The deputy president of the Senate, Barau I. Jibrin, who doubles as the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution, in this interview addressed the insinuation that the 10th Assembly is a rubberstamp for the executive. He also spoke on what Nigerians should expect from the ongoing constitution review exercise ahead of the first anniversary of the 10th Senate, among other issues.
In a few days, the 10th National Assembly will be one year old. A lot has happened within this period, but the toga of the legislature being a rubberstamp for the executive has not been shaken off, especially based on the way some bills believed to have been sponsored or influenced by them were passed. How would you assess the journey so far?
We have done very well—sponsoring and passing many bills. Our dedication to the legislative process is unwavering. We have been able to work with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to bring about several laws for the good governance of this country.
We always strive to be on the same wavelength, working in tandem with his vision of transforming our country and returning it to the path of peace, progress and prosperity for the benefit of all. You can see that anytime he brings bills here, we pass them as quickly as possible, not because we are rubberstamps but because we know we have to act fast so that we can all become successful.
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Does this not justify the general insinuation that the National Assembly is just a rubberstamp for the executive?
It is teamwork, but people don’t see this. The president has the passion and zeal to face the challenges head-on and frontally and turn them into successes. That’s why we are always eager to pass whatever he brings here. And before he brings anything, he always consults and tells us what he wants. Sometimes we debate issues with him, and if you have a superior opinion, he listens to you and takes yours. If you give him more cogent reasons for an action he wants to take, he will succumb to yours.
Constitution review often dominates discussion in the life of every Assembly, and not least, now that the clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria has been gathering momentum. As the chairman of the Senate Constitution Review Committee, what should Nigerians expect from your committee, different from the past ones?
We will tailor our constitution to meet the wishes and aspirations of the masses. As we speak, we are beginning to prepare the grounds. We have already started collating memoranda, and we have started receiving presentations from well-meaning Nigerians. This is before we visit the geopolitical zones of this country, where people can come or write presentations to dictate what they feel should be amended in the constitution of this country. We are going to listen to them.
We are going to aggregate the presentations, assess them, work on them and put forward those we feel are in tandem with the aspirations of most of the people. We are up to the task. So, they should expect us to have an outcome that will address the aspirations and wishes of the people of this country in terms of the kind of constitution they want.
As part of the constitution review agenda, a bill advocating the country’s return to the parliamentary system of government was sponsored by 60 members of the House of Representatives. What is your view on the proposal?
That is their view. We have received several presentations concerning what people think should be in our constitution. We are going to take that as part of all these solutions. Don’t forget that we have over 200 million Nigerians and will receive several presentations from them: civil society, religious bodies, traditional rulers, professional bodies, etc.
We will work on the presentations and process them to bring about the needed changes and amendments in the constitution. All that we are going to do will be in terms of the preponderance of the opinions of most of the people in this country.
You sponsored a bill for the creation of the North West Development Commission while we already have the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and the North Central, South East, and South West pending. What does this trend portend for us as a country? Are we returning to regional government?
We are not asking for regionalism; far from it. When you have a desperate situation, you bring solutions that will assuage the feelings of the people involved and fix the problems. If you can have a commission for every community, do it as long as it brings prosperity.
What exactly do you intend to achieve with this bill beyond the creation of the commission?
In my presentation during the second reading of the bill, I drew the attention of my colleagues to a region that has been bastardised and destroyed by the activities of Boko Haram and bandits. The state so affected, after Borno, which Boko Haram has devastated, is Kano. They destroyed much of our infrastructure and killed many people and moved to Kaduna, where you have the worst of it all: bandits.
There is nowhere in this country where the bandits are creating havoc like the North West geopolitical zone. And the North West used to be the food basket of the country. But the bandits have destroyed a whole lot of our farmlands. Think about cotton in Funtua and other parts of Katsina State. In Zamfara State, cotton, beans etc. In Sokoto and Kebbi you would marvel when you see what they could do.
Now, farms and agricultural infrastructure are destroyed, and people are devastated in terms of their economic wellbeing; that is, those who have not lost their lives. School infrastructure, hospitals, roads etc have been destroyed. It is a terrible situation. This is what has become of the North West.
It is an intervention we will make for the whole country. When you replace the infrastructure that has been destroyed, when you intervene to bring about good schools, among others, you are giving people the right environment to operate. Farmers cannot operate without their children going to school; they cannot operate without going to hospitals or good roads. We have to find a way to bring the farms that have been destroyed back to life. We are just asking for a North West development bommission, but the whole benefit goes to the country.
On a personal level, you are one of the few federal lawmakers who have represented more than one constituency in the National Assembly. How did you do this?
It might surprise you to know that the constituency I represented in my first election wasn’t my constituency of birth. I represented Tarauni federal constituency in Kano Central in 1999, where the Kano State Government House is located. It was in the centre of Kano, the capital of the state. I am from Kabo, a local government area in Kano North senatorial district, but they (Tarauni) accepted and elected me because I was involved with them; then, politics was not about money. Young men were not even interested in going into politics. That was how I came into it.
Do we see such politics currently? If not, what has changed?
By moving from one location to another and contesting and winning, the entire equation has changed. It was about passion and ideology. I believed in what the late Malam Aminu Kano was all about and was telling us. I believed in the rhetoric of Abubakar Rimi, a good orator. Their participation in politics attracted me. That was it. It was not only me. Several friends of mine later joined us after laughing at me. ‘Why do you like to get involved with these old men?’ They asked. There were only few young people involved. But that has changed. Now, there’s no ideology; hence, you see people cross-carpeting at will. Back then, it was based on ideology, not money. There was no way you could give delegates money to vote for you.
This is your fourth term in the National Assembly (once as a member of the House of Representatives and three times in the Senate); what do you consider your highlights?
I have worked with my colleagues to pass various bills and motions that benefit this country. I have also been able to get in touch with my constituents in the best manner possible, trying to transform their lives and the entire society. I have helped to bring about so many interventions, either individually or collectively, in various parts of this country, not only in my constituency. I am glad that I have brought unique representation that has never been experienced before in my senatorial zone. I don’t need to say that. We have created a difference in terms of representation through interventions that have brought unprecedented infrastructural development to my area and social change that has made the lives of my people better in several areas: agriculture, power, education, which is foremost in my mind because I always believe that education is the backbone of any society. Without education, the development we need for our people cannot be achieved.
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