Hon. Joe Edionwele who is presenting Esan West Federal Constituency in an exclusive interview with our correspondent to a swip at the APC government for the nation’s economic woes and other national issues.
Excerpt:
As the Chairman of Esan West Local Government Area in the past, your people spoke positively about your performance as one of the best in the state that you represent now in the National Assembly. What do they say about you now that you are doing second term of eight years in the house. Do they see you also as a performer?
A: Of course I’m a grassrooter, I live with them so I actually know more of the problems and I’m trying to proffer solution. At the local government level we did the little we can but we have a wider range right now and at that point we will be able to say that we are building schools now because of the revenue that was coming to the local government but I can tell now that we have more than Ten (10) Primary Schools built by me through the presidency and of course roads too. By December now we are starting a new road. so we have opportunities to reach out to our people although we equally have a wider range now because I’m dealing with three local government areas, 30 Wards and 19 kingdoms. So, it is not just as small as Esan West as we have them and of course that help me in my election when in the first tenure and in the second tenure and I’m one of those that don’t actually do billboards because I’m live in their heart.
Q: As it is today, the report as at last week shows that the country economy is not as we think, in August, 2016, Nigeria plunged into recession with a GDP of 1.62% but last week we experienced another GDP of 3.62% which makes it the second time in four years that the country economy will be sliding into recession, in your view what is the implication to Nigeria vis-a-vis the weak economy?
A: It is a very sad narrative because this is an economy that is so blessed, we have oil in abundance and we have a lot of resources where we generate money and many of alternative result to our resources like Gold for example from Zamfara is not allowed to be managed by that State rather than the National Assembly and all of them benefit from the National purse. So, its so sad that Nigeria at this point in time is still talking of recession because we are leaving those things we ought to do to the things we shouldn’t be doing I will give you an example. If you see all ministries, the number of ministries we have are too much with the current expenditures is very high. I give you example Ministry of Information and Culture alone have nine agencies, what are we doing with nine agencies and that is how it is in so many ministries. We need to streamline them. if you look at the presidency budget for example a lot of line items are supposed to be removed, there are things you don’t do on a yearly basis – replacement of computer, replacement of generator, these things are unnecessary and don’t do on annual basis. So, what I’m actually saying is that we ought not to be in recession at all if we manage well. We don’t even produce anything, even toothpick we can’t produce, nobody is encouraged, we are even closing the border when we don’t even have anything and many of the industries are getting closed because they get their chemicals outside. So, we are actually harming ourselves. It is unfortunate that the economy is in bad shape. I won’t say is in recession, it is mismanaged.
Q: The 2021 budget review seems to have come to a close, do you see 2021 budget impacting positively on the life of an average Nigerian?
A: All budgets that have been passed since I have been in the National Assembly are supposed to have positive impact on our people but the issue we have is in the implementation. Only this year that actually we are able to do 75% it has always been within 30% to 50% implementation. So, for example if I have road I want to construct at N70 million, the maximum we can get is N35 million so what will that one do in a situation where we have a budget of N70 million, so the implementation is the issue. We need to look at not just the budget that are in trillion, no not just the size we should be thinking but the implementation of that budget. It is supposed to be a law haven’t passed it, it is supposed to be fully implemented but no budget apart from this 2020 budget has got more than 50% implementation.
Q: Okay lets go back to your previous answer that the mismanagement of the economy is the reason why we have crisis. You also talked about the presidency in terms of the mismanagement but some other persons will think it is a case of the kettle calling the pot black. National Assembly budget on emolument is also over bloated and nobody seems to be talking about it. Don’t you think you should cut budget to a appropriate size so that there will be openness in government and that Nigerians should know what is happening what’s happening in the National Assembly so that the economy can stabilise?
A: No, it is a very simple thing, we have about 360 persons in the House of Representatives and 109 at the Senate. You need to just analyse. I have supporting staff of five and they are paid from that budget and we have over 3,000 staff some on level 17, some on level 15 so you can see. We have an institution we train and retrain our staff. It is actually the one that we use to train everybody and that school is almost a university where Diplomas are produced. They are into production of Degrees now and this is funded from that budget you are looking at. The whole place now, from my room to the generator, water services, the cleaning of the place is at source all paid from that budget. It is not a question of looking at the quantum of zeros to goes to the members, no.
Q: Is that part of the maintenance budget for N36 Billion we are talking about for maintenance of National Assembly?
A: That is not part of our own because the building is owned by the FCT. It’s they that are asking for all that. They belief that that is too little to maintain the place. But go to presidency and see what they used in maintaining that place, the light there don’t blink and so we are not comparable at all. We conduct our activities in the open. The N126 million we are talking about is simple analysis and if you go to our account section they will give you the details, you can even know our emoluments vis-a-vis the staff we have.
Q: Are you saying you’re independent on the Presidency in terms of financial sustainability?
A: Of course, and I can tell you what we are having is nothing because I have an SA who is on level 15, we are even supposed to have consultants but they can’t afford it because every member is supposed to have a consultant reaching out to news and all that and advise appropriately but we don’t have such, I am just coming from a committee meeting for example and those questions and answers and all that but you should take them item by item but people will always take the whole amount divide it by 360 plus 109 and say oh! they have taken the whole money, only the bankers know what we get.
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