We’re engaging independent power firms to address power supply problems in Yagbaland, says Rep Leke Abejide

Second term member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Joseph Abejide, on Sunday, in Abuja, met with the Yagba Action Group (YAG). The body consists of professionals and technocrats from his home, Yagba federal constituency in Kogi State.

During the interaction, the group tabled issues of pressing concern to the people of Yagba Federal Constituency. These include: The imperative of addressing the epileptic electricity supply of many years in parts of the Yagba country and the urgent need to establish skill acquisition centres in the area.

YAG noted that festering unemployment, underemployment and propensity for resort to mischief and criminality can be ameliorated if youngsters are meaningfully occupied. The body harped on the need to support local hunters as concomitant to the achievement of food security in the federal constituency.

YAG canvassed the urgency of revolutionising agriculture in the homeland via the introduction of a “Tractor Usage Revolving Initiative” as part of the modernisation of agricultural practices in the area. The pressure group lent its voice to the proposal of its representatives to work with major industrial concerns operating in the area to maintain and make motorable the Ilorin-Egbe-Isanlu-Ilu-Hagba-Kabba Road.

Specifically, YAG sought negotiation for a Tax Holiday for Mangal Cement Company, which recently commenced cement production at Ilu-Hagba, to fix that road. YAG also advocated for improved primary healthcare facilities and securing Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) benefits to Yagba, which is home to Kampe Dam, a Federal Government/Lower Niger River Basin operated dam in Omi, Yagba West Local Government Area, among others.

Former presidential aide, the renowned media practitioner, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA) and Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja, Tunde Olusunle, led the delegation. Abejide’s responses to these and other issues are herewith excerpted:

On the setting up of skills acquisition centres
Recall that I mentioned it when I was speaking as a guest on Channels television some time ago about the programmes that I have during my second term. I mentioned it that, for me, it is always an eyesore whenever I travelled home to Yagba and see how the youths always act in an unruly manner at public gatherings. Some people said they are not serious but to me, not all of them are not serious. I said if we put skill acquisition centres in place, we will be able to differentiate between the serious ones and the unserious ones. After identifying the serious ones that need help, let’s help them. That is my target, which I believe is not a difficult thing for me for me to do.

On boosting food security
The issue of tractors is a very good idea. It is also part of my programmes. I did a pilot test this year on a specific type of corn, it is growing now and there’s a particular land I am negotiating for; it is about 330 hectares, to start this mechanised farming system and I want to replicate it across Yagba Federal Constituency. Isanlu people have reached out to me, there’s a particular land I have gotten in Isanlu, so I am sending surveyors from the Federal Ministry of Works to measure it to know the number of hectares of land. When we know that, I am going to bring like 10 tractors. Not only to Isanlu alone, may be 10 in Yagba East, 10 in Yagba West, 10 in Mopamuro.

On 11 years blackout in Yagba Southeast/epileptic electricity supply in Yagbaland

I was with the Minister of Power, Hon Adebayo Adelabu, we met at the Presidential Villa. I was with the Chief of Staff when he came in, we discussed about the issue of disconnection from national grid that has crippled electricity supply in many communities in Yagbaland for some years now. I also met with the Chairman, House Committee on Power, Hon Victor Nwokolo. I also invited the Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC). We documented everything as it happened about the situation down from my axis (Yagba South East) down to Isanlu. So, last two weeks, immediately I came back from London, I met again with the power minister and he specifically spoke about this electricity supply problem in Yagba East. It is also affecting some villages and towns under Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC). The IBEDC are complaining that they are not getting the required revenue from those places. The common problem the electricity companies pointed to is that those areas are not economically viable for them after all costs and benefits have been accounted for. Now that power is decentralised, it is not in the exclusive list like before, the minister suggested we take it up to seek alternative options. Now, there are some independent power companies coming. So, he has identified those areas and he is handing them over to the independent investors. They will not be operating under the AEDC. What they will be doing is that they will be paying royalty to AEDC, since they say they are the owners of the infrastructure. But these people will be the one to collect bills and give us electricity. The other option is ROA; this is a mini-grids for villages, so, I am going to work on them so that the minigrid system can give us light pending the time the minister is talking about. Mini-grids provide a cost-effective solutions, especially for low-income households in underserved regions.

On human capital development
Recall that during Buhari’s regime, the federal government placed embago on employment completely. Even when universities became short of lecturers, they had to apply for waivers from the office of the Head of Service, which some did not get. Agencies that were short of staff went ahead and recruited people through the IPPIS but they were not paid salaries. But you see the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a people-friendly government. I know what I have gotten for my people in this government in terms of employment. Just last week, I was able to secure job for someone in a federal agency. We are doing a lot, as time goes on, the statistics will come out.

Roads
The issue of our roads. If you look at 2022 budget; that was the budget before the election, I put about 1bn on the road from Ilu-Hagba, I was trying to see how that bad road can be fixed bit by bit, but now that Senator Sunday Karimi has come, we started thinking about what can we do, alternatively. We are exploring the option of tax credit for Mangal Cement Company, since it has worked elsewhere. We habor them to mine our mineral resources and established factories, so, we should be able to ask them to fix our roads, based on tax holiday. I know the Managing Director of Mangal Cement Industries, Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, he is my professional colleague, we knew each other way back in Kano. I put it to him, I said “you cannot just come to our side, take our resources away and leave the place to decay”. Because, if that happens, I forsee a day that our youths will come and block the road and ask them to stop production. The way Dangote Group came then to Obajana, the consciousness of our people was not this high.
If you pass through Obajana, it will seem as if you are going through a war zone, which is wrong. We will not allow that to happen in this case of Ilu-Hagba, because you cannot do that in other places. We will support Mangal Cement Company but they must do the needful. Still on the road issue, if you look at the effort, I am making at Igbagun axis, I have been doing the patching of that road, bit by bit. I started from Omuo-Oke-Ekiti to Igbagun. Now we are in Ponyan. But now, because there are lots of farms along that road, I thought of it that the road from Igbagun to Ijowa, I want it constructed with asphalt lay. I went to the presidential villa and If you look at the amended budget, you will find the road there. There is N5.250bn there budgeted for asphalt lay of that road entirely down to Ijowa, no more patch-patch. The second phase, I am looking at the road from Egbe to Okunran-Okoloke-Isanlu-Esa. I will sit down with Senator Karimi, we will work it out together. Having the Senator from Yagba in the 10th National Assembly will make my work easier than my first term. And there is another phase from Jege, Ogbom, Ogga to Omi. That one is coming to burst out in Igbaruku-Okeri.

Kampe Dam Omi/HYPPADEC Benefits

This issue of Omi Dam. During one of the sectoral debates, we normally have in the House, the Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun and the Minister of Agriculture, Muhammad Mahmood Abubakar, they came. I told them about Omi Dam, about the billions of Naira federal government funds spent to conduct that massive dam and it is not being utilized. And they said they will look at it to see if there’s need to reactivate it. I am talking of this year.

On environmental degradation and ACRESAL Intervention Fund

I am hearing it from you for the first time that Kabba-Bunu in Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu federal constituency was part of the communities picked for a massive ecological intervention funded through ACRESAL (Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape). Let’s us find out how we can leverage and get something from ACRESAL to Yagba. I believe we should all join hands together, it is not just the responsibility of those of us who are elected representatives to identify areas that we consider should be beneficial to our people. Your group can also do the findings to assist us.

Insecurity
The financial autonomy for Local Governments will help us a lot because the councils will have enough funds to tackle the menace of insecurity, because that is the major problem Nigeria is facing now. Not just Yagba. The real problem we have are the armed herdsmen. By the time we clear a vast hectares of our lands, pay those bororos that bought our lands and collect our lands back from them and cultivate those lands, they will know that we are serious and that there is no place for them, anymore. It is because we are not utilising our lands that they think it is free. I have procured a brand new bulldozer for the purpose of clearing our bushes. Immediately after the local government elections, I will invite the three local government chairmen who are from my constituency, we will sit down with the governor, and tell them in the presence of the governor, the implications of not appropriating the money for the development it is meant for. I will let them know security is of utmost priority to our people. The kind of money they want to be giving the chairmen now, I will warn them, if you misappropriate the money, we will write petitions against you and you know you don’t have immunity. So I will ensure that much of our security problems will be solved by the time the monthly allocations start coming directly to the local government accounts. Even themselves, they need to make names for themselves. I will work with them and the Senator, to make sure our people return to farm without fear of insecurity. Farming is the only business our parents knew how to do best. How many people can get government jobs today in Nigeria? But there’s a lot of money you can make from the farm. Any of our youths who show seriousness and are interested in farming, we are going to do everything possible to support them. Another problem we are having is that some communities allow these Fulani miscreants to stay in their communities and they are large in numbers now. We must drive them away. Nobody is saying Fulanis are not Nigerian citizens with every right to choose where they want to stay and survive. But, if you are a Fulani man and you want to stay, you must be law abiding and not go beyond your boundary. I have discussed it with the governor. The governor is in support of what I am saying.

Synergy with Senator Sunday Karimi

Senator Karimi and I are working closely together. We used to be political opponents but right now we share a lot of things in common, we relate very well, not only as elected representatives alone but in areas of business. Even by the time we leave National Assembly, our friendship still continues. If we don’t relate, how can we bring development to our people? You are beginning to see a departure from the past when we were seen as political enemies, because now, he is going to bring in a lot of things, I am going to bring a lot of things, by the time you joined the two efforts together, the result you get is better outcomes; improved efficiency and productivity. I pray something that will come between us will not come. And the followers, once they can see that kind of boisterous relationship between us, there will be no room for them bringing negative talks. I pray peace will reign in Yagba and by extension, in Okunland.