Gadhafi, best leader Africa ever had-Obasa

Obasa Hon. Mubashiru Obasa represents Agege Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Southwest Nigeria. Recently, I had an interview with him where he talked on issues in the assembly including the N7billion embezzlement allegation against the Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji. He is of the view that government should be about putting smiles on the faces of the people. To him, Late Libyan leader, Muammar Gadhafi was the best leader the continent of Africa ever had in terms of good governance and care for the masses. He also bore his mind on the controversial plan by the federal government to remove fuel subsidy in January  excerpt:  The assembly recently approved administrative guidelines for local government administration in the state, what benefits would this development have on grassroots governance?  The essence of the administrative guidelines is to assign functions to the officials of the local government so that they will know their responsibilities. Starting from the chairman, the vice chairman, the supervisors, the elected councillors and the civil servants, that is the CM, the CT and other staff of the local government. It is to create responsibilities and to saddle them with assignments so that the council activities can be managed in a smooth manner. The July 10 flood in the state affected a lot of areas including your constituency, Agege 1. What effort have you made to facilitate relief measures for the victims of the flood? I will like to put this straight to the people, not only in my constituency but Lagosians as a whole, that flooding is a global phenomenon. It is an annual problem. It happens everywhere, Europe America and those who are even more advanced in technology to combat flood witness it annually. Ours is not an exception but that does not mean we should look for ways to curb it so that we can reduce the negative impact on our people. I was there in the rain when it happened. I was there in the flood throughout for about almost five or six hours with those affected. The state government also intervened. We also called on the state government on the need to come to the aid of our people and they responded. A committee was set up to take account of those who were affected and I think a kind of relief packages were given and also we have a plan already before then. The state government has plans to take up some projects, very big, laudable and expensive projects to reduce or eradicate the effect of the flood so that it won’t happen again. There is going to be a new construction of channels all around the locality so that the flood can come and go away in a smooth manner without causing any damage. It’s over a month now that the house resumed from its recess and it’s surprising that no single mention has been made of the N7billion fraud allegation against the speaker. Why are you people not talking about it? I think there is nothing to talk about. Even though we all have embargo that we should not speak about the issue, there is nothing to talk about. The allegation is baseless. It’s unnecessary. It’s fictitious. It’s the imagination of external forces who are looking for ways to destabilise the house. I can assure you, they will not succeed. The house has focus. We are one and we strongly believe in the leadership of the house and that’s why we are together. That’s why you are not seeing anybody rasing dust or talking about it because it’s not true. The N500,000,000 issue started around mid-last year and that is six months. If you get N500,0000,000 in six months, how much is that? And besides, how can a single person embezzle the whole allocation of an institution. Will the civil servants not take their imprest which they need to manage the whole complex? The sweepers are there. The gardeners are there, the vehicles are there, the generator is running, everything is going on. So, it’s just the imagination of those who are idle and those people who like creating problem where there is none. Probably, may be for political reason, but for me I am sure, it’s a baseless allegation and it’s not going to work. You talked about an ‘embargo,’ where did it come from… Well, because it is unnecessary. We don’t want distraction. That’s why all the members agreed at the parliamentary that we should just ignore it. Removal of fuel subsidy is a burning issue in the country at the moment. What is your take on it? Well, so far, I have read from many people, the economists, financial experts and they all concluded that it is a good thing for the masses. But the problem is that, how can we believe the federal government? This has been happening for almost 10 years ago. It started with the military government and yet there is no impact. There is no difference in terms of infrastructure. So, it’s difficult to convince people that this one will make difference in their lives positively. So, it’s a difficult one, that’s one. And secondly, so many other sectors are not increasing charges. The PHCN has just introduced one. So if PHCN has done its own and some other one too and all these are being done at a go, it’s going to make life difficult for the people. The masses are going to pay for it at the end of the day, but if there is a kind of relief package where people can fall back on, it would have been a better idea. But now, there is no relief package anywhere. You cannot go to the federal government and get what you want. There is no school, there is on road, electricity is not there. So how will you now add to the burden of the people? The other European countries who are now going introducing different kinds of economic measures have a kind of packages that people can fall back on. But we are lacking this in Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, no matter how we weigh the issue, I think this is not the best of time to remove the subsidy because the suffering is too much. People are complaining bitterly. Food has become a major problem despite the expanse of arable land that we have in Nigeria. To get the daily meal is a difficult thing in Nigeria. So, if we are being faced with these challenges, it will be out of place to now introduce additional hardship, because to me it’s additional hardship, there is no way you will take it off without bouncing back on the masses. No matter how good it is, it shouldn’t be now. Without any relief package I think the removal has to be put on hold. A follow up to that, the government has also announced that it would reintroduce toll gates on federal highways in 2012… That’s what we are saying. That we keep on adding to the peoples’ burden without giving them a relief package. We have mentioned PHCN increasing the tariff, for a month I am being charged N13,000 probably half of the month there won’t be light! Now, the toll gate is coming, you have to pay tolls. It’s a difficult time for this nation. It’s a difficult time for the people of this country. The federal government should be of how we can put smiles on peoples’ face because without that we are not going to get anywhere. We should be thinking about what is happening around us. We should not believe that nothing will happen and we can see what is happening in Yobe and other states through Boko Haram. I believe if the economy is rosy and people are living happily and conveniently, no one will take to bombing, no one will resort to crimes. But because the future seems to be bleak, it does not allow anybody to think deeply before acting. Nobody cares again about what happens. In fact what will happen besides hunger? If you know what you will eat in the morning, you don’t know what you will eat in the afternoon, then you won’t care to look for it anyhow and damn the consequence. Will it be convenient to say that the FG may be inviting what happened in Libyan, Egypt and the rest… That’s what we are saying. We must learn from the happenings around us. The Arab Spring started from a single man who was so frustrated and set himself ablaze and that was all. Before you know it a lot of lives have been claimed. Governance is all about the people. The people have to come first before any other thing. We must always think about putting smiles on their faces. We must always think about making life convenient for them, even for the generation yet unborn. But that we are lacking in this country. That’s why I wonder and keep smiling when people, especially, you journalists, started writing about Gadhafi. Gadhafi did this, Gadhafi did that. It seems you people don’t know what you are saying because, of what benefit is it when you have democracy and nothing to show for it? But where you have a dictator, that whatever you can think about in Europe, you also have it in Libya. In fact Libya is even better than some European countries. And when they started this problem, no amount of money was traced to him. That, this was found in Gadhafi’s account, all they said was Libya’s account here, Libya’s account there! As far as I am concerned, that was the best leader we ever had in Africa. His exchange is one to four dollars. What else are we looking for? In terms of infrastructure, Libya can stand, side by side, with any European country. Here, we have democracy, almost 12 years, nothing is walking. Baba Obasanjo introduced the cancellation of toll gates, this man, of the same party, is reintroducing it. Obasanjo started monetisation the other time, when Yar’Adua came he cancelled it. Two steps forward, many steps backward and all these policy somersaults are not helping us. Today, I read in a paper that Nigerians are investing about N200 billion plus in Ghana can you imagine that! And yet, we are searching for investments and investors in Nigeria. It’s unfortunate that Mr President is not getting it right. PDP had not always getting it right. In the last 12 years, the PDP has not achieved anything for the country. No single project? And this is the period that we’ve had substantial amount of money from oil to run the country.  A kind of stabilisation fund was created, it was depleted. Immediately the man that saved the money left, the man that came in depleted it and this man has come again to create another one. There is confusion everywhere. PDP is not helping is. It has nothing to offer. That has been said before that PDP has nothing to offer. It’s quite unfortunate that all our people voted for PDP because of Jonathan, that probably Jonathan is going to make difference. Unfortunately, Jonathan seems to be worse than Obasanjo. Even Obasanjo was able to be identified with one thing. At least, in terms of peace, he was able to achieve lasting peace all over the country. But now, the peace is not there, the economy is not rosy, infrastructures, dead. You talked of government being about putting smiles on the faces of people. But, the ACN government in Lagos State just increased school fees in LASU by over 700 per cent, is the government putting smiles on the faces of people by this action? My friend, we all believe in education. We must be realistic in what we do. If you go to America or Britain today, you will realise that education is not free. Gone are the days where you have scholarships, the government pays for your school fees. But today, I can tell you that we produce nothing less than 100,000 graduates annually if not more than that. These children you are talking about most of them attended nursery and primary schools and they paid times ten of what the state government is asking for. Go and carry out your research and investigation, you will understand what we are saying. The kind of education we offer, if we want it to improve and you cannot take this in isolation. You must also consider the private schools that we have around. In these schools they pay N500,000 to N600,000 per term. We have the same curriculum and the same standard. If we want the best and if we really want our education to improve, we really have to do something about it. There is a need for us to improve the facilities in LASU. There is a need for us to engage those who are qualified. If we don’t get the qualified staff, you cannot get the qualified students or graduates. In essence, what we are saying is that there should be a kind of understanding between the students, the school authority and the parents. We should always have it at the back of our mind that there is a need to increase the school fees. But, do you think a parent earning N18,000 in Lagos state can afford such a high fee? Well, sincerely I don’t know of a parent that is earning N18,000 in the state. Basic salary is N18,000. There are other allowances that follow. There is no worker that is earning N18,000 per month. The basic, excluding other allowances, is N18,000. By the time you add other allowances, it’s far above N18,000. Aside from that we have said it that compared to Europe and everywhere, you see people working at the same time going to school. And they have a kind of system that allows students to take loans to fund their education and at the end they refund it. What we are saying now is that for you to go to school there must be somebody to pick the bill and the government is not in position to do that. If you are talking about the higher institution, are you not also talking about the primary and secondary schools? Primary education is free. Secondary education is free. Books are being given free of charge. The WAEC and NECO are being paid for by the state government. So, you cannot talk about the higher institution in relation to the government of the day without thinking about the primary and secondary schools. If you don’t want the system to collapse, definitely there is a need to do something about it. As of today there is no school in my local government that can complain of desk and benches and they are being supplied textbooks. You have been a member of the assembly for the third term running, what would you say are the landmark achievements of the assembly so far? The assembly is not in isolation. It’s part of the government. We work hand in hand with the executive.  But I can tell you that our achievements are well known both to international and local observers. If you are talking in terms of bills, a lot of them have been passed to law. The condition of Lagos state has improved tremendously due to majority of bills that have emanated from this house because without the house, I don’t think they can achieve the success they have achieved today. We have just talked about education now, the collaboration between the legislature and the executive also informed this. All in all I can tell you Lagos State House of Assembly ranks above all legislatures that you can think of in this country in terms of qualities of deliberations, in terms of the laws we have passed, in terms of the collaboration with the executive and so many other things. This is the 7th assembly, what should Lagosians be expecting and your constituency in particular? Well, we believe there is going to be improvement on our infrastructure. We believe there is going to be more protection in terms of lives, and that is in respect to the number of laws that we have passed, the security trust fund. I can tell you that the rate of crime in the state has reduced compared to other states. In m y constituency, a lot of projects are going to be executed in Agege.