READ Why Nigeria Is Not Ripe For Part-Time Legislature

Hon. Bisi Yusuf, a member of the All Progressives Congress and representative of Alimosho Constituency 1 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, talks about the challenges facing the country, his party and the National Assembly in this interview.

Since Buhari’s government started on May 29, terrorist attacks have increased. How would advice the Federal Government?

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It seems we are too much in a hurry; the system has been bad for so many years and you want somebody to provide solutions immediately? You have to give it to the President, he has solicited for support from the government of other countries, which past governments could not do. He has been able to attract the attention of the international community and they have been meeting regularly. You cannot start something without proper planning. If you consider what is happening now with the past government, you would see that there is a difference. We are talking about insurgency and guerrilla fighters; look at the United States of America, somebody just went to a church and killed some people. Are you saying the security of that country is not tight? One thing we must note is that there is reduction in the number of the attacks; one of the efforts of the President is to relocate the base of the military to Borno State. If you plant a palm tree, it is not that very day that you would reap the harvest; very soon, you would see the outcome of what the president is doing.

What do you think about the current clamour for pay cut at the National Assembly?

Anything that could make Nigeria okay, I would support it. There is no change without sacrifice. This is my personal opinion. While the government is trying its own, individuals too must also think of making the economy better. One should not generalise; there are some people that if you look at their take home pay, it is still in line with the economic reality. People should be their brothers’ keeper. I am not against anything that would be of importance to the generality of Nigerians.

Again, how would you react to call for the country’s legislature to be on part time bases?

That is what I am saying, people should not generalise. As a proactive journalist, I am sure you know the condition of the legislators in Lagos State; you know what we earn as take-home pay and that we do a lot. I don’t think we are ripe for part-time legislature because there are a lot of things we are doing. I am using Lagos as an example, there is no single day that we don’t have something to do. Even our time is not enough for what we do, and this is why the economy of Lagos State is improving. We embark on legislative research to promote socio, economic and political well-being of the state. For instance, we just resumed. In other places, they are on recess, but we are busy working. There is no sitting that people would not talk about an item that would touch all the people of the state. We have our own target; we have our legislative agenda like the Speaker mentioned the other time. If you look at this, how can we achieve such with a part-time legislature? It just depends on the way people perceive or take it, but in Lagos State, we are not docile, we are proactive, we have the knowledge of what we do and take our constituents seriously. Lagos is not ripe for a part-time legislature.

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There is fear that the crisis in the National Assembly could affect Buhari.

No, leave that one for the party; we know how to manage it without going to the newspapers.

Meanwhile, Senate president, Senator Bukola Saraki had addressed his controversial election, stating that his opponents at the poll tried to abduct him to prevent him from emerging as Senate President.

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