Hon Seyi Adisa, who represents Afijio State Constituency at the Oyo State House of Assembly has reiterated the importance of security towards the stability of government, stressing that the issue of security should not be politicized. It is the foundation of any development we would see.
Adisa who got elected into the house under the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC in an interview granted to the crew of naijatodaynews.com on commemoration of two(2) years of legislation in the Pacesetter’s House of Assembly maintained that if there is no law and order, there won’t be stability and continuity of government, saying that the politicians should desist from using security challenges as a means of attacking government and consequently pull down the party in control of political administration.
While asking about the attained achievements of the current speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Debo Ogundoyin, the parliamentarian responded that,”the roles of legislators are in three folds, first is to pass bills, second is to oversee the executives which is the oversight function and third, assign into representation which is ensuring how to meet the needs of the constituents”.
“If you want to use those three metrics as criteria to look at how the house has performed, we have done wonderfully well”.
“In terms of effective legislation, we have passed more bills in the house of Assembly at this time and many others bills will be deliberated upon and passed in the next two years of legislation”.
“As regards representation, a lot of motions had come through and law makers have also tried as much as possible to represent their constituents in one way or the other, whether providing some amenities and other ways we feel we can touch the lives of those we’ve been asked to serve”.
“Using those three metrics, I can say this House of Assembly under the leadership of Right Honourable Debo Ogundoyin has no doubt done fairly well.”
” When we started, one of the first things we did, was to get a legislative agenda guided by the main area of needs of the people. And the way we got that was by going to the citizens, we had a town hall meeting where we got elders’ women and youths’ opinions from all the 33 local governments of Oyo state. They came and told us what their key needs were. And those key needs were what we used in forming our legislative agenda”.
“And those are the areas we are particularly looking into when considering bills to pass because those are the areas that will affect the lives of the masses the most. For example, one of the key things the people said was unemployment followed by poverty alleviation. We have been intentional at looking at legislation and motions that will work on that.”
“It’s one thing to pass a bill into law and the other is to enforce it which is the work of the executives. If we pass a bill will it be enforced? Anti-open grazing bill was passed, but you can say it’s not enforced for whatever reason but it has been passed”.
“We have different bills like violence against women, that has been passed, I understand that there is a process of getting some of the facilities in place so that they can work effectively. You know of Amotekun, you know of OYSADA which is on agric business that is the way we do agricultural business in the state. My personal bill which is to target SMEs and unemployment is called the Oyo state employability and entrepreneurial trust fund bill. And the purpose of the bill is to solve unemployment in Oyo state”.
“Unfortunately, since house has been on strike we’ve not been able to proceed , it has gone through second reading and has been committed into the hands of the committee and I’m hoping it will be passed soon and benefit the lives of people. It’s just to highlight that it is one thing to pass a bill, the implementation and enforcement is in the hands of executives”.
When asked about their efforts in ensuring that the bills are followed up and pass, he said,”there was a Committee called “Legislative Compliance” in the house they are saddled with the responsibility of following up on, not just bills but also on motions that we passed and they follow up with the SSG who is the Secretary to the State Government on some of these matters”
But unfortunately, there has been a break in transmission as a result of COVID, but sometimes the challenges we face is funding, sometimes we have to wait till the next budget, sometimes it’s approved and we are in the process of implementation.
“Talking about his personal contributions as law maker at the House of Assembly, he said that, “In 2019 to 2020, I had seven motions and one bill and this bill is the one that’s being committed to committee stage before it goes to third reading for expedition of legislative actions”.
The Lawmaker said he had not allowed political disparity to cause any friction, misunderstanding and sentiments between him and the Peoples Democratic Party’s Lawmakers in the house, stressing that he relates cordially and mutually with the majority party’s lawmakers in the house, so as to move the state forward.
