We don’t joke with oversight functions in Akwa Ibom Assembly – Luke Onofiok Luke is the Chairman, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly’s, Committee on Finance and Appropriation. He is considered one of the emerging politicians in state that has potentials of influencing where the pendulum swings to in the 2015 election. In this interview with NSIKAK EKANEM, Luke sheds light on how the House of Assembly has been working on appropriation to complement the governor’s stride on infrastructure. He equally emphasises that the people of Akwa Ibom have no option than queuing behind Akpabio in President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid. From where do you source money that you spend on your constituency that appears to have gulped tens of millions naira? Before you talk about the availability of funds, you must be able to talk about what the purpose and the heart are towards achieving the purpose. If your heart has good purpose, God who sees the inner most of a man’s heart will make everything possible because He says I will supply all your needs according to my riches in glory. So, God who sees your heart and the need to touch the lives of the people in your constituency and the need for you to change lives, the need for you to impact positively in your community will always make the funds available. When I was contesting, I went to town campaigning and I promised my people effective representation not only in the process of law-making, not only in the area of oversight but in what I call representation – giving back to the people who will give me the mandate to represent them in the House of Assembly. Having made that promise during my campaign period, having been given the mandate by my people and thereby fulfilling their side of social contract, it was left for me to fulfil my bargain. Having assumed the office, I thought of the ways I can impact on my people aside from law making. I streamlined my programmes into two main categories. One is the community Transport Scheme. The other one is the Capital Seed Fund for Business Start Up. Then I had the Student Empowerment Programme. This encapsulates the totality of the areas of my legislative interest which are entrepreneurship, youth development, education, agriculture and entrepreneurship. The totality of these defines the areas of my empowerment for my constituency. First and foremost, I needed to set up a commitment and the commitment was that I have to make savings from my allowances and salaries. When I made the savings, I went to my friends and said, “As part of my commitment, this is what I have for my constituency and since we don’t have budget for it, I need you to support me.” So, I have friends who came in, donated money, gave me vehicles. They contributed in making my constituency empowerment a huge success. So, the money has been my personal savings, support from friends and well wishers. These are what constitutes my personal constituency projects not constituency projects from the purse of government. It is believed that you are one of those closed to the governor. Would you say your romance with the governor has not influenced your work at the House of Assembly, particularly on issues that might have direct effect on the governor? My relationship with the governor is very fundamental. It is fundamental in the sense that we knew ourselves since 2002 and then God used Chief Godswill Akpabio as a channel to give me a platform to stand up for the world to see my potentials. To that, I am very grateful to the God Almighty and then I am appreciative of the opportunity that the governor has given me right from the days I served him as Personal Assistant when he was a commissioner in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy affairs. I also served him as Personal Assistant on Protocols when he was a governorship aspirant and candidate of the PDP. On becoming a governor I continue to serve him as his PA on Protocols till 2011 when I left to contest for the office I am occupying now. Let it be known, however, that our relationship does not in any way interfere with our relationship on the basis of governance. As the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, I have had cause to question so many issues in the budget as submitted by the governor. It has not affected our relationship and my relationship does not affect the performance of my responsibility. For example, when Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) appeared to defend their proposals in the appropriation bill, my relationship with the governor did not affect me to a point of not asking questions that I needed to ask. In the course of my duty in submitting the report to the House if I had to make recommendation, my personal relationship with the governor did not come in. There are instances that MDAs will request for funds and then in the wisdom of the committee which I am the Chairman, we consider that those things are not justifiable and we would take it out of the budget. Let me give you clear instance, the State Executive Council through the Ministry of Information and Communications had requested to build 10 Viewing Centres in the 10 Federal Constituencies budgeting for the sum of N240 million and then budgeted another N200 million for purchase of generator for these viewing centres. In the wisdom of the committee, we considered those things not priority projects of the government at this level when there are other projects competing for government funds, especially now that this administration is winding down. We deleted it from the budget. Another instance is the issue of Ibom Airline. The executive requested for N1 billion but we considered that it was not feasible for us to have Ibom Airline now. In the wisdom of the committee, we had to delete that item off the budget and made a saving of the N1 billion to supplement health and education that requires more of the government attention. So, the personal relationship that I have with the governor does not in any way affect the performance of my duty as a member of the House of Assembly. Rather, because of my personal relationship with him, I understand his vision as the leader of the state, I understand his ideas and the areas he has primary interest in. That also guides me during budget defence to know where he is aiming at. I know that he is very passionate about infrastructure, road construction, completion of projects like the stadium, 20th Anniversary Hospital. So, I try to take those things into consideration during mark up session to try to see which areas much funds needed to be allocated having known his vision and passion. That is the way I could say that my relationship with the governor comes to affect the discharge of my responsibilities. It does not affect me negatively. To what extent could you vouch to the people that you have used the platform of the legislature to check perceived excesses of the executive? Let me put this perspective right, in the area of my role as a legislator, I am only a single individual out of 26 members of Akwa-Ibom House of Assembly. So, assuming I bring my personal opinion occasioned by my relationship with the governor, the other 25 members could make sure that I don’t have my way though I might be given my entitlement to have my say. Besides, let me make clear that the House of Assembly does not need to be confrontational to be vibrant. The House can have a good relationship with the executive and the judiciary and still achieve the purpose that it was meant to achieve, which is to act as checks and balances for the other two arms of government and at the same time be the voice of the people. The 5th Assembly, I can say authoritatively has been the voice of the Akwa Ibom people. Firstly, Mr. Speaker in his inaugural speech has christened the 5th House of Assembly “the People’s Assembly” and we have lived up to that responsibility. Let me give you clear instance, sometimes in 2011, if I have not mistaken, we had problem of insecurity and we had complaints from the people. To us and the people we represent, the cause of the problem was that the leadership of the security agency in the state had failed to perform its responsibility effectively. As the people’s representative, we carried the yearning and grievances of the people to the hallowed chambers and the outcome was that we had to call for the removal of that Commissioner of Police. The then Inspector General of Police being very responsive heeded the call and so the Commissioner was redeployed and a new one posted to Akwa Ibom. From then till now, despite few cases of security infraction, we have not had wholesale insecurity as it used to be then. That was the House of Assembly standing on the side of the people. The legislature must be able to come out with legislation and resolution that would make for the security of lives and property. Again, on budgetary issue, we have to sit down and look at the budget with an eagle eye and do away with those things that we feel are not going to translate to the general wellbeing of the people and stamp our authority on those things that will make for the wellbeing of the people of the state – without any discrimination among indigenes, non-indigenes and residents of the state. The House has also been on the side of the people in the performance of its oversight functions. We do not just approve allocation of funds to ministries, departments and agencies of government for programmes and projects of government without follow-up through oversight function. Before passage of every budget, the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation has to do what we call independent assessment – very critical assessment – of projects that demand huge budgetary allocation. Before doing that, we have to get independent assessors – quantity surveyors, estate-valuers, engineers, architects, and other relevant professionals to go to the project sites and look at the projects, the level of their completion and then give us independent advice as to how much is required for the completion of the projects. Every ministry has anticipatory target enumerated against every project. We act on the basis of this independent advice from the independent assessors. We then take that independent advice from these assessors and put it side by side with the requests from ministries, departments and agencies and then we now do a little calculation and give a margin of error or margin of increase cost of materials because prices keep fluctuating due to inflation, and then we arrive at a sum which we now give to different ministries and departments at mark up session during committee work. This is one way that we have been able to check the executive and other agencies of government in the performance of their duties and we have spoken out on what concerns the people. A few things that affect people in the society we have come out with resolution about it like we heard about clash of Fulani herdsmen and farmers in other parts of the country, we observed the activities of herdsmen in those states and saw a potential crisis, so, we have to pass a resolution concerning that and then try to get the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture to engage the Fulani herdsmen and the farmers so that in the long and short run, we can avoid these clashes and at the long run we can have a grazing land for their cattle, where they would not be grazing on farmlands. In spite of doing away with some proposals of the executive as you have mentioned, the budget as passed by the House of Assembly indicated that over N29 billion was added to what the executive presented. At the national level, similar situation has led to recurring face-off between the executive and the National Assembly. Could you throw more light as to whether the legislature has power to increase the budget in the course of vetting the appropriation bill? Let me say clearly that the final clearing house of the budget is the House of Assembly in the case of states. The House of Assembly is empowered by the constitution to work in allocating public funds. In allocating public funds, we can either reduce or increase it. The House is vested with enormous power to positively deal with appropriation bill as it would be to the benefit of the people. Let me give you a clear instance, under the national programme on immunization, a sum of N100 million was provided for in the appropriation bill but in the wisdom of the committee having taken into consideration independent advice from medical experts within the health sector in the state during public hearing conducted by the Finance and Appropriation Committee to get the views of the people. During the public hearing, we got inputs which formed part of the basis of consideration of the budget as the stakeholders had requested for enough funds for national programme on immunization. If you see the sum allocated for that, which was totally inadequate, what would you do? Would you allow it to remain like that and let our children die of preventable disease? With the power vested in the House of Assembly, we are to try to make savings from areas that are not of priority to the people. The adjustment could be downward and upward in some areas. Like the case of health that I told you, it was upward adjustment to cater for the people. Regarding the increase in the budget, which you based your question on, if you go to the budget you find out that the chunk of allocation is in the ministry of works, which roads and bridge constructions and its likes fall under. It was not totally an increase per se and this is insider knowledge. It was a kind of omission from the state executive council. So, with the powers vested in us, we had to correct that mistake. Hence, we had to increase the budget for ministry of works to N29 and something billion. Another area that we needed to make a little bit of upward review was in the judiciary. We found out that the provision for the judiciary was not adequate. We have passed a law to set up a Customary Court of Appeal of the State and up till now it has not taken off because the facilities for the building were not at sight. We have also realised that we have to be at par with the other states in the area of expansion of our judiciary. Expansion of judiciary starts from the appointment of judges. You cannot appoint judges if you don’t have enough court rooms. The judiciary had presented their case for new Judiciary Divisions to be created yet provisions were not made for the construction of court buildings, so, we had to make provision for the construction of Customary Court buildings in the three senatorial districts and the construction of buildings to service these proposed new judiciary divisions. That therefore made for a slight increase in the budget of the judiciary. *Politicians are said to be pre-occupied with interests and so one would want to know what your interest in the next general election is? My next interest nationally is to see the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as the President of Nigeria. That is my first primary interest. Do you think the Jonathan’s Presidency has filtered down well on Akwa Ibom State especially in consideration of massive support as reflected in the last PDP presidential primaries and the 2011 election? We have not enjoyed the presence of federal presence in Akwa Ibom but that does not mean that we should throw away the baby with the bath water. That does not mean that he has not performed in other areas. I refused to look at it from a selfish point of view. Probably, Akwa Ibom had to sacrifice for Nigeria in Jonathan’s first term so that he can create the infrastructures he is doing in other regions of the country so that he would not be accused of being self-centred because concentrating development in any of the states in South-South are likely going to be seen as practising nepotism. Let me say that as a state, the federal presence in Akwa Ibom is not commensurate with the support given to him but as a country what he has done has commensurate with the supports given to him. We believe that Akwa Ibom will benefit from his second coming more than his first coming. The governor has asked us to support him and we have also taken up individually to support the president. The other day a meeting was hosted by a former senator of Nigeria, Senator Effiong Dickson Bob where past political office holders had to gather and it was a one-line agenda of drumming up support for the re-election of Jonathan. The entire state is massing around for his re-emergence. Coming back to the state, my interest is first for the peace and development of the state. My interest is the continuation of the infrastructural development. The tempo in infrastructure development that has been kept in place by Chief Godswill Akpabio cannot be faulted but you can disagree with him on his politics. Of course, some people have come to disagree with him on his style of politics, on his political move. You cannot disagree with him on performance; he has performed on infrastructure excellently well. On youth development, we scored him 95 per cent in his first term but in this second term, we score him a little above 65 per cent on youth development and empowerment. In totality, we need a governor that is going to sustain that tempo of infrastructure development. We need a governor that would make sure that ethnicity is banished in the state. What is your personal interest? My interest is a very peaceful and lovely state, a governor that will fear God, a leader at every stratum that will be responsive to the people no matter who that person is. In a nutshell, my uppermost interest is to have leaders who have the fear of God and will understand that he will have the people to serve. The rest which is personal is that whatsoever is good for me in accordance with God’s will, He will grant it to me. I don’t ever determine what my personal interest as to what I will become. The Bible in the book of Psalms 62:11 says that “once has he spoken, twice have I heard that power belongs to God.” Your position on the next governor of the state does not seem to tally with what is dominating public discourse in the state, which tends to place much emphasis on where the next governor should come from than on the qualities expected of the person? Personally, I have my prerequisite, a scale or baseline that I use in judging who should be the next governor. Number one, he should be a God-fearing person. Number two; he should be a person that is responsive to the needs, yearnings and aspiration of the people of Akwa Ibom. Number three, he should be a person that should be able to continue with the level and tempo of development achieved by Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio irrespective, of where the person comes from, even if he comes from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District (where Akpabio comes from), or Uyo Senatorial and Eket Senatorial Districts. People from every parts of the state have always come to contest for the governorship of Akwa Ibom but at the end of it all, God uses whom he wants and secondly, God uses the people of Akwa Ibom to choose the king. The same way God used the people of Akwa Ibom to choose Obong Akpan Isemin, Obong Victor Attah, and Chief Godswill Akpabio, God will use that same channel to choose the next governor for the people of Akwa Ibom come 2015. But he should be a man that will be able to perform. There is so much noise about where the next governor should come from; it is noise and not debate because debate should be on issues and on something substantial. Let those interested in becoming governor begin to show us their manifestoes. Let them begin to tell us what they will do for the people of Akwa Ibom. Let the people call the youths of Akwa Ibom and tell them the vision for Akwa Ibom and what they will do for the people of the state. Let them go to the market women and tell them what they will do for them. The person should be able to sell his blue-print to the elders of the state. The person should be able to sell his blue-print even to the ‘agberos’ in the motor park. He should be able to sell his blue-print to the teachers (the NUT). He should be able to sell his blue-print to the Nigerian Labour Congress, of course, the workers of the state, stating what he will be able to do for them. The only way where one comes from should come into consideration should be the person antecedent; it should not be local government area of origin or state of origin. The question should be what has been the person’s performance whether in the private or public sector. The consideration should be where the person is coming from, from the perspective of rendering service to the people. People should be able to look at what you did in whatever capacity you found yourself or if you are still serving people you should be able to look at what you have been doing with the office you occupied and not at where you are coming from.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 14:55:42 +0000
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