The Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Razak Atunwa, speaks with journalists in the state on some current national issues. BIOLA AZEEZ of the TRIBUNE  brings these excerpts:

DO you subscribe to the report that Nigeria is cash-strapped?
IT will baffle any Nigerian to say the country is cash-strapped. Oil is being produced and exported on a daily basis. We have enormous Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) coming into the country. I will be very amazed for anyone to justify why we are cash-strapped. It is because there are leakages. The Federal Government needs to look into avenues where there are leakages in the economy and plug those areas. To suggest that we are cash-strapped is not sensible.

 How do you react to the unfolding car purchase scandal involving the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah?
People are no longer concentrating on the message but they are concentrating on the messenger. For me, if it is true, as it is being admitted, that two cars were bought for something in the region of $1.6 million (N225 million), it is mind-boggling that any minister in the country should approve such a huge sum of money for just two cars. It is even further mind-boggling that a minister will seek to justify acquiring a car through an agency of the ministry.

Second, whatever the intricacies of the matter, this minister has certainly become the news. No one is now concentrating on the very important matter concerning aviation safety and operations of the airports and airlines. The Minister cannot have the time to concentrate on the very important aviation job which she is appointed to do. So, on those bases and without prejudging whatever went wrong, the honourable thing to do is for the minister to go.

There have been impeachments and threat of impeachment in some state Houses of Assembly. How do you react to the development? 
The impeachment of speakers in some states is worrying and bad for the stability of our country. If the component part of the country is unstable, then the country will be unstable. It is the sole preserve of the respective concerned houses of assembly members as to whether or not a speaker is retained. But I believe those in states where speakers have been impeached should have shown maturity in our democratic existence. Further, I will say the culture of impunity that pervades the Nigerian political arena should stop.

You will recall that before the current bout of impeachments, the former speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly was to be impeached by a 12 lawmakers against 13, and I did raise the alarm then. If the constitution stipulates that only two/thirds can impeach the speaker, how then can you say 12 is superior to 13. It started from then and we have been on a slippery slope ever since. Thereafter, we had the figure of 16 claiming to be more than 19 in the Nigeria Governors' Forum election. The figure is getting worse. Much later in Rivers State, it was easy to say five is more than 27. We cannot validly mature as a democracy when people would take laws into their own hands and seek to manipulate the law. Therefore, I enjoin all of us participating in governance to give good account of ourselves and follow what is due in process and due in law.

Some people opine that legislative work should be made part-time. Do you subscribe to this?
We have established already a system for legislation which provides the legislators to be elected on a full-time basis. I know some countries where members of parliament are part-time legislators. Whether they are part-time or full time, whichever system you adopt must suit your own particular environment. I like to say there is nothing wrong with membership of the parliament, but what is important is that members of parliament, as much as any arm of government, must see themselves as representatives of the people and carry out their function without fear or favour. Above all, they must be beyond reproach; there must be probity, sincerity, honesty and integrity in their approach.

What I think is happening is by and large an intoxication of power. Apart from that, there is a drive towards monetary acquisition and people see themselves as being rewarded, with positions and because I am rewarded I must pursue monetary gains and see myself as the lord and master of all. But I don't see it that way. That is why I will suggest that every legislator should see himself or herself not as a master, but servant of the people, representative of the people, as the mouthpiece of the people.

Why did the House rename Kwara State University after the late Dr Olusola Saraki?
The renaming of KWASU after Abubakar Sola Saraki was a subject of heated debate. Of course, the House conducted a public hearing as regards that. Dr Saraki, like him or hate him, stands too tall, in not only in Kwara politics but in Nigerian politics. Therefore, we have reasons to believe that it was commensurate with his status and his contributions to the politics of the state. It is the least you can do to name KWASU after him. It doesn't have to be that the person had done something in education alone, but even the Dr Saraki, in his life time, contributed wholesomely to educational advancement. He was a man who believed very much in education. So, it is the very minimum honour we could have done to immortalise him. 
 
May we know the reasons you have been pursuing financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly for some time now?
I have been one of the leading advocates of financial autonomy for the Houses of Assembly. The National Assembly started a constitutional amendment process. They have done public hearing, gone round all the states of the federation. The report is still pending and may be stalled because of this change in political discourse towards the proposed national conference. So, I will urge the NASS not to abandon its planned amendment of the Constitution by giving Nigerians want they want as they expressed in the public hearings across the country.

 Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have been on strike for more than four months now. Is there any way you politicians can intervene in the logjam?
In a democratic setting, the right to strike is part of the labour laws. But I always say it should be a last resort to be exercised sparingly. It shouldn't be exercised as a matter of first recall.

Having said that, I will advise the Federal Government get grip to grip with this matter. Let us have less of the talk that we cannot pay our lecturers what is due to them; let's have less of the talk that we cannot afford to pay people with is commensurate with the work they perform. The Federal Government should reach a sensible compromise about pay and conditions of these lecturers at our various universities. It is a shame that four months on, we have been unable to resolve that. But within the same period a minister could buy a car for N255million.