Adeboye
The lawmaker representing Ajeromi/ Ifelodun Federal Constituency, Lagos State, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Kalejaiye Adeboye, speaks on national issues in an interview with AYOYINKA JEGEDE
There is so much hunger and suffering in the land despite renewed hope promised by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Some Nigerians are already lamenting that he was voted into power. What’s your view on this?
The problem is that an economy that is monolithic in nature, just oil-driven, abandoning the agrarian side but all running after the dollar from petrol will experience what we are passing through now.
We have abandoned and forgotten the groundnut pyramids, we left the cocoa in the West, we left the rubber plantation in the Mid-West and we are chasing oil. It is unfortunate that we are still chasing oil till tomorrow while agriculture is in shambles, our industries are dying, we don’t even have cottage industries. We are not productive.
Any nation that is not productive will die. We are depending on foreign goods, we even import toothpick. We still go ahead and import what we don’t even need. The limited naira is chasing dollar and so everybody is running after dollar. As we do so, the dollar keeps rising in value while the naira keeps falling. This is a worrisome situation.
We need to go back to the farm and revamp our agriculture.
Note that any nation that cannot feed itself will suffer what we are suffering.
The only way to check poverty is to produce abundant food. When people can have their daily food, they won’t remember that they are suffering anything. Who is going to feed us? We have to feed ourselves, it is not a government made problem.
The challenges we are facing are self- driven, not government-driven.
Let me remind you, I want to go to two to three regimes before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to office. When President Goodluck Jonathan was there, he was the most abused President but as soon as he left and President Muhammadu Buhari came in, people thought that’s the President we wanted, but it didn’t take one to two months before everybody started crying that ‘O this man doesn’t know economy ‘, ‘O security is in shambles.’ There is a song in Yoruba in the sixties that says the country is hard to live in and there is no money, it is very unfortunate that the country is still hard to live in till today.
Food insecurity in this country is of utmost concern. What is the way out?
The question is that how many of us are farming? In those days, you don’t need to buy garri because they’ll bring it to you from home. Why are we blaming government for Garri. We all caused the food insecurity by ourselves.
Let me tell you, I planted trees and flowers in my place. I spent half a million naira planting those flowers about 20 years ago, today those trees and flowers have become shades, shelter, greens bringing cool breeze.
What have we done to contribute our own quota as citizens? In my house, I asked my house keeper to plant vegetables, tomatoes and pepper which have been profitable to us. We should all go into farming. I believe that government will regulate and provide enabling environment.
But people insist that leadership is our problem, what is your view on this?
I agree that leadership is part of our problem, but when you talk about poor leadership, what of followership? Are we honest as a people? Any people that are not driven by honesty, purposefulness and determination can not go far. Americans will say God bless America but have we ever woken up to say God bless Nigeria?
I agree that leadership is part of our problem but it is not entirely leadership. It is leadership, it is followership, it takes two to tangle, it takes the leadership and followership to work in tandem to make a good country. Are we working in tandem with our followership?
We have graduates of universities who are not employable because everybody runs after the white-collar job. We are still driven by the type of education given to us by our colonial masters, meaning education targeted after ‘go ye and develop thy country’. Education that is not driven by technology, not driven by Information Technology (IT), not driven by industrial success can never bring solutions. Also, we need to change the entire curriculum of the nation and the school calendar.
The high level of insecurity in this country is worrisome. This is one of the reasons ‘Japa’ is on the increase. What can be done in this regard?
No government will be happy that people are being kidnapped, maimed and killed. That’s why we approved so much money for security. Government is concerned about security and that is why more money is put in. The major cause of insecurity is poverty. If we address poverty, there will be no
insecurity. We need productivity; we need to boost the economy. Patriotism and maintaining good self-esteem are all things that will take us out of the situation have we found ourselves.
Majorly, security is about all of us. When you see something, say something, because these criminals live among us, all hands must be on deck. To make security effective, we must give timely information to security agencies, security is every one’s business and concern. Though people have been complaining about information leakages that even the so-called security apparatus leak information to enemies, we have passed a motion on the issue of leakage of information.
High exchange rate is worrisome. Even the House of Reps has called on the CBN to put measures in place to stop the free fall of the naira. Do you think the naira can regain its strength now that it is not even among the strongest 20 currencies in Africa?
Solutions are within us, we need self- discipline. Where naira keeps chasing what it should not, naira will fall. The question is how many of us are used to wearing local dresses? We still depend on foreign dresses. We need to localise our greed to contain what we have and what we can produce. If you don’t boost your local economy, your naira cannot rise. Look at the days of the groundnut pyramid, the cocoa industry of the West, the rubber plantation of the Mid-West, the palm oil. I was in Malaysia about 15 years ago; I visited the library where they displayed the palm tree and palm kernel that were brought from Nigeria. Today, Malaysia is one of the top exporters of palm oil, and we are not rated in any class. But those were what we were known for before. Our Major problem today is the discovery of crude oil. It came and turned everyone into a petrochemical contractor. We abandoned the farms and embraced modernisation. Nobody is talking of the fact that hard work pays. What you see in the young ones now is Yahoo and Yahoo Plus. So, we are in trouble. But there is hope for Nigeria. We must also appreciate the fact that God is a Nigerian because no matter how difficult we may think our problem is, God has endowed us with the coping capability.
There have been calls for a new constitution because of some perceived deficiencies in the current one. What is your take on it?
You can change the constitution 1,000 times. Britain does not have a rigid constitution, they have written and unwritten laws. They believe in treaties, conventions and others. The laws are very skeletal and yet they keep a sane society because people do sane things. You don’t say because there is no law then you can go ahead to cut off someone’s head. You are expected to know that morally, it is not right. It is not about changing it. You can change it a thousand times it doesn’t change the society.
There must be a revolution of the mind. Every mind of Nigerians must be revolutionised. Everybody must be determined to lift this country. We cannot continue to be pessimistic and not patriotic and expect things to work well for us. Yes, times are hard but we must not feel hopeless? Anyone who is hopeless and not proud of his country is not fit to lead. We must imbibe into ourselves the nationalistic tendencies as a people for us to move forward. Manna no longer fall from heaven; the days of manna falling from heaven are over.
Are you saying there is no need for President Tinubu to call for a national confab?
What is the essence of a national confab? The national confab is like an aspect of a government because whatever you pass in there must be passed to the National Assembly. So, why don’t you encourage a vibrant National Assembly? One that is more nationalistic and more concerned about the suffering of the people so that all of those reforms that make you convene a confab and at the end still pass through the National Assembly and then they (Assembly) will pass them (reforms) to the executive will happen at the Assembly. For instance, you agree at the national confab that the National Assembly should be scrapped and you expect them (the National Assembly) to approve the resolution to scrap itself? It is not going to work.
People have suggested that they should go back to the Oronsaye committee report. If there is a need to revisit that National Confab report, let the new government pick up the document, dissect it, and implement what is still relevant, because some of the things you passed 10 years ago may not be relevant again in this time and age.
Nigerians are currently facing hard times due to the increase in the cost of living. Don’t you think there is need to cut the take-home pay of members of the National Assembly to save the economy?
I am sorry to say that paupers don’t come to the National Assembly. Everybody here is a person of substance that has certain levels of livelihood. Even running through the election should show you that it is not easy for anybody to find himself in the National Assembly. I can tell you that what I receive is not commensurate to what I earn when I am not here, and it applies to most people here. All those stories that journalists are reporting are mere speculations. If I tell you that the allowances that are paid to us for accommodation for four years cannot rent accommodation for one year in Abuja. I swear to God, my creator, that this is exactly the situation. The money is deductible from your salary every month. If we mention our salary, they will say our allowance is too much. What allowance? I visit my constituency in Lagos every weekend to see my constituents. The amount I spend on travelling, if you remove it from my allowance, has already been reduced to half..
You are not even paid constituency allowance, only constituency project. Nobody gives you money to set up a constituency office. It is mandatory by law that you must have a constituency office. Setting up my constituency office didn’t cost me less than N8million. Ask, is my allowance N8million? Yet I’m not complaining because I know that Nigerians are suffering. While I’m not advocating that the money is small or big, I want the public to remove the erroneous impression that the legislature receives huge pay.
No matter how bad the society is, you will not bring in fools. You still have to bring in sane people, intellectuals, and people with experience, ideas, and vision to put the country in order. You don’t pick those kinds of quality people from the streets. When I was coming to the National Assembly, I thought I would meet people who would be sleeping in the chambers and people who were not ready for governance, but the calibre of people I met here are people of diverse experiences.
