By Okey Ndiribe & Emman
Ovuakporie
The Chairman of the House
of Representatives
Committee on Rules and
Business, Hon. Sam Tsokwa
(PDP Taraba) heads a very
vital committee which could
be likened to the engine
room of the Green Chambers
of the National Assembly.
In this no-holds-barred
interview he granted to a
group of journalists, he
postulated that the Farouk
Lawan saga was contrived
by the executive arm of
Government to rubbish the
report of the House
Committee on Petroleum
Subsidy which the embattled
Lawan chaired.He asked why
the Inspector-General of
Police, Mohammed
Abubakar who investigated
the allegations against
Farouk refused to charge
him to court?
Excerpts:
Don’t you think that being a
House that is primarily
designed to make laws, all
this talk about fighting
corruption and probes every
now and then is an
unnecessary distraction to
the House?
Law making and oversight
functions of the legislature
are constitutional issues.
The legislature is
constitutionally
empowered to legislate for
peace and good governance
of Nigeria. The legislature is
constitutionally empowered
to approve Mr. President’s
budget; the legislature is
constitutionally mandated to
oversight the executive arm
over the money it
appropriates.
So the power to investigate
is not the making of the
legislature; it is a
constitutional duty which the
legislature must perform. So
we are not doing a Father
Xmas kind of job because
there are so many MDAs to
oversight. What we are
doing is just a tip of the ice
berg. So I think the Nigerian
press and the Nigerian
people should call on NASS to
carry out more probes and
investigations because it is
our constitutional duty.
Many Nigerians are of the
view that when you fight
corruption you cover your
own…?
(Cuts in) Can you give
examples?
For instance, the Farouk and
Hembe cases?
The Farouk and Hembe
cases are the only two you
can give in a House of 360
people. When you reduce
that to percentage, it cannot
give you up to 10 percent of
the House. Take a corruption
index of Nigeria; more than
60percent of those in
position of trust are corrupt.
Now when the Farouk issue
came up, the man who gave
him money claimed he did so
in conjunction with SSS and
the House subsequently
suspended him from being
the Chairman of House
Committee on Education.
Now the SSS has distanced
itself saying they know
nothing about the sting
operation. The matter is
presently with the police.
Please, ask the IG why he has
not prosecuted Farouk. It is
simple; there is no evidence.
So we all take it that the
allegation was made to
rubbish the House report on
Petroleum subsidy.
COURTnew
I told you from the
beginning that the executive
arm set up a committee to
further investigate the issues
raised in the House report
and they confirmed that the
House report was true. If
anybody thinks Farouk has a
case to answer let him go to
court. The House is
handicapped we cannot
prosecute him.
In the case of Hembe, the
matter is still in court. Now
in what way is the House
covering its members? We
beg the press to help us and
expose those we are
covering up because we are
not covering up anybody.
But the House Committee
investigating the Farouk
Lawan matter has
deliberately refused to
submit its report on the
issue?
It is an inside kind of
exercise and at the end of
the day, the House cannot
prosecute. We have our
internal
disciplinary mechanism via
the Ethics and Privileges
committee but where a
member is found wanting
we cannot prosecute; only
the agencies responsible for
that can carry out such
actions. I told you earlier to
ask the IGP why he has not
prosecuted Farouk if he has
evidence.
I am inclined to believe that
there is no evidence to
prosecute Farouk because
they called it a sting and the
SSS they claimed they used
said they are not part of it.
This obviously points to the
fact that whoever made that
allegation was telling lies.
So far since June 2011 that
the Tambuwal led 7th
Assembly took off how will
you assess the performance
of the House?
The 7th Assembly started off
by designing and setting a
Legislative Agenda which
was properly debated on the
floor of the House, approved
and circulated to all members
and Nigerians. The document
became a pact. We
committed ourselves to it by
living and keeping faithfully
to our duties as true
representatives of the
people.
I am not saying Nigerians are
satisfied but speaking for
myself and the House, I am
saying that we have lived up
to our own expectation. But
it is left for Nigerians to look
at what we have done and
see whether we have really
performed. You will recall
that we have taken many
firsts since the House was
convened.
For instance, we had to cut
short our Xmas recess in
2011 when the Executive
arm gave Nigerians a New
Year gift that was not
accepted by the people. By
that I mean the withdrawal
of fuel subsidy. Our sitting
on a Sunday was for the first
time that happened in the
history of the Nigerian
legislature.
We did this to prevent the
crisis that ensued which
would have been more
disastrous if we had not sat
on that day. Although our
sitting did not stop the crisis,
but it went a long way in
watering it down. In a
nutshell we did a lot to avoid
the disaster.
I will however give kudos to
Mr. President who eventually
reversed himself in
accordance with the wishes
of Nigerians. The Sunday
sitting kick started the probe
into the fuel subsidy regime.
Our findings and resolution
were that there was rot in
that fuel subsidy regime.
As you are aware, the
executive arm set up a
committee whose findings
confirmed that of the House.I
therefore say at least we
drew the attention of the
nation to the fact that the oil
industry needs drastic re-
organisation and this
opened the eyes of many
Nigerians to other areas of
governance. I will equally say
that this kick started what is
going on in various sectors
of our economy.
What about corruption?
We have started confronting
corruption headlong even
though corruption has deep
roots in our system and
cannot be solved in one day.
But I believe we have taken
the right step in the right
direction.
Why is it that every day
people bring trivial issues
such as presence of potholes
on roads or collapsed
bridges to your committee
for listing on the order paper
when there are more serious
issues that need attention in
the country?
Every member is elected from
a constituency; each
constituency in Nigeria has
its peculiar problem and that
is why I keep saying that if I
am Mr. President, I will do
my budget in consultation
with the grassroots.
But if in my constituency, the
only road we have has
potholes and this has been
killing people everyday,
can you call that trivial? Yes
it is trivial because you have
expressways in your place. In
Abuja here out of 24 hours
electricity we have at least 12
hours. In my place in a whole
month if we have light for 3
days that is Xmas gift. So if I
come to the floor of the
House to discuss it will you
term it as being trivial?
Nigeria is such a big
place; such an enormous
place that the need of one
area may not be the need of
another area. So what is
trivial to you may not be
trivial to me. And what is
important to you may not be
important to me; that is why
you have various motions.
Actually that is
representation? It is to
represent what your people
need in your constituency.
Concerning the issue of
oversight, I saw a piece in a
newspaper about theft at the
Security Printing and Minting
Company and I checked
online to confirm.
Immediately I confirmed, I
sent a motion to the floor of
the House and the matter will
be investigated. Some people
may consider it trivial.
You once suggested the
Asian option which
stipulates capital punishment
as a way of dealing with
corruption. Do you think
that option can work in
Nigeria?
Yes we will look at it and see
how a bill can be sponsored
in that direction; but you will
see how people will
condemn the move. But we
will not consider the
quantum of the crime when
doing that. The offence of
the politician who stole one
dollar and the one that stole
one million dollar will carry
same weight. By the time
two or three people lose
their lives due to corruption,
politicians will think twice
before stealing government
money.