Hon. Olajide Jimoh is a member of the House of Representatives representing Mainland federal constituency. In this interview with Taiwo Ogunmola-Omilani, he speaks on lawmaking process and other national issues.What is going on in the House of Representatives concerning padding of the 2016 budget which is causing ripples in the polity'Thank you very much, I want to say this that the word padding is an English word and I believe that there is no where or how one will say that he has not heard about padding but if you are talking about budget padding or financial padding, this is my first time I would have heard something of this nature. However, when I was in the Lagos State House of Assembly, I was the chairman of Public Accounts committee for years and there wasnt anything like financial padding or budget padding. What we used to do is to ensure we follow the law to the letter and ensure we pass the budget accordingly in line with provision of the law and constitution. After the passage, we send it to the governor for assent, then it becomes law after it has been signed.But the former chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jubrin had maintained that there is nothing wrong with budget padding but there is need to use common sense while doing that, do you belong to this school of thought'Well, let me tell you this, it all depends on the interpretation one is giving to budget padding. We have the constitution, 1999 constitution as amended that gives the power to the legislature of how the process or processes can be done when it comes to oversight function, among those things, the section ( 80)that has given the power from the executive to transmit estimates to the legislature for approval. Section (81) of the constitution gives the legislature an oversight power to scrutinize, amend, rectify, put in order for the interest of the generality, not for the interest of an individual. Where individuals interest comes in is where that can now be regarded as padding in order to assist that person. Whoever that has done that because of his own individual interest has done great injustice to the budget itself and to the public as a whole.Is this a good development happening right now in the National Assembly and how do you feel'Somebody like me, theres no way I can be happy about what has happened. It is rather unfortunate. It is uncalled for and I believe as it is today, we should be talking about budget review or budget implementation or how our budget have been utilised not budget padding. Talking about budget padding now, honestly speaking, we are not helping the country. We are ruining ourselves and we are causing more damages to the interest of the general people of Nigeria and I want to say that as far as I am concerned, since somebody has alleged and this allegation has been communicated to the various agencies, I believe it is the responsibility of those agencies to go and do thorough investigation that could help the politics, that could help the general interest of Nigerians, that will sanitize the system and whoever that is found culpable should be prosecuted.Recently, the Chief Whip of House of Representatives said Jubril indicted some principal officers because he was removed as chairman House Committee on Appropriation, do you agree with him'As far as I am concerned, I am not here to support Jubril, I am not here to oppose him, Im not here to defend the chief whip neither am I here to defend the speaker. I am here as a member of National Assembly, particularly member of House of Representatives to protect and defend the interest of that institution called legislature because there could not be democracy without legislature. Legislature is the brain behind democracy, all along, other arms of government have been in existence and without democracy, the judiciary will still be in existence, executive will still be in existence. The real arm that defines the word democracy for us is the legislature because democracy is defined to be government of the people, by the people, for the people and legislators are the people that were elected from various wards, various constituencies, various senatorial districts as the case may be. Therefore, I want to say that the issue of Chief Whip saying this or that is left to all of them. If the Chief Whip is culpable, he should be prosecuted. If Jibril is culpable, he should be prosecuted, that is my own point. The institution called the legislature should not be ridiculed, that is my concern.Do you think this could lead to lack of confidence in National Assembly'I think it all depends on the perspective we are looking at it. I was in a place recently, precisely in Country Club where I went for a wedding and the Chief Imam of Ansarudeen was trying to deliver a lecture. He was making reference to National Assembly they are now being called and referred to as padding elected representatives and I felt too bad and dumbfounded. Virtually every one of us is now a suspect, virtually every single person is now a suspect, because theres nowhere you go now and when people know that you are a member of the National Assembly or house of Reps in particular, they say padding House of Representatives, you can imagine this kind of thing.Those people should be tried, even by extension, virtually all the members of the House of Representatives and national assembly should be tried. Let us see the extent at which this thing has grown, I know why this problem is coming up now, if budget is being passed and details were not sent to the executive and the members dont even have the details of the budget itself, of course, none of them have been given the details of this and if you dont give the details and you dont give the analysis, how do we know, somebody somewhere just saw it and lay hands on it, went through it and discover that some people have added something to their outside the general interest . If that could cause problem, whether Dogara and Jibril Abdulmumin theyre having one case or the other against themselves, I dont want to get myself involved with that. The nitty gritty at the long run will get to the root of the matter.The business of law making which is the core responsibility of the National Assembly seemed not to be given priority, what is responsible for this'The primary responsibility of the legislature is to make laws and is to represent well, to perform an oversight function and to carry the members of public along in whatever thing theyre doing which is the general interest. Where all those fail, I think that should be questioned. The problem we are now facing now is not that they have not been making laws, the number of laws that had been passed now should be almost 100 in the first one year. That has been considered. Its not that we have not been doing that, it is not that we have not been representing well, the fact still remains that the principle of representation has still been followed. The issue of budget scrutiny, passage ,has it been done in accordance with the law', thats why Jibril has written letters to those agencies to confirm what has happened, let the public domain judge us and not the party this time around because this is now beyond the party. It has gone to the extent that the entire Nigerians are now talking about budget padding. By now, we should be talking about budget performance, budget review, budget implementation and not budget padding, thats my concern because the welfare of the people should be paramount because of section 4 of the constitution, where that fails, that means we are not doing well.Can you say the relationship between the executive and the legislature is cordial'Well let me tell you one thing, the relationship between the legislature and the executive arms of government is very cordial but that does not mean there should not be misunderstanding or misinformation but because the two are intertwined and its a situation whereby they can sit down and resolve things in accordance with the law. It is only when that fails that they can now go or do it in another way but theres nothing that can be the solution other than dissolve the Land and the constitution.What are the major challenges National Assembly members are currently facing and do you think it can be resolved'The challenges we are facing now is that challenges of individual interests, challenges of ranking members who have been there and they believe that they are all in all, the challenges that people have not been carried along, the challenges of I am the principal officer, you are not, I am the chairman of the committee, you are not, I am the vice chairman of the committee, you are not, that shouldnt be in a true parliamentary system of government. Everybody should have equal say. In a situation whereby some people will be in the National Assembly and they will be raising hand up and up till now they have not been recognized, you should expect that somebody like that will want to quarrel with the principal officers or the speaker. So, anything could have happened, the challenges of know me, I know you and that all along this is the practice and the precedence we have started and you cannot come now to change it, those are the things and I believe that if that continues, we will continue to run into limbo. I hope with what has happened, sanity will come to place in the National Assembly.
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