Moving from House of Representatives to State House of Assembly It has been a kind of transition. The work load and expectations are similar but not the same. Nonetheless, the legislative duties are the same. You legislate, represent and oversight the executive arm of government to ensure that the protection of the consti­tution and delivery of good governance is achieved. But you have difference in vol­ume of work and expectations of the elec­torates and all that.

Replicating Federal feat at the State level

Robust participation in legislative activi­ties is the choice of every lawmaker. In Nige­ria we are yet to appreciate the whole gamut of lawmaking. Some lawmakers concentrate on the delivery of the dividends of democ­racy to their people, some look at the bud­get to see what opportunities are there, with a view to pursuing them, some will go from ministry to ministry to oversee them, some will attend plenary session, some will not. But in our case, we look at what will be ben­eficial to the people. And from ones back­ground as a lawyer, you see it as a one-time opportunity, which it actually was. So, you took advantage of that and made the record of one of those that passed the highest bills, both in quantity and quality. It is a choice.

And now, at the State, as a presiding offi­cer, as the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, you do not initiate bills, be­cause you are the presiding officer. But, at the same time if you are active and lead a robust legislature as we have been doing in Kwara, it will still have effect on the quality and output of work at the Assembly.

In Kwara, it has been good this past 7-8 months. Yes, we are 100 per cent All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) in the legislature, but I haven’t heard it, even as rumor that the House is a rubber stamp for the exec­utive. That is a standard that we have been able to maintain.

From being a member to Speaker

It has not been easy. Being an ordinary lawmaker or the chairman of a committee, is not the same thing as being the presiding officer, where you combine so many things including administrative, financial and all that. We have concentrated on Kwara. When I came in, my colleagues in the Conference of Speakers of States House of Assembly want­ed me to contest for a position. I rejected. I told them since I am coming from the Feder­al legislature, I am here to work for the State.

Saraki in the eye of the storm

The issue with the Senate Presidency and some of the people in the party is political and national. Kwara and myself as a Speak­er doesn’t have anything to do with it. But as a lawyer, I might have one idea or sugges­tion to make. As it happened in court Kanu Agabi (SAN) made his final submission. He said: "my Lord, the parable of what is happening is like when two politicians are fighting on the street. One had an upper hand. And the other, having been defeated came to the tri­bunal asking it to assist him in beating his assailant. He also asked the tribunal to allow him to achieve what he could have achieved."

That is what is happening. It is not about corruption trial. If you ask 99 per cent of pol­iticians, there will be one infraction or the other regarding the filling of the assets dec­laration form. If you spot a mistake in some­thing that was filled eleven years ago, which many politicians are guilty of, and you hold somebody in for trial immediately he defeat­ed you, then it says lot about the legitimacy of the war against corruption. It is a minus on the fight against corruption.

What surprises one is that things that were happening in the era of the People's Dem­ocratic Party (PDP), are still happening. When you say you don't want to intervene because it is a corruption case, it is wrong. I will compare this with what is happening in Kogi State. The same thing is being done and you keep quiet. That in itself is injustice.

In Kogi, five legislators, with the assis­tance of the powerful from the State to the Federal, upturned proceedings and wanted the Speaker who has fifteen followers. This is the kind of thing that happened under the watch of PDP . I was in the National Assembly then. Under the PDP it was nor­mal, but when the APC is involved and the only reason is that somebody doesn't want to intervene, that is injustice.

When you see a seemingly innocent per­son, who is being hounded to court and you say you don't want to intervene...I would have expected somebody to say, ok take all the other politicians to the CCB. Why Saraki alone? Why his ordeal after he has defeated the President in the bid for Sen­ate Presidency? But Almighty God is watch­ing. If somebody is powerful today, he was weak yesterday and he will be weak tomor­row. And somebody else will be powerful tomorrow.

Is this whole thing not about power?

It is about three things. Number one is power. Number two is pow­er. Number three is power. Noth­ing else. Nigerians should be wiser. If anybody says this is about cor­ruption, it is not. Everything about the matter, the case, is wrong. The bureau is the one charged with the responsibility of taking this case to the tribunal. It didn't. It came from somewhere else. It came from the EFCC, the Attorney General. That is wrong.

You have to take Saraki's state­ment before you take him to the tribunal. You didn't. And there are some other people who have now been taken to the tribunal without their statement being taken. This is fundamental. There are politicians being tried at the tribunal. I won't mention names. The reason their cases are not going on is that the Ministry of Justice has advised the tribunal that you didn’t take their statement before you took them for trial. This is fundamentally wrong and fatal. So, the Ministry of Jus­tice withdrew those cases and they are now trying to go back and get the statements from these politi­cians. But in the case of Saraki, be­cause somebody powerful is inter­ested, they cannot go back and say we didn’t obtain his statement be­fore we took him to court.

Forget about the lack of invita­tion and other things. Tinubu was invited and he didn't appear. What is significant is that Saraki's state­ment was not taken. This is con­stitutional. In the constitution, if you do not take the statement of an accused person and you take him to court, the court will dis­miss the case. So many things are wrong with that case. I remem­ber the case of Mbadinuju, under section 35 and 36 of the Consti­tution, the court said if you don't take the statement of the accused person, then, there is no case. The court here harps on fair hearing. We are still waiting and I hope … I will be surprised if the tribunal doesn’t discharge Senator Saraki. When you do wrong things, you always miss something.

The thing was that it was an order to CCB and not the oth­er way round. It would have been from CCB that they want to pros­ecute the number 3 man, do we go ahead. Then, they will say go ahead. But, in this case, it is from the top. Agabi raised the issue that we don't have information on this issue and the court said no, we have it in the file. Why didn't you put in the proof of evidence? What is going on is terrible. The trial it­self is an evidence of corruption. The trial of Saraki is an evidence that corruption runs amok in Ni­geria. This is a pro-corruption tri­al where the Constitution is being flouted.

Allegation against Kwara gov­ernor in land strife matters

You talking of the Share-Tsaragi. A Judicial Commission of Inquiry is in place and it will submit its re­port to the governor soon. That is­sue has been there for some time. There are others. Even last week, there was one and the House called the State chairman of the Bound­ary Commission, because they have the statutory role. It is when they don’t play their role that we come in. I hope the one in Share-Tsaragi will be resolved. It is a flash point and the only one we have in Kwara State. We had the Offa-Erinle land crisis. It has been resolved.

If the Governor is seen as being partial, it would be against a shade of evidence. He is not a member of the commission of inquiry or the traditional committee that he ap­pointed the Emir of Ilorin to be part of. People can say what they want. But how can the governor be partial in such matters? This is a democracy. Yeah, he is from one of the communities that are fight­ing. Of course, the first impression or what the other party will say is that the Governor is partial. Rath­er than being judgmental, what are the issues he is said to be partial on? I am not defending him. But nobody has come to the House or tell the world that the Governor is being partial. In fact, his actions has been det­rimental to his community. That is what is happening. He is bending backwards so that people will not accuse him.

On Bacita Sugar Company

It has been privatized. I think a big investor, BUA, is trying to come in. The area is known for its sugar plantation and production. There are other investors also being guid­ed by the Nigerian Sugar Council in trying to rehabilitate the sugar industry in Kwara North. In a few month the industry will be back on track.

Investment by Zimbabwe farm­ers

It has been functioning well. Apart from dairy, the investors are also into poultry farming. It is a commercial entity and a going concern. I believe it is still func­tioning.

Thrust of Kwara 2016 budget

This is to deliver on massive in­frastructure development. That is the intervention we want to do. Our focus is on road, electricity, health and education. Those are the major issues. We pride our­selves as that state where the ru­ral folks will pay N500 each for health insurance. This will entitle each person to a year-long medi­cation and drug. A Dutch company and the Kwara State government are in partnership on this. The govern­ment is providing N750 million while its partners is putting hun­dred millions of dollars. We are proud of this. It is something that makes healthcare delivery to our people easier. This is being show­cased by the federal Ministry of Health as something that other states should emulate.

Legislations on course

We are looking at taxation laws since we can no longer rely on fed­eral allocation any more. We are not necessarily raising the taxes but widening its net, so that those who have not been paying will be brought in. We will target trad­ers, commercial and private vehi­cle owners, property owners and others. People don’t pay their ten­ement rates and such like. We want to bring all these into the tax lane.We are working seriously on that.

We are not raising the rate. We are simply going after those that are not paying. So, I don't think it will be unpopular. The tax regime now is discriminatory. Some are paying while others are not. And whatever infrastructure government is putting in place, ev­erybody enjoys it. To the contrary, the move is receiving support from the general public. We are also looking at tapping from the potentials of the River Niger. We have irrigation farm­ers by the Songha river bank. But the enterprise is very expensive. It needs lots of money. It was put in the budget of last two years. But it has not been completed.