rented, but the impression is that they have collected a lot of money; they have collected this, they have collected that. Anyway, it is good. I have a principle: I want to satisfy my conscience and God. I don’t need to satisfy everybody because you cannot even do that. So if anybody asks me anything, if you say you need N100,000, if I have N20,000 I will give you, if I have 50,000 I will give you but I will not promise you come and collect it tomorrow. What I have at that particular time that is what I will give you because the moment I promise you ‘okay I will give you in the next four days’ I have raised your hope. This is why I don’t promise. If I don’t have at that particular time I will tell you this money I don’t have, anytime I have, I will call you and that is how I have been doing. That is why if you go to my federal constituency, I know majority will say good things about me because I don’t do promises and fail. I try to do my best to ensure I take care of this very important aspect of our politics. It has become part of the politics; there is nothing you can do about that because we know the level of poverty in Nigeria is high, and that is why people are disturbing you. But, beyond all of this, we must make deliberate efforts to develop and empower the youth in terms of human capital development because that is the only way we can grow as a nation. We must ensure the youth have something to do, not by giving them fish but by teaching them how to fish. If you do that, I am telling you, you will have relief.

PT: Do you currently have any Zonal Intervention Projects you facilitated in your federal constituency?

Adefiranye: The Zonal Intervention Projects are just designed by the executive arm of government to help lawmakers bring physical development to their constituencies and senatorial districts. Lawmakers do not execute the projects. We are not contractors nor do they give us the money to execute the projects as against the erroneous impression that is out there in the public.

Our responsibility, apart from our statutory responsibility of law-making, is this Zonal Intervention Project. They are just using it to assist us. There is no way if you tell your constituency that you have passed 20 laws or 100 laws or one million motions, they will tell you that you did not perform. Why? Because they did not see any physical project and they have forgotten that you are not in the executive arm which has control over these projects. But because of the zonal intervention, we appreciate the executive for giving us that opportunity.

Yes, for this 2024, I thank Almighty God that my constituency can feel the impact of democracy. I have a four-kilometre road that is going on. I think they have started the asphalt laying now in Oke Igbo, Ile Oluji and Odigbo. By the grace of God, I have that one. And I still have a lot of projects that I have planned for 2024. By the time they start the 2024 budget implementation, those projects will also start.

As I said earlier, you need to lobby to get things done. it is about lobbying. You need to lobby people so that you will be able to facilitate projects to your community. And so in that area also, I know that I have done well. In a related development, I have tried to facilitate employment for many youths in my constituency into different federal establishments. By the grace of God, we shall do more for our people.