Hon. Kwamoti Laori is Deputy Speaker of the Adamawa state House of Assembly. In this interview with Blessing Tunoh, the legislator who represents Numan constituency and whose ascendancy as Deputy Speaker did not go down well with some key officers of Governor Murtala Nyako’s administration opens up on issues including the hijack of the State Assembly by some forces.
Nigerians began the year 2012 with protests and agitation over fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government. What do you make out of the whole scenario?
I think Nigerians have been very sacrificial and they are very accommodating but the truth is that they don’t trust politicians. You know there has been this issue of subsidy in this country for very long. People are apprehensive that this one could go the way of others where they did not see the benefits. That is why they are kicking. Of course government cannot continue wasting money for some few to be benefitting. Government can now remove their hands from this sector just like they did in communication sector. On fuel subsidy, the only problem was how it was introduced. Government can remove it gradually in a way that people will not feel.
The state House of Assembly has been locked up for quite some time now
and there are a lot of versions of the story. What really happened?
Well what happened was that we removed our Speaker and the deputy and another Speaker and a deputy were elected to take their place and it was done according to the rules. There was no breach of any rule of the House or of the Constitution in respect of action taken by the members. They have every legitimate right to do what they did. Unfortunately the next day the members came to have their normal sitting and the people that were removed hired some people to come in to disrupt the sitting and to cause mayhem to the house.
The matter is in court. We knew their plans and we are taking the issues maturely. Whoever is responsible for that will wear out and we will open the House; it cannot be locked forever. It baffles me that the Commissioner of Police has not taken action to arrest them. I know that usually if people are going out for a protest they obtain permit, but I don’t know whether these people have been given permit by the CP, given the security challenges in the state to come and chase the Police and Civil Defence Corps guarding the complex and bring their own locks and keys. That is quite unfortunate. But like I said the matter is in court and whatever the court decides is okay by us.
The state’s Commissioner of Information, Abdulrahman Abba Jimeta recently declared that unless the Speaker is picked from Adamawa Central zone, the House would remain locked.
I don’t know why the security people have not arrested and locked him up. His utterances clearly show that he is part of what is happening here. This is a democratic institution and it is established by the Constitution. Now you are going against the law which you swore to uphold because as a commissioner you swore an oath of office and that of allegiance to uphold the constitution. Now you are saying that there will be no peace. This is really quite unfortunate and the CP should be asked about what he has done on the matter.
The issue of taking the Speaker from the Central is neither here nor there so it doesn’t follow. No position remains in one place, some of the local governments have two members because they have two constituencies but most of them have only a member and when the leadership of the House is distributed, all these variables are taken into consideration. So if the leadership is being changed, it is the members that decide where it goes and not somebody outside the House of Assembly. If you look at the history of the House of Assembly anytime there is change of leadership it doesn’t matter where the person comes from. Look at what happened in the last Assembly, the SSG and the Speaker were from the same place. Even in the time of Governor Boni Haruna, he was from the same place with the Deputy Speaker but did it change anything? At that same time they said the Speaker is zoned to Southern zone and when they removed him, they took the new speaker from the Central zone here where the deputy governor also hailed from. The world did not collapse. So if there is a change of leadership then it is because the members want to have direction from a leader they want.
How has the relationship been with the executive since the House leadership changed?
The relationship has been cordial. We have a symbiosis relationship and we have to relate. The executive has to relate with the legislature, we on our part have to relate with the judiciary. It’s a tripod system. So it’s a triangle where the lines have to connect; no arm can function independent of another.
Sometimes people don’t know how to draw a line between an issue and a personality but we have to know the limits. You have to know that when you are in a position and there is an issue you don’t bring it and make it personal. Governance doesn’t work like that. I know we are in an evolving democracy that has not yet come out of the woods. Once somebody is in a position he tends to personalise everything.
If there is an issue in Numan for instance, instead of me to look at it objectively I’ll say because this person didn’t vote for me or this person doesn’t like me, that’s why he is doing that. No! That’s not how to handle issues, we should ask questions like: What is the issue? What is the problem on ground? We should not personalize issues but look at them the way they are and solve them.
So for how long would the Assembly complex remain locked?
Remember I said the case is in court and we are always ready to go back to the House. Most times when we try to enter they will hire miscreants to stop us. Like I said we are respectable people; we cannot just go in and have a clash there even given the security situation on ground. We are gentlemen and we are behaving properly.
The presiding judge of the case advised that the two parties consider the option of dialogue, are you doing that?
Nobody approached us, it is the person that takes you to court that will tell you to come and sit down. We have been waiting for them to call us so we can iron out issues but up till now our solicitors have not informed us that they have been contacted. We asked them to fix a date there and then in court, and that we are ready. So we have given an open invitation and their solicitors said they are going to get back to us but up till now, they have not done that. We are amenable people, we are open to dialogue whatever discussion that can be made in compliance with the suggestion by the judge.
Gubernatorial election in the state is few days away do you think the PDP will excel given the crisis within the party?
Definitely the PDP is the party to beat. Nobody can beat the party here. Everybody here knows PDP.
The party is very popular and it will carry the day, PDP is going to win the election.
There are allegations that the state government and your party would use the fragile peace situation coupled with the fear in the minds of electorates to rig the February 3rd governorship election.
Well I am not aware of that, I am not in the security committee neither have I been saddled with any responsibility of security issue. It is up to the security personnel to advice whether the election can hold or not because it is their responsibility and duty to safeguard people and properties.
So if they assess the situation and say we can conduct elections then why not? The fact is that they are in a better position to let us know what is happening. Of course people must be apprehensive, everybody loves his life and nobody wants to put his life in danger, we cannot just wish that away it is a factual situation. It is now for the government and security agents to make broadcasts and assure people that the place is safe and definitely people will have confidence not to entertain any fears on the election day. Not a single person should die because we are going to conduct election. Such is uncalled for, really every life is important.
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