Senator Biyi Durojaiye, former legislator told KAMAL TAYO OROPO that government should let the money work for the people.In view of spate of contracts awarded almost every week by the Federal Executive Council, will you say the frequency has matched implementation of thee contracts'I believe you are just pulling my legs. The level of implementation is what we all can see. The more we hear of huge sum of money budgeted for various projects like power, roads, infrastructures and so on, the less we see any of these things, and the country appears very sick.What is your advice to those in authority regarding implementation of contracts'Do they listen to any advice' How many times have we been giving free advice' Has there be any improvement' It does appear we are merely giving advice for the sake of giving them.Unless we imbibe the principle of high integrity and self-respect, remembering that riches cleverly, albeit fraudulently, acquired do not last long. Either the immediate beneficiary or their children will suffer for it. If people can just sit down and reflect, they will realise that these things don't pay on the long run.What the country spends on a few number of people is a lot much more than what is spent on the vast majority of the people. About 90 percent of the revenue of this country is spent by and on less than 10 per cent of the people.The government needs to sit down and look at serious ways of bettering the lot of the majority of the people; not a handful of opportunist members of the authorities. The whole essence of governance is meant to benefit the masses. The greatest good for the largest number is the popular axiom; that has always been the motto of those who had distinguished themselves as purposeful leaders, who had succeeded in writing their names in goldWould you support the call for suspension of award of contracts by the FEC in favour of seeing to successful completion of those already awarded'It will be difficult to give hard and fast blanket rule about that; circumstances may not be the same. In some cases the nature of the contracts are such that are of immediate concern, for example road construction and maintenance. We cannot say because those in the authorities are not sincere in execution of certain contracts, then we should suspend governance.What should be the role of the National Assembly in ensuring that contracts approved are executed to the best of public interest'By the principles of separation of powers; the executive hold the purse of the nation, but the legislature make the law, superintend, approve what the executive spend and monitor, on behalf of the people, the implementation of programmes; in this case the contracts. They have the responsibility to ensure the money is properly spent as approved. They must not fail in their duties because, otherwise, they give room for speculations that they are being bought over by the executive to look in the other direction, which should not be.But I will not support a blanket suspension of contract awards. It is the terms of the contract that must be followed by all parties. If any matter arises, for example, if the Nigerian government decides to rebuild the UN building bombed, under a new regime that no new contract must be awarded, will one say that type of thing should not be done' New challenges will always come up and consequently new contracts must be awarded; you cannot put moratorium on that. It all depends on the good intension and integrity of those handling our affairs. Everyone will understand that 'oh yes, this one is necessary, not just jobs for the boys'.However, there must be enforcement of terms of the contracts awarded. In that breath, I agree there must be strict enforcement of what had already be given out as contracts.Where those in the National Assembly fail in their over-sight function, what should the people do'It's through the press. The people should channel their grievances and dissatisfaction through the press. The media as the watchdog of the society is a very powerful tool that should be explored by the people.There are three arms of government; the executive, the legislator and the judiciary, but conventional wisdom worldwide also agreed that the press the fourth realm of the estate. The press should come out to arouse sufficient attention to issues affecting the well being of the ordinary citizens. They must fall short of expectations. The press must be patriotic and sound out opinion on feelings of the people. It is expected that this will help in waking up those in the authorities to sit up to their responsibilities, even though there is tendency to dismiss some of these criticisms as ranting of those not in government. They often find one way or the other to shy away from issues.
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