Hon. Moshood Adebayo Mustapha, fondly called MM, represents Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency of Kwara State in the lower legislature. The lawmaker, who has served at different times in various capacities in the state, spoke with BISI ADEDAYO on topical national issues. Excerpts:

As the nation marks her 14 years of uninterrupted democracy, what have you done to improve the lives of your constituents since your election into the lower chamber of the legislature?

Youth and women empowerment have been my pre-occupation. I have been able to secure 20 federal appointments for university graduates, employments for youth at state level and distributed scholarship awards to undergraduates in my constituency. Women were provided with soft loans to aid their businesses through micro finance houses. Some people were also assisted to go on holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. We also assisted our farmers in Asa Local Government Area with fertilizers free of charge to aid food production in the state.

The greatest challenge facing Nigeria's democracy is that of insurgency by the Boko Haram sect. Don't you think this may lead to national disintegration?

Basically, Nigeria as a nation, is going through a serious and trying time on security, political and economic challenges. We have a lot of things to contend with on security. I believe the government has prepared for it based on the Appropriation Bill of 2012. If you look at how much money appropriated for security, it means government envisaged there could be problems within the particular financial year. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, almost N1 trillion was appropriated and approved for maintenance of peace and security. In the course of all these, security chiefs were changed, the Minister of Defence was removed, and the appointment of Inspector-General of Police was confirmed. It shows all is not well with reports of kidnapping, bombing and armed robbery.

We need to find out the cause and how to solve the problem because the fundamental responsibility of any government is maintenance of peace and security. In a situation that it cannot do this, then it calls for question the ability of that government. The National Assembly believes its domestic problem must be handled domestically, hence the need to know the people behind the menace of insecurity. What are their grievances and how do we sit down to discuss with them?

That is why we say dialogue is the only way out. If not, we might end up breaking up, but is it good for this country? We all came together based on design of the Almighty God. Why should we work towards breaking it? If you look at Nigeria, despite tribal diversity, we have one thing or the other in common that binds us together.

This shows configuration of God. We should all work towards the unity of this country. I believe the government, executives, the security agencies and individuals should do more. We should be vigilant in our communities and also help police with useful information on suspected movements.

The situation is not peculiar to Nigeria, but this is our own country and we should ensure we live in peace. The situation is alien to us. We are fun-loving people who do not want to die, unlike what we now have in suicide bombers. We pray that Nigeria will not break up. The President has taken some steps with the appointment and confirmation of the IGP, as the new National Security Adviser is going round to work things out. We should all pray for divine intervention to the problem.

Many people believe that the face-off between the National Assembly and the executive on the budget implementation may lead to impeachment move. What actually is the motive?

We are not planning impeachment against the President. We only pointed out that there is a particular clause that can be used if this is not done. We have looked at the budget, and it becomes a law the moment it is assented to by the President. We all must abide by it, be it President or anyone else, it is binding. But for one to start selective implementation of the budget is against the law.

If the President decides to keep quiet and allow his ministers to run afoul of the law, then the President has run afoul of the law and breach of the law. It is like when you act against the parliament, it is an act of illegality. We say the budget law must be respected. So, if this is not done within this period, there is another provision of the law that says this can be done if you are not ready to comply. It is just a pointer to the fact that there is another provision of the law that says something can be done if you do not respect the law. The President must be guided and that is what we are doing. Nobody can claim to love Nigeria more than anyone else because we have no other place outside Nigeria and that is the difference between democracy and autocracy.

So, what happens in an event that the President fails to satisfy you within a specified period of time?

It is one thing when we see ourselves as party people, and it is another thing entirely when we see ourselves as legislators in charge of legislative activities of the country. You can have a link on the platform that brought a legislator to the House, but I think what is important to everybody is the Nigeria project. The issue of politicising it is infinitesimal compared to the zeal to ensure Nigeria excels. We need to be serious to get among the comity of developed nations. We are not asking the President to get it implemented 100 per cent.

Nobody wants to rock the boat, but to legislate for the good governance of the country and checkmate the executive to have value for our money. It is not about party politics but Nigeria's survival. We are not on the same page with the executive on the level of budget implementation. What is the level of recurrent and the capital budget? They should come out and tell us. We just came back on oversight visits and found out that the agencies and parastatals had not touched the capital projects at all. They either say they have not had release of funds, or that the fund is not enough or that they are processing the papers. Why do we always have motion and no movement in almost all our dealings?

As the Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (up-stream sector), are you satisfied with the handling of the people being tried for oil scam?

We have not yet concluded on the issue of illegal bunkering as we do call it in the oil sector. It is a big menace. Nigeria loses about 150,000 barrels on daily basis. The country should be more serious about it. If you go by oil rigs, you see the activities of these people. And the unfortunate aspect is that it is not just stealing of the oil alone that is causing problem for Nigeria, but there are so many problems associated with the oil theft.

We have problem of oil wastage. Whenever they burst pipes and siphon oil, they left the pipes running and you find out that the nation loses huge sum of in the process. This continues until oil company involved notices a drop in the pressure of oil. Nigeria must have lost a lot before they close the pipes and then go into repairs. And we have a quota of 248 million barrels per day as approved by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

So, if we are unable to meet up, it means we would have a shortfall that will affect revenue that goes into Federation Account. Also, the issue of environment is another one. When the oil drips into the environment, it kills the aquatic life in the area, as a result of this, we have health problem and the water becomes hazardous to them. It is in Nigeria that we don't take environment matter as important. It is our major problem when we can't breathe in fresh air.

All these are associated problems to the issue of oil theft. Now, we have asked the players in the sector on who are the thieves. They say they don't know. Who are the buyers? This is because somebody must be the buyer of illegal and blood oil. But we know some countries are behind this. I don't want to mention names. If we can identify these buyers, we would be able to trace our stashed money. Secondly, there are outlets.

Our security should block the water way area outlets which they use to steal. We have challenged the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and oil companies on the need for synergy. The Nigerian Air Force should be brought in. The ship used to steal oil cannot come to our shores; they stay on the high seas.

They use barges to steal. They can view the entire Nigeria's territorial water from their office with the latest technology. So, when we see a particular movement on the high seas, we should be able to go after such movement. Normally, it takes approximately two days to load a ship. So, to use barges to fill a ship will take a week or thereabout. So, we should be able to detect oil thieves' movement by upgrading our own system to track and arrest them as they were recently caught by NIMASA.

And by the time we come up with the report of our findings on the public hearings on illegal oil bunkering, we will not only have the report but would be able to have solution to the problem.