‘Why 8th House of Reps must be different’

You are going to the National Assembly for the first time, so what should the people of your constituency expect from you?
I express my profound gratitude to the people of Lavun/Edati/Mokwa Federal Constituency for their collective mandate to represent them at the House of Representatives.  When I reflect on the huge support I got from my people, I feel greatly humbled and touched by the great trust and confidence repose in me. Insha Allah, I will do my very best to protect their interests with due diligence and high sense of patriotism.
What exactly do you intend to do?
Let’s start from the APC main manifesto which is hinged on change. As you know, we ran this election with the slogan “change”. Change means different things to different people. When you talk about change, to some people it is all about infrastructure, to others it is basic food on the table, good health care/hospitals, schools. To some others it is peace.
I have passion for the youths. Last week we paid a courtesy visit to the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, and in his remarks he was emphasising on the youths. You know that 60% of our population are youths and many of them are jobless. That is going to be one of my focus areas – youth empowerment.
Do you have interest to run for any position in the National Assembly?
I seek to be the speaker of the House of the 8th Assembly and I believe that there are many reasons why I want to be speaker. I am not trying to be speaker to boost my ego, to be popular or for the fun of it. I want to be speaker for a reason.
As I said, 60% of our population are the youths and I am one of them. I am a young man and I believe that I can do it. We need to have a different mindset and mentality; we need to prepare our youth for the future.
All we need now is an enabling environment for them to strive. As the speaker, I can help to advance the enabling environment. If elected the speaker, I would strive to inject new ideas through extensive consultations and input that will accelerate the much needed development.
But as a first termer, don’t you think you lack the required experience to aspire for the position of a speaker?
Change in a democracy comes with good legislation. In other words, you cannot have the desired change if you don’t have a vibrant House. A vibrant house is simply a function of potent leadership that would direct the energies and creativity of the members towards initiating and supporting all efforts and legislation that would enhance national development.
Let’s say that I am not ignorant of the House Rules that give preference on seniority in appointing the leadership of the House. But change has come. Why should there be seniority in service if truly the service is genuine? Where was the seniority in 1999 when the journey began?
With all modesty, every member has his/her mandate and the mandate is the same, so how do you define the place of seniority in parliament?  To me, if you are in the 7th Assembly, you will serve and go with the 7th Assembly, if your people okay you to be part of the 8th Assembly then we would all meet in the 8th Assembly.
Again, we are talking about mental capacity here. I went through campaigns, contested an election and won and won’t say I don’t know what I am going to do in the house. I have the voices of the people behind me.
What is your take on your party’s victory in the presidential election?
Before the election, we were at a crossroad in this country. The main reason why General Buhari won was because people see him as the face of hope, and that with him we will have a different Nigeria till 2019.
The question now is what would have happened if APC or the president-elect had failed? We need to start answering these questions now because by 2019 if we don’t perform what do we tell our people and what are we going to campaign on?
So, we all have to work together to make this country great. We should move beyond theory and do the practical thing. We can succeed both individually and collectively.
The task of building a virile society requires our collective input. Only an effective, responsive and patriotic leadership can create the needed balance between the Executive and the Legislature.