PARLIAMENT IS NOT A PLACE TO SIT DOWN AND WATCH, MURAINA FIRE BACK AT YEMI TAIWO

Hon Dr Ajibola Muraina, the Member, House of Representatives representing Ibarapa Central/ Ibarapa North Federal Constituency has reiterated that developmental targets, not a need to impress, informs his numerous bills and motions in the House of Representatives.

He explained, “In order to clear the minds of unsuspecting innocent members of the public, protect the lawmaking powers of the National Assembly , the integrity of Honourable members and the integrity of the National Assembly itself as a lawmaking institution, I am constrained to reply to a statement describing the series of bills being sponsored by some law makers as a hoax”.

“One of the core duties (aside oversight and representation) of any legislative house (inclusive of the Nigerian National Assembly) is law making. It is therefore incumbent on any legislator who knows his job and is willing to do it, to propose bills on matters of importance to Nigerians. Legislators do not propose bills to impress anybody but to achieve great matters of importance for the citizenry and this is the case in Nigeria”.

Furthermore, Hon Muraina posited that motions and bills are fantastic instruments in the hands of positive minded legislators to achieve interventions on matters of general public importance and fill gaps in deserving areas of development. Bills are not proposed in vain and there is no way anyone can determine in advance which bills will be assented to or not by the President”.

“All that is required of a legislator is to play his own part by proposing bills and leave the issue of assent to the President. He cannot and must never prejudge the issue of assent by the President”.

By way of illustration, Hon Muraina noted that of the bills assented to by the President in the recent past, he assented to three bills which originated from legislators via developmental bills proposals, to wit: Establishment of Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikamma , the upgrading of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo to Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo and Federal College of Education (Special) Birni Kudu. These three bills that are now ‘Acts’, after the Presidential assent were not proposed to impress anybody by the legislators that proposed them and there was no way they would have known well in advance that the President would assent. They merely did their jobs as legislators and God crowned their efforts”.

“Of course, the rule of life itself is that nothing ventured, nothing gained and the Holy Books say: ask and you shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened. If those legislators mentioned above have not taken the bold step to propose these bills, they would never have been assented to by the President”.

Going further, Hon Muraina noted that it is also very important that just as bills are veritable instruments of legislative intervention and engineering in the hands of willing legislators, motions can also be of very fantastic effect in terms of seeking and achieving development. “For instance, in this 9th Assembly, I have used the instrumentality of motions to achieve these wonderful results:

a. In the motion on the murder of Alh Fatai Yusuf AKA Oko Oloyun, amongst other prayers, I asked:

(i). That Igangan Police Station be upgraded to Igangan Divisional Police Headquarters so that more policemen can be posted there for effective policing.

(ii). That the bad stretch of road from Abeokuta to Igboora to Iseyin (at the spot of terrible potholes) on which the victim was assassinated, be rehabilitated to make for smooth journey. The House unanimously adopted the prayers (inclusive of the above mentioned two). I followed up with letters and visits to appropriate places. The results are that the Inspector General of Police approved the upgrade of Igangan Police Station to Igangan Divisional Police Headquarters and the Federal Government included the rehabilitation of Abeokuta-Igboora-Iseyin-Sokoto road in the 2022 approved federal budget”.

b. “Similarly, when custom men gunned down our compatriots from Ibarapa Central/ Ibarapa North Federal Constituency, in cold blood under the guise of pursuing smugglers, I filed a motion on the floor of the House of Representatives to particularly demand for compensation for the victims both deceased and the injured. The Committee on Customs and Excise held a public hearing on the matter and the House at plenary has graciously approved compensation running into millions of naira for both the deceased and the injured”.

c. “In the same manner, I moved a motion calling the attention of the Federal Government to immediately commence the construction of inland dry ports in Nigeria with particular reference to Ibadan Inland Dry Port. A year thereafter the contract for the Ibadan Dry Port was awarded by the Federal Government”.

d. “Again, my motion for the creation of more State Constituencies by INEC (though initially made with particular reference to Oyo state , the House in its wisdom adopted the motion and prayers for the whole country). In line with the motion, INEC is working on creating more state constituencies in deserving states throughout Nigeria.

“Above are few examples of how the instrumentalities of bills and motions have been ingeniously engaged by willing legislators to achieve development and justice for their constituents in particular and Nigerians at large”

“It is not compulsory that a Honourable Member should and must file developmental bills for his constituents (that is left to his discretion) but within a space of four years there, he should endeavor to file at least a bill as a proposed solution to one of the Nigerian problems. It is the height of indiscretion to resort to raining abuses on performing colleagues when you fail to perform your constitutional duty of proposing bills for parliamentary consideration or that will enable parliament creditably perform its constitutional role of lawmaking.”

“Parliament therefore is not a place to sit down and watch, the consequences of sitting down and just watching in parliament could be grave, for instance while some honourables promptly filed motions for compensation for victims of customs attack on their constituents and the House approved same for them on request, some sat down without lifting a finger and of course, nothing was done for the victims in their constituencies. A legislator must dance to the tune of the music as played by the unfolding and varying circumstances in his/her constituency to give quality representation as required of him. This is the approach I will commend to the general public, current and future legislators.”

“Interestingly and fortunately, the constituents and most Nigerians appreciate very deeply the noble and humble efforts of these Honourables Members on the bills they sponsored. Who is he to condemn them when he cannot lay claim to a single bill in almost three years ( when first time honourables have several bills to their credit ) but he had to resort to abusive language on his noble colleagues to cover up his inadequacies”

“Perhaps the Hon did not appreciate that a simple question from the interviewer requesting him to name/mention the bills sponsored by him since 2019 should not have warranted such a terrible insult on his honourable colleagues, the integrity of law making process and indeed the integrity of the National Assembly by describing the filing of bills by his colleagues as a hoax. The dictionary meaning of “ hoax” is “a humorous or malicious deception” or “to trick or deceive someone” With due respect to him that language is unparliamentary and unbecoming of a Honourable member to employ to describe the noble efforts of filing bills by his colleagues as the inevitable tools for performing their constitutional duty of law making as enshrined in section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. I think the least he can do so as not to incur the wrath of his honourable colleagues and the parliament as a whole is to unconditionally withdraw the unparliamentary language with a public apology via the same platforms by which the wrong was committed.“

“For the sake of posterity, may I place it on record (as I have done severally) that I facilitated the three power projects in Ibarapa: sub-station at Lanlate, sub-station at Igangan and the change over station in Igbo Ora through my humble efforts as a member of Power Committee in 2009. Let me say it loud and clear that it was the outcome of my outstanding performance particularly with the minority report that I authored (which became the majority report by the resolution of the House). These humble efforts earned me these three projects from the then Ministry of Power. Fortunately, Engr Olapade, the then Director in the Ministry of Power, who anchored the projects to appreciate my said humble efforts is still, to the glory of God, very much alive. Yes, the Hon trying to lay claim to having facilitated the project was in the then 6th National Assembly but he knew nothing about how the projects got to be facilitated and approved via my humble efforts. All Nigerians can recall the said power probe. He was neither a member of the then power committee nor participated in the then power probe let alone knowing anything about the projects. I think it is too late in the day and clearly an after thought for him to now suddenly start claiming via social media, after several years, that he facilitated the power project at Lagaye, Lanlate. With all due respect to him, that is not the case, I facilitated the three power projects at Igangan, Igbo Ora and Lanlate. Even now, he is still in the 9th National Assembly but he is not in the power Committee of the 9th National Assembly and for those who care to check in retrospect my 2020 and 2021 annual legislative reports, I am the one that has been pursuing the budgetary allocations for the three projects and giving up-to-date reports on them. I feel very sad that the Hon is trying to lay claim to what he knows nothing about and thereby creating unnecessary controversy over this but it is important to put this record straight for posterity. This is just for the records and posterity. Who really facilitated it is ultimately immaterial (but just for the purposes of putting the records straight), what is important is that it is for the benefit of Ibarapas and humanity at large. God the Almighty knows who really did it and will accord him his place in history and his attendant blessings which no man can deny him. I rest my case.

“May God Almighty continue to crown our humble efforts with resounding success, may He bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria in general and Ibarapaland in particular.