How 9th House can differ from 8th – Rep Sarkin Adar

Musa Sarkin Adar, who has been representing Goronyo/Gada Federal Constituency of Sokoto State since 2007, is a returning member of the 9th National Assembly under the APC. In this interview, he speaks on how the 9th House can differ from the 8th and support the Buhari administration, among other issues. Excerpts:

Daily Trust: What’s your assessment of the outgoing 8th House of Reps?

Sarkin Adar: Here we are, the parliament is coming to an end. Even those that were accommodated by Dogara as speaker were embittered, saying that most of the committees were stripped of their basic responsibilities. You find in a sector, at a time you have a minimum of three ad-hoc committees doing one kind of investigation or the other, whereas the main standing committee exists. It happened throughout the life of this Assembly.

From the beginning, I knew, and I said it, that those people who installed Dogara were up to something, and that’s what happened at the end. They defected from APC to PDP. All his principals who led how he emerged as speaker left the party. I said it right from the beginning, but it was unfortunate that the APC leaders then didn’t listen.

There was no APC structure or leadership that I didn’t go with others to alert them, including President Muhammadu Buhari. I told him that ‘Sir, these people will never cooperate with you, these people will be injurious to your leadership and sabotage you.’ As a General and a leader, he believed nobody could derail him, but that happened. Critical bills that would give him sharp teeth to fight corruption were not allowed to see the light of the day. Committee chairmanship of critical sectors that the government needed to transform and bring in policies that would improve the lives of the citizens were given to members of the opposition. The very ministry that the president was oversighting himself, petroleum, all the three committees there: downstream, upstream and gas resources were given to PDP. We didn’t say PDP has no right, they’re Nigerians and are eminently qualified to man any committee, but not at the expense of the majority party. For the first time in the history of this country, committees were shared equally between the ruling party and the opposition. In the US, there are very few committees, and they’re mostly chaired by whichever party that has majority in the parliament, both Senate and Congress. But here in Nigeria, because people ascribe personal aspirations above national interest, somebody felt for him to survive, he needed those opposed to his party to protect him. If you believe in your capacity, you need nobody to protect you, your actions should protect you.

DT: But a few days ago, Dogara said the House under him gave Buhari the necessary support to survive, are you saying he undermined the president?

Sarkin Adar: He played along. He was trying to show President Buhari that he was with him all along, but his true colour came out later. He was only reacting to what the president said when he hosted them to Ramadhan breaking of fast. The president told them, ‘you people didn’t cooperate with me.’ So, it’s natural for Dogara to react. If I were him, I would own up and say why he did all that. An honest person should always be ready to own up. Right from the beginning of this Assembly, tell me any budget that came without controversy. Is that how to support the president under your party? He was elected in his constituency under the APC and he emerged as speaker based on his membership of APC. Whatever ill-will they have against the future, they shouldn’t have displayed it in the actions that would negate the progress of this country.

DT: The APC once again endorsed Gbajabiamila for the position of speaker, how has the contest been so far?

Sarkin Adar: I’m always optimistic and believe in what I’m pursuing. I don’t see any contest against Femi. As for now, he is the leading candidate. He isn’t an aspirant. All others are aspiring, but he’s already a candidate as recommended by the party and endorsed by President Muhammadu Buhari and supported by more than 90 percent of us, both in APC and PDP. Aspirations stop at a certain level, but candidacy stops at the election. Why I am supporting Femi as a person, having stayed with him for 12 years in the parliament, as of today, I believe in his capacity, experience and versatility. I believe he will live to be a speaker that will lead the parliament to make modest and robust legislation that will help the APC government. Modest in the sense that there will be no controversy in legislative making. He’ll carry everybody along regardless of party affiliation. There will be one united House for a successful 9th House. He has seen what transpired from previous assemblies, at least from the 5th Assembly. He has seen how other speakers led, so he has no chance of failing.

DT: There were reports that APC and PDP members-elect were trying to strike a deal, that’s the Gbajabiamila group and the opposition, do you believe in that?

Sarkin Adar: I believe in that, this is one Nigeria. I’m somebody that believes in the unity of this country. If we’re not united, we won’t provide good leadership. The failures of all previous regimes were as a result of divisive tendencies by some elements within us who always try to use religion, ethnicity and geopolitical reasons to do this or that. I believe Femi will unite the House, and there will be smooth parliamentary movement in the next four years by the grace of God. He’s not a trouble-maker. He’s quite humble. I’m sure he won’t behave like Dogara, who disappointed even the APC members that supported him. That’s why he’s finding it difficult to call his group to say he’s going to contest again. All the other people aspiring were members of his group. But that group has dissolved already. Each of them is pushing for himself, not for Dogara. If I were Dogara, I would honourably and humbly decline any aspiration, just like David Mark did in 2015.

DT: Do you think he has an aspiration to recontest for speaker?

Sarkin Adar: Some of them are saying he’s watching to see how many candidates emerge, then he’ll take advantage to become the dark horse. If that happens, I’m sorry, he’s a lawyer and smart enough to understand that the tide isn’t on his side.

DT: How do you think the APC should distribute the other positions of principal officers? What kind of people should form the leadership?

Sarkin Adar: The speaker and deputy speaker have already been zoned to the Southwest and Northcentral respectively, the remaining ones, House Leader and Deputy, Chief Whip and deputy, I believe the party will try to balance them across the geopolitical zones. The party will have its own way of selecting whom it feels will safeguard and protect its interests and ideals. I don’t know the criteria they’ll use.

They may use experience based on ranking, geopolitical zone and loyalty. The party can adopt any of these. I will only hope that the party will bring in credible people that will lead us amicably and carry its ideals successfully to support President Buhari for him to succeed in his second term. But don’t forget the leadership will also comprise the opposition as principal officers.

DT: What do you think should be the focus of the 9th House?

Sarkin Adar: The focus this time around is to be patriotic, honest with good objectives to provide good governance with full responsibility and accountability throughout the period. What we’re lacking in this country is that people tend to forget the privilege God gave them to become leaders, elected or appointed. It’s only a privilege that has limit of time. Whatever you do, posterity will judge you, both here and beyond. It’s unfortunate that despite the money that accrued to this country from 1999 to date, especially during the 16 years of the PDP, pupils are still sitting on the floor in schools in most states, people in the rural areas don’t have drinking water,  pregnant women have to trek five to 10 miles to fetch water, people in rural areas are still trekking distance of 10 to 15 kilometres, people are still using animals to carry their goods. I pray that all of us will be patriotic, objective and honest in lawmaking in order to establish accountable and responsive legislations that will guarantee equitable distribution and utilisation of resources that accrue to this nation.

DT: What should also be the focus of the executive arm?

Sarkin Adar: They should be very responsive in such a way that bills sent to them, if they don’t have any negative impact, the president should hasten to sign them into law, and give directives to all agencies to start implementation immediately. One thing we want to see is budget implementation as passed by the parliament. Nigeria has suffered a lot. We blamed the PDP for its 16 years of non-performance. In our first four years, leakages were blocked and the government is a bit accountable, but spectators generally are saying we haven’t performed to expectations. There were challenges when we took over, and fixing them took time, but this time around we don’t have any excuse. We have to utilise the time we have and make up what we lost from 2015 to date.