Politics is all about interest and what is the basic interest? The interest of your people; how to deliver the dividends of democracy. And when dissatisfaction comes in you will not be able to fight for your people.  You will not be able to work for the interest of your people. And what will bring this dissatisfaction, it’s disagreement. Disagreement over what? Politics is about who gets what, when and how. So, if I am not satisfied I want to look for an alternative platform in order to express myself. This is exactly what happened. There is real dissatisfaction with the ruling party. Dissatisfaction over every aspect of life. People are getting frustrated. It is the frustration of the constituents that you can see that is manifesting in the defections because every good politician will want to go to where his people are going to. 

An average politician thinks and feels the pulse of his people. So, it will be difficult. It shows the mood of the people. There is hunger in the land. There is witch-hunting. There is harassment. There is destruction of already existing structures by the ruling party. There is the destruction of individuals. You find out that there is no opposition again. They want to gag the opposition. They want to gag the judiciary. They want to gag the legislature. We are heading towards a totalitarian regime. That those that are in government are not able to make contribution that will affect the lives of their people. So, if you ask me I would say the defections will bring about positive change. 

(Cuts in) That’s just an insinuation. It’s just the figment of some people’s imagination. No doubt that there will a few persons that will be thinking of having a ticket; everybody will be thinking of having a ticket. Everybody wants to come back. But that is not the condition. That is not the primary thing. There is total dissatisfaction in the polity. And that is the truth. Are you going to tell me that somebody like Saraki, if it his ticket that he wants that he will not get it? Are you telling me that somebody like Kwankwaso, if it is his ticket that he wants he will not get it? Look at the characters; look at the people that are involved in it. You will now know. So, the earlier we stop this butter and bread policy the better it will be for everybody. 

We should be sincere with ourselves. We should be honest with ourselves. There is total disillusionment in the polity. Leaders are being witch-hunted. The economy has taken a nosedive. The situation is getting worse. The lives of the people are not being positively affected by what is happening in the polity. And ultimately, the pressure is on the leader. The pressure is on their representatives. There is hunger in the land. Are we going to pretend that there is no hunger in the land? Are we going to pretend that there is frustration and the populace, who are they going to their frustrations to? It’s the leaders that they are seeing. If there is no food, it is the man that they are seeing that they will go to. It is the man that they are seeing that they will hold. These are issues that will come up during the campaigns. Buhari cannot go to Bonny. He cannot go to my village. In fact he does not even know my village. So, these are fundamental issues. Let us not trivialize what is happening in the country. 

And you know that it is cheap propaganda and trivialization of security that brought this government to power. They told everybody that no responsible government that cannot give light in six months. They said that within a year that they are going to decimate and, in fact, end the insurgency. That one naira would be made to be equal with one dollar. That the price of petrol will decrease. They said they will feed school children, but how many children are being in Bonny? Have you checked? Let us be frank with ourselves the government has failed woefully. 

They took over government when dollar was N180, N190 but today it is about N350 something or N360 but there was a time when dollar was about N500. That was in 2016. There was a time they prevented people from trading in the dollar in the country thereby encouraging capital flight. People are hungry and they are coming to tell us bullshit. 

It is the executive that is witch-hunting the leadership of the National Assembly and it is too obvious and clear. Why? It’s because they don’t want them on that seat. These are not the anointed candidates. The National Assembly, in recent times, have their culture. They go for what they want. For things to work we cannot afford to have stooges in the leadership. And there is that spirit of comradeship within the system. We don’t have two parties here. Like the House (of Representatives) where I belong, we pride ourselves as the Nigerian House. So when somebody wants to be parochial you would be reminded that you belong to the Nigerian House; that you are here to speak for the people. I can move a motion concerning Bonny and somebody from Adamawa will support my motion. They would contribute positively based on conviction. All the motions I have brought in the house have had an easy scale because we pride ourselves as the House of Nigeria, the Green Chamber. So, we will not allow the National Assembly to be intimidated. We will not allow us to be humiliated because whatever humiliation they give to the leadership iss to the entire house. That is why we have respect for the rights of individuals in the house. So they are not being frank with themselves. They are being economical with the truth. They have exhibited so much incompetence. They have exhibited so much lack of capacity. They have failed so much that they cannot carry out their perceived functions. They have abandoned governance. From day one, instead of governing the nation, all what they are doing is politics, how to run everybody down. 

Let Nigerians think, let Nigerians feel and let Nigerians see: how can the Senate President be involved in armed robbery? Somebody that was born with silver spoon in his mouth? They say they are fighting corruption but anyone who runs into APC is safe. So, we find out that they abandon governance. They are still playing politics after three years and they are bothered about it. They don’t have true feelings for the people. They came with lies and I’m sure that the lies that they with will throw them out. How can you tell me that they will make one dollar one naira? How can you tell me that they are going to make sure that in six months everybody will have light? Two days ago Boko Haram struck. They strike now on a daily basis. How can a police PRO go and insult the governor of a state? They killed over seventy something persons and they are burying them and the police PRO will go and insult the governor? How can the President come and tell you that he asked the inspector general of police to relocate to Nasarawa and that he didn’t know that he didn’t relocate? How can the President tell us that people from outside are coming to kill his people? And this is the primary function you swore to undertake to protect the lives of citizens and their welfare. And the President will now go and tell the international community at Chatham House that those who voted for him are those that he knows. Let me tell you another of their failure. They came and they talked about Ogoni cleanup. What have they done after three years? And it is part of their propaganda. It shows they are incompetent. 

That is not the issue. The issue is that you came on lies, on falsehood; and no foundation that is built on falsehood can stand. When you got there and the situation got very bad why didn’t you come back to the people and retract on your promises? Why should you continue to tell the people that they are comfortable; that the average man in Nigeria today is happy. That you can go to the market and buy your food at the rate you were buying before? So, the issue is not that there are no problems; the problems are there. There was a time that we were in so much debt and somebody came knowing that there is an issue and worked towards our debt forgiveness. And it was done with time. They started giving way to institutions and that is how they came about the BVN and a lot of checks that they made to stop fraud. They now have a central salary paying point. They have the single treasury account. These were things they did in order to stem and not to witch-hunt. Every businessman is a thief. 

In fact, I’m going to give them two over ten because they have failed in all departments. In security we are having more serious situations. There are killings in Zamfara, in Sokoto, in Nasarawa, in Enugu, in Edo, in Benue, in Plateau, in addition to the Boko Haram infested places. So what do you think that is wrong in terms of security? If you go deep into what is happening in the war theater in Borno State to carry out an investigation you will see that we have problems. The government has refused to tell the people the enormity of the problem. Go to the economy, they met naira at N190, N192 and today they have succeeded in battling naira to N357 from about N500 when it peaked. How many industries have come on board since they came? All what they are doing is to complete and commission projects that have reached advanced state. 

Apart from Kaduna Airport that they renovated, just mention one project that they initiated. Look at the school feeding project that they budgeted over N400 billion, how many states are feeding them? And the states that are feeding them, what are they feeding them with? Biscuits, dry biscuits; sometimes indomie without eggs, and how often? Is that how to bring up a child? So which other area? Security zero. Economy zero. Social life zero. Was life much better four years ago than now? Let us be honest with ourselves. Go to the market, check out the number of unemployed people. Why?

They are doing nothing about the economy so people are not investing, people are not being employed. Don’t we have limitations in terms of employment? What is governance? That is the constitution that you sign in black and white to make sure that you secure the lives of the citizens and their welfare. That is the primary thing.  

Listen to me, let’s not look at it from the point of sentiment. Yes, there were few things on the ground and we know that things cannot be done overnight. So, we never promised anybody that we are going to solve the problem of humanity overnight. If you don’t know why should you come and tell people that within six months that you are going to give them light? And they are still lying about it up till today. Not giving the people the true position of things. If you go to the doctor; for him to diagnose you properly, you must tell him the truth. You go and tell people that employment has increased. You go now and tell people that we have come out of recession. 

Let me take you on this budget issue. What is the requirement of the standing rule? That you send in your budget three months to the end of the financial year. And before sending a budget you must first have to do your medium term expenditure framework (MTEF), where you make economic projections based on the previous year, the current year and the expected year. Go and try to research. When was the MTEF submitted? MTEF was sent after budget presentation. MTEF was submitted not up to a month, they now presented the budget. And these are not personal things. Like I told you, I am busy with oversight. You cannot come and throw something on my laps and expect me to sign it off for you. That is not the rule.    

It is sad that the APC government today wants to be a totalitarian government and that is what the National Assembly is resisting. They submitted MTEF in November and submitted budget in October and expect us to pass it. So, there are procedures of budgeting. When it passes the first reading, it will then be formally presented officially for second reading and we are going to have a debate. And in most cases we don’t send less than one week in debating the principle of the budget where 360 people are expected to make inputs, are expected to make contributions on the general principles of the budget; after that it will now be passed and sent to committee stage. This budget will now be taken to the appropriation committee. 

The appropriation committee will now send it to the different committees that are supervising the various MDAs. These committees will now invite the MDAs that are concerned. And for the past two or three years, the appropriation committees both at the Senate and the House, what we do is to have a public hearing; a public hearing for the public to come and see the budget, make their own inputs and give us a direction. It’s been happening, I think for the past two budgets. Those people we now invite will now review the previous budget viz-a-viz your present presentation. 

Assuming you told us to give you N1 billion for a particular project. We will go and look at it. We will not only accept the papers that you are going to drop on our laps that this is what you have done. We will go and see the percentage of work done. We will have to see that this is what you have done. We have experts, we have consultants. We will engage consultants. We will send them. Then, when we go and visit it, and then, we will now come back, and agree that you have allocated N1 billion. When I was in special crimes committee, we went to see the new building that we have just commissioned. The building has been on we went to the extent of recommending that they get a reputable company for the maintenance of the building, which was not captured I the budget. We did, I was there myself. That is how the budget process goes. We have to agree and know where to remove or add. 

For now, the chairman and members of the committee, at least two thirds of the committee, each of them will sign the budget document. In order to facilitate, members of the appropriation committee are allocated to supervise to make sure that the basic principles of the working budget are adhered to. They will sign it off and it will now be advanced to the appropriation committee that would now collate it. This is not the job of one day. This is not the job of one month. This is not the job of two months. Two isn’t enough but it is standard. 

So, you can see that the executive cannot present budget late November and as at April, you see the secretary to government mandating all MDAs to come and defend their budgets. What do they expect? That we are rubber stamp? That as they presented it, we should just take it and hand over to them? We are doing disservice to the nation.  We are not being honest to the Nigerian people. We don’t do it. That is what the APC government wants us to do. They just present budget and we just return back to them. And they think we are rubber stamp. And the power of appropriation belongs to the National Assembly. It has been proved by the courts. So, they are still living in an illusion. They are still feeling that we are in a military government. You can see the President coming to tell us that “oh, that they reduce the budget of his critical projects”. And we came out with the figures. They made a provision of over N250 billion in the budget and there was a reduction of about one point something, or less than 1.3 per cent, across the board. And reduction of 1.3 per cent will affect the implementation of a project of over N250 billion when we remove one per cent of it? And he feels that oh they removed so much. That removing one per cent will affect the implementation of the project fundamentally. And they feel that the people don’t know? And they will just bamboozle the populace? Our people are enlightened. 

So, they cannot come and tell us that the legislature did not cooperate with them. How do we not cooperate with them? You are expected to submit your MTEF in June or July, you brought it in October, November, and brought budget. And we are supposed to have passed the MTEF before the presentation of the budget because that will be the basis upon which they would base the figures in the budget.