that is, between Ibibio and Annang lawmakers in connection with the reported assault of the member representing Nsit Ubium state constituency, Barr. Onofiok Luke, at Ika local government area. What is the true position of things in the Assembly?
As far as I am concerned, I am not aware of any division in the House of Assembly along any ethnic line. For those who know me, you know that, I even relate more with members from the Annang divide. Most of my close friends are members from the Annang ethnic group in the House of Assembly therefore, if there were to be such a divide, as canvassed by the press, I am not sure I would be comfortable dealing with them.
I think, whatever differences that occurred must have been over magnified by the press because, members of the fifth Assembly have been known to be working together. There may be one problem here and there; and some differences but, that does not mean there is division in the House of Assembly. While trying to protect the interest of your people we may disagree and after we come together again, that is why we still have Elder Sam Ikon as the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
I am also aware that there is so much talk about impeachment. It’s been there overtime at a point, we didn’t hear about it again. The news is coming up again but, I can assure you that there is no such intention because we know that Sam Ikon is doing well. We appreciate that although, all of us are equals, there is always first amongst equals and he is the leader.
What is your view on legislative autonomy?
That is a very important question, first of all, I was not a member of the Fourth Assembly; I am a member of the Fifth Assembly. The position of the Fifth Assembly is that, the House of Assembly should come under the first line charge. That is not negotiable.
Sometimes ago, one of your colleague told the press that the primary function of every lawmaker is to pass budgets, do you agree with that assertion?
The primary function of a legislator is clearly stated out in the constitution to the effect that it is to make laws for the good governance of the people. In that case, passing of budgets is merely an aspect of the law. So to that extent, he was correct to say that the primary function of lawmakers is to pass budgets because, budget is also a law. The executive cannot implement anything without the appropriation bill being passed into law; but, I will go further to say that it is not only passing budgets that the House of Assembly should do. There are other bills we also pass. The point I am making is that, the primary function of the House of Assembly is to make laws for the good governance of where they are superintending not only passing of budgets.
Do you think that members of the legislature have any justification probing corruption cases when it is believed that there are some elements of corruption amongst them?
Probing executive or anybody for that matter is part of the oversight functions of the legislature. However, in the course of carrying out the oversight functions, allegations may come up against a member or some members of a particular legislative committee, for example, investigation of the House of Representatives committee on Stock Exchange Commission, and all that. But in all these, as a lawyer, I want to believe these were mere allegations. None of the House members have been convicted of any of those allegations in court. As a lawyer, I believe that it is only the court that can convict. Until then, they are mere allegations while waiting for the court to do its job. We should be able to sight that a particular person has been convicted of corruption in the House of Reps. None, so far!
I want to take you to the issues of flood in Uyo Metropolis. The Akwa Ibom State House of Asembly had in one of its sittings, empowered its committee on Environment and Mineral Resources headed by Hon. KufreAbasi Etuk to investigate the incident. Do you think it is proper for the House to direct the Etuk-led Committee to work with state government committee sit up for the same purpose?
First, I want to say that I am very much aware of the flood issue. I think it’s never been that bad in Akwa Ibom State but, I think we should be able to appreciate that the government has tried to ensure that flood issue is checked in Akwa Ibom State. For instance, I don’t think we still have the type of flood we used to have along Oron Road by Urua Street, even Itam Junction I am not sure we still have such flood.
There have been interventions in some areas by government but my understanding of the issue is that a lots need to be done in other areas to ensure that Uyo is flood free.
Now, coming to your question, which one is more important? Because, I am a very proactive person; I only go out to solve problems. If a problem has arisen, my intention is to go out there and solve it in the quickest manner. So if the House of Assembly committee working in tandem with the government committee will solve the problem faster, what is wrong about that? The issue is not investigating and apportioning blames. That will come later. The issue is that, a very important incident affecting the people has developed and whatever should be done, even if, it means the executive and the legislature working together to ensure that, first and foremost, the issue is resolved, there is nothing wrong about that.
The House of Assembly gave EXXON Mobil 7days ultimatum within which to resolve the oil spill impasse in Eket Federal constituency else the company’s management would be summoned by the House, 7days have since elapsed and the issues have not been resolved by Mobil. Why haven’t the House summoned Mobil?
Yes, the issue was brought to the House under Matters of Urgent Public Importance. It was discussed and the resolution of the House was that Mobil should be given 7days to effectively handle the matter otherwise they would be invited to the House to explain what they are doing. Within the 7days, before the House resumed, there was an intervening factor which, when the governor heard it. He took it upon himself to see how he could solve that problem by meeting with the host community and Mobil. And therefore to that extent, the House now said okay! If that is the case, let us see what is coming out in that intervention by the governor.
We didn’t want to duplicate efforts, it is not as if the House is afraid of inviting Mobil to come but, like I said, all these things are aimed at solving problems that came up. As we were seeing, we knew that youths in Eket had taken to the whole streets; they had barricaded a lot of places; the governor was not in the state; he came back and heard it. I think that was the first matter that he attended to. He tried to intervene and I think some decision had been reached.
We have seen some of your constituency projects but, it appears only few state lawmakers are doing what you have done for your people, even when they have the capacity to empower their constituents. What could you say might be responsible to that?
Let me make this clear, the issue of constituency projects is completely different from empowerment by the representative because, the constituency project is taken care of in the budgets and it is not handled by the legislator. What the legislator does is to identify a project that is a priority to his constituents and the government will come in to handle it.
Coming to empowerment, I think it is in our own interests to give back to the society what you have been able to get from the society. Because it is your constituents that amongst other persons who came up to aspire for that position, elected you to represent them, so whatever comes out from occupying that office, you should be able to give back to your constituency. It may not be too much, that is what we have been trying to do; we appreciate the fact that government cannot do it alone no matter what government does there is still the need for you to intervene; for you to see how you could further help your people.
In the course of my electioneering campaign, I did say that; “I will to the best of my ability and to the best the resource that will come to me, empower my people.” At times, like the first empowerment programme that I undertook in June 2012; I am still owing the bank; we did not sit down and say ‘we don’t have money, so we are not going to do empowerment of our people’; our prayer is that, by the time we leave office, we must have been able to pay off the loan that we took. There may be certain persons who may not feel that they should come back and say thank you to the people who elected them into their offices but, let me specifically refer to the Fifth Assembly and say that even our own people, that is, the people of Akwa Ibom have agreed that the Fifth Assembly.