Hon. Moruf Akinderu-Fatai, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Compliance, spoke to Gboyega Akinsanmi, the lawmaker spoke on some national issues. Excerpts:

With the ongoing controversy on local government autonomy and others, do you think a constitution that can guarantee peace and development is possible?

The current system is that governors and president cannot have more than two terms of four years and local government and legislature have unlimited terms. I think we should still stick with this system instead of the proposed six-year single tenure. The single tenure being proposed is based on a turn-by-turn approach to presidency, which still reminds us that we are not one nation. But if you have two terms, you have enough time to implement your policies. If someone is elected and turns out to be a wrong choice, then we will have to wait for six years to choose another one and if the person turns out to be a right choice, then we would have short-changed ourselves of two years of good governance.

On the local government autonomy, I don't believe we should have three tiers of government. It should be left to the state government to decide where it needs to create local government. When we created additional 57 local councils in Lagos, Ejigbo, which is under my constituency, became a council. Ejigbo previously was lumped under Oshdi-Isolo and that is where the attention of the local administration was, leaving Ejigbo off. But today, the area is enjoying good local governance. Even though, its population is almost as big as that of Isolo, to INEC, it is still one ward. I think local government should be deleted from the constitution. I don't know why our constitution is so difficult to amend in a way that reflects good sense. Alimosho, to our constitution, is just one local government, but the population there is even higher than we have in some states.

Is it the fault of the National Assembly that Nigeria still has military system of governance entrenched in the constitution? Delineation is the duty of INEC and thereafter to inform the National Assembly for approval. Look at Lagos West Senatorial district comprising of 10 local government areas while the East and Central comprise five each. I think of late INEC has been trying to correct that and I hope they get it right. Of recent it was reported that several billions of dollars have been stolen from Nigeria since independence, why do we have such weak anti-graft laws in Nigeria?

As a nation, we shall continue to face challenges as long as our systems are weak. But I believe issue of corruption has its fundamental root in the society. When a minister assumes office, the predominant thought in his or her mind is that it is an opportunity for his or her people to benefit from government. The democratic system is even better than we had during the military. It is commonplace for some people to sponsor a candidate and say "go there and bring our share." It is becoming more terrible as some people now even make winning election a matter of do or die.

Some groups, like the Afenifere Renewal Group, have renewed the call for Sovereign National Conference, are you in support?

Yes, but the emerging powers will always block it because if SNC should become a reality, they believe they will lose out in power equation and leadership position. I am totally in support in the sense that it will bring lasting peace, without which there cannot be any far-reaching development. If there is advantage to each federating unit in Nigeria, let us stay together, if there is no equal advantage, let us do what is good for all. If some people want to be governed by the Sharia codes, so be it but they should not force it on others who do not want it.

Why has the National Assembly not been effective to enforce some of its resolutions, which the executive ignored?

In the end, I think President Jonathan, as a matter of fact, will have himself to blame in terms of budget implementation and relationship with the National Assembly. It is either he is being advised wrongly or he is not taking advice at all. As a president, you are the visionary and driver of the vision; your minsters are there to help you achieve your vision by working in tandem with the legislature. If it gets to a point where the legislature says it can no longer work with a minister, then that minister must go.

The constitution does not allow the presidency to run roughshod over the legislature as we are seeing now. The constitution recognises the legislature first before any mention of the executive, which makes it more important. We do not have a budget today because the executive could not agree with the legislature over the crude oil benchmark. Before the executive brings the appropriation bill, we would have done our own independent consultations. The presidency has not been able to fault our position, yet it wants us to adopt its own price.

Crude oil has always sold for much higher than the benchmark price. The Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and other revenue generating agencies have always generated more than is expected of them, so why does our government still find it hard to implement the budget in full?

Why is the executive so interested in the Excess Crude Account? There is no reason other than it is an account solely managed by the federal government and therefore can short-change the state governments. These are the facts we are pointing out and the executive started blackmailing the National Assembly. We represent the people and there will always be clash so long the executive will not adopt policies that will make life better for our people.

How is the legislature managing the relationship, especially with regards to officers recommended for sack?

The power of appointment lies with the president but his appointees must be able to work with the National Assembly. We have recommended Oteh, Demuren, and Maina for sack but what we see is selective implementation. It is even amazing that the media is not considering the issue of Oteh from our position, the first of which is that she is not even qualified to hold that post. Anyone recommended for that post must have, at least, ten years experience as an operator in the capital market. She also mismanaged the relationship with the National Assembly.

In fact, it is not even the president that should implement Oteh's sack as we recommended, it is for the minister of finance to do. It was the aviation minister that implemented Demuren's sack. It is a case of President Jonathan encouraging his ministers to disrespect us. But for the magnanimity of the Honourable Speaker's personality, things would have been worse. When you invite ministers, some of them do not come and even when they come, they come to talk down on us.