The Speaker, Cross River State House of Assembly, John Gaul Lebo, in an interview with journalists, expresses hope in Cross River’s future. Reuben Bojor was there

There seem to be synergy between the governor, Senator Ben Ayade and you as seen in the way you are handling his bills and requests to the house.

Cross River State as far as I am concerned has a very bright future because there is cohesion and there is consistency of ideology. We have enjoyed a stable political order since 1999. We are in the sixteenth year of the political order. PDP came to power in 1999 which ushered a new political order to move Cross River State from one level to the other. From the level of a plantation economy to development and from development we are heading towards stabilization. There is a conscious effort to build world class infrastructure which will pull the whole state together into a business empire so that institutions of government like ministries and departments are adding some value to bring a strong business paradigm. If you look into the kind of ideology that is being put in place by Senator Ben Ayade, which started right from his campaign period, it pulls everyone together. When I was campaigning for the position of House of Assembly member, I campaigned on that economic blueprint which means that I believe the blueprint can transform our society. So if am now a member of the State House of Assembly and by the grace of God and the support of my colleagues I am Speaker today, we have to create the law, the institutions and regulatory framework to actualise the blueprint. So, it is a synergy that comes from sixteen years of cohesion and consistency. There are areas that we may disagree, but like the Yoruba people say anybody that you are close to, you whisper and not shout. We will seat down in the house and look at the policies in-house and if there are areas that we disagree, we will advise him and say look, why not we do it this way; and he too is a moral institution and he is a kind of governor who would not want to do anything illegal. As Senator he understands legislative practice. That is why it is going to be easy for us to work at that point, even as we seek to protect our independence. He will also respect our independence because we both have a recovery space, both economic and political. So, for us it is a big picture and our big picture is to add value to the lives of people of Cross River State.

•John Gaul Lebo

Governor Ben Ayade set to carry out lots of projects, but the agitation by the public is: where is the money? What is your take?

Well, the signature project the governor has mentioned are not projects that will be funded on the 2015 budget. For us in the House of Assembly, our concern is to understand the economic model and the development strategies that will ensure these projects would succeed. From the briefings that we got from the Bureau of Public Private Partnership and Due Process and then Ministry of Finance, we know that those projects are going to be worked out through private partnership and through concessions. The governor is discussing with private partners who are ready to take up concession interests, joint venture agreement with the state governor to develop some key infrastructures like road, seaport and the garment factory. Now, there are coming to invest in Cross River, the State is putting up a special purpose vehicle called Cross River Infrastructure Company Limited, which will hold Cross River interest and divide it into deliverable equities. So that companies will sign a joint venture agreement with that company so as to be able to do business. Our role as legislatures is to ensure that, the engagement between the governor and the development partners is internalized. First, through the budget project, which is the main agency responsible for that. Today, we had an extensive deliberation with BPP and Ministry of Finance and we have looked at their documentation. All the things that the governor has done has been properly documented by BPP and Due Process.

Remember that here, we are talking about the sacrifice to be made by a private company bringing money to fund a project. How will they recover their money. Money should be recovered through a period of concession of those facilities. All the facilities that generate revenue will be under concession for a period of time. There will be a toll system on the road and through this, they will recover their money. And then for the seaport, it’s going to be on a BOT. They have a period of ownership, built and owned for a period before the transfer to the state. And it will be in such a way that when an infrastructure is completed, we may have a period of three to four or five years within which we recover the right of ownership. But within that period, the infrastructure will be put to use to serve our people. We will generate revenue through it because we need to get a percentage out of it, and of course we will employ our people. That’s why I tell people that government is the biggest businessman. The difference is that government doesn’t look at profit, but looks at the value added welfare that people can get out of it. All these projects are all doable. People will not understand because it is not a model we have used in Cross River. In Cross River, we are used to having money for the budget which we use. Money in the budget is not enough. That is the model which is different. That’s why the House of Assembly came up with a resolution to acknowledge the existence of those project and support the governor’s effort in getting foreign investors to come to the state to partner with us; and there are a few concessioning agreements there have worked on and are documented by BPP.

True, there exists peace and harmony between the executive and legislature. But the public may think that because the State is probably not financially independent, the legislature will be just a rubber stamp…

Well, our responsibility is to do perception engineering. To manage the perception of our people. As we manage their expectation, we must manage their perception. Sometimes, what people think is the situation is important, to put you on check. That you need to correct that impression by your attitude. Independence of the House of Assembly is there. It is provided by the constitution. Our power is provided under the constitution under Section 4. That Section 4, allows us to establish together our own house rules. To carry out our businesses. The governor is not a member of the House of Assembly, the governor is in the leadership of the House. The governor does not have any business with our house committees. We decide through our business and rules committee what items to take, and the governor is not a member of the committee. We agree on our rules and all that, that is an aspect of our independence. Now the aspect you are talking about is the financial independence. The finances of the various arms of government is provided by law which is the revenue mobilization law through the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

We cannot confer law of independence on ourselves, it will be illegal. It has to be conferred by a constitution amendment. That constitution amendment was proposed and rejected. So at that point, we are working within the organic architecture of what is available within the constitution. And what we have is that by law, there’s a percentage of finances that is due to the House of Assembly under revenue or mobilization law and with that arrangement, there has been an agreement. Funds are paid at source when it comes to the state consolidated revenue account to the House of Assembly account. And as leadership and as their Speaker, we sit down and subdivide the payments into the head, which is provided under law. There’s nothing that is more independent than the independence of your intellect and opinion.

To take an opinion on an issue, you allow your colleagues to agree. Motions come on the floor of the House of Assembly with all the 25 members just agreed. Will there not be anybody who will raise critical issues. Will the resolution that will come out of the agreement just be the same as printed in the motion paper order? Will there be variation, because there is somebody here who has raised a variant opinion. I think that’s a better benchmark to weigh the independence of the House of Assembly. And I think that for some of the few things we have done, these are issues that are well articulated. I give a typical example, the governor sent an application for the 35 special advisers. Now what is the justification in the letter? The governor can asks us for ten, another ten, another ten again, ask forty over a period of four years. But he says, I need one approval to cover a period of four years. If I have any need, I must get back to you. In the last administration, we approved 25 and the governor appointed 11. From the date of this approval, the governor has only appointed one person. If you look at the number of ministries, department and agencies that need special advisers to work in Cross River State, there are over 40 or 50. So the governor on his own has even decided to merge some of these ministries to be able to arrive at a particular number. If he needs to decide to appoint more and he has the revenue and the resources to pay, and the value that the SAs will add to the service economy of Cross River State is achieved, it is still a success.

The only fear people have there feel is much. But remember that 35 SAs are not foreigners but indigenes. If you put up an advertisment for the position, you get like 500 to 700 persons looking for those positions. There has to be a balance in achieving that, and I think that some of those things when they come to you, you look at the fact that the governor has the power to request for SAs, is he limited by number? Do you have powers to approve? Will you stop him due to the sentiment that members of the public feel that the number is too much? As legislators, we are supposed to be emotionally stable enough to read between the lines. look at the interests of our constituents, look at the interests of the state, look at the judgement of history, their opinion.

I can feel the presence of a vibrant House of Assembly, with most members youths. Was it by nature or someone’s dictation?

Cross River State’s political order has been on a distinct line from other states, because we have a political family. This is in such a way that, postions are zoned, from one unit to the other. Now, in Cross River you can’t contest election by accident. If you want to run for election, first of all, the position is zoned, particular to achieve that equity. I will give you a typical example. From where I come, the highest position is that of the councillor. The highest election you can contest and win is that of a councillor. But we now benefitted from the zoning. Without that zoning, no person from my community can win election. Even as chairman of council; because we form less than five per cent of the voting population of Abi, my own council ward. So it was zoned to my area and my community came together and said, look we need someone who can represent us well. They set out their criteria and they looked around, they got about three and I emerged. It is through the same system which every other person has emerged. So it is not as if it was designed by the former governor and all that. Once the thing is zoned to that particular unit, the unit is given a concession. The governor has already made a condition that for you to even become a councillor, you must be a graduate. That was implemented in the last election when they insisted that the chairman of the council and the councillor must be graduates, as minimum standard. And so there is that competition to ensure that these things happen. So is a natural process.

Lastly, you emerged as a speaker without controversy. But the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President is brewing controversy…

Well, I think that, APC needs to learn a lesson. You know, the Nigerian public are not tired of a particular political party. But there are tired of a particular trend of behaviour. APC accuse PDP of impunity and it came to a point where, PDP under President Jonathan wanted a particular person as a speaker of the House of Reps, Hon. Mulikat and the members of the National Assembly, PDP members said no, we want a leader that will emerge from our internal democratic system and they brought Aminu Tambuwal who emerged and won. Though he remained in the party until the elections, when he defected to APC. Now, I am surprised that APC is making the same mistake that PDP made and virtually, PDP has corrected itself. Now, you can no longer go back to those same old ways that Nigerians condemned PDP for and try to play on it. Theirs should be more dangerous because they came to talk about change and change does not mean a rehearsal of impunity because that is what they are trying to do.

Senator Bukola Saraki has been a former governor, a chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum. Yes, he went to APC and became a senator and as senator and the experience of governor, you must look at his political strength from the North-Central. You must look at his acceptability among the senators, the 109 senators. When a political party like the APC underrates the fact that the 109 senators of the National Assembly have the ability and the right to chose within themselves a leader and the party wants to impose a leader, they are going to find crisis that they won’t recover from. The same thing with the House of Reps. Dogara was a former PDP member, before he moved to APC. I have practiced law with Dogara when he was with Yohana Madaki and he has capacity. He is an intelligent young man and for Dogara to get to that level is great. If Dogara speaks in public, his colleagues will definitely fall in love with him because he has capacity and he is a lawyer with experience. If he contested for position of speaker of the House of Reps, it is left for APC to allow an internal process where he will emerge. By the time they try to foist that kind of situation, they are going to have problems. Whether it is PDP or APC spirit, the truth is that Nigerians are tired of some particular patterns of behaviour and want to see change. That’s what the APC people call it. But I call it reform. Nigeria wants to see reform in the attitude of our politicians.