Hon. Tamuno Jaja

Excerpts:

Q. Let us put this 19 months in perspective, can you give us a sense of what it has been like in the House and as a majority leader?

A. I would want to say, so far so good, it has really been nice, good experience better achievement, plenty of successes for us as legislators and for us as a government.

Q. We all agreed this is a learning process, by your own background and training, what have you picked that has enriched your understanding to discharge your responsibilities?

A. The truth of the matter is that before I made up my mind to go into politics, I carried out a feasibility of what I intended to do. So before going into the Rivers State legislature I took a critical study of what to do.

Q. And what did you find?

A. By my background as an historian, I was already exposed to a lot of issues. As a lawmaker one is expected to always look at issues from different sides, one is expected to consider the interest of the state and the people in every issue that you are faced with especially on the floor of the House. For instance before passing a bill, one of the first things to consider is what will be the effect this bill on my people, on the people of the state. And after taking a look at that, you will now begin to know how to fashion it to suit the interest of your people. And more importantly apart from studying the activities of different legislatures in the House, some of us took time to study what legislation means in Nigeria, and how we have fared. We began with the first republic up to the last one; on the aborted republic, we discovered that even though they tried their best, we believe that their best was not good enough considering that the act of legislation is all about of power of language.

Q. This House holds crucial meetings outside public view, which you call informal meetings, are you aware that people say they are being short changed by your not been transparent?

A. It depends on your concept about what informal meeting means. From our own context, all we discuss is the relationship between one legislator and the other. We don't in anyway bring matters that are to be discussed on the floor of the House to informal meetings. A good example is to bring a motion that is to be discussed on the floor into an informal meeting. Or to bring a bill that is to be discussed on the floor of the House into an informal meeting, no. And sometimes if you watch the Rivers state House of Assembly, it is not as if we don't disagree, we do. What we normally do is, let's assume that Mr. A and Mr. B. exchanged words on the floor of the House, and there are some tense situations, what we normally do we allow the two of them to carry on, but if we discover that the situation is persisting getting to the extent of not wanting to see anything good in your opponents view, we call an informal meeting. Because if you allow the situation, there maybe some views that would be in the interest of the people of this state, but because you have allowed each of us to build some disaffection for each other, because you have allowed each of us to see each other as permanent opponent or enemies, because you are the sponsor of the bill, regardless of the interest I would want to oppose it because you are the sponsor. So when we see situations like this, we call an informal meeting and let everyone of us understand that they are not being antagonistic because they want to attack themselves. To see each other's view as their positions, see their view as the opinion of their people.

Q. You must be aware that even as you do all these, that the impression has already been formed about this House been a one party House. Because there is hardly any disagreement on the floor of the House to which the people of the state can recall, meaning that there is a lot of trade off in these informal meetings?

A. That is the view of those I will refer to as detractors of the government. I want to say that disagreement does not mean fighting; there are several cases, just recently the House decided that the accounts of the councils should be frozen. It was just the minority leader, who said that he did not agree and he held strongly to his views. And members of his party, in APP did not say because the minority leader said he oppose it, let us go along that line. And when it came to the time of voting, every other person voted for and he voted against it. But the idea of our people is the House comes and starts fighting. Before we came in, we did a study of what happened in the aborted third republic, we went through the hazards, the vote and proceedings, and we discovered that those our colleagues spent their time quarrelling and fighting on the floor of the House. And it is not good for a lawmaker and the interest of our people, that we should settle down and face the business of law making.

Q. You've passed 8 bills since last year, can you give us an indication of what you feel in your oversight factions as you assess the implementation of these laws?

A. I am satisfied, very satisfied. All our bills are well implemented.

Q. But there is a suggestion that the appropriation bill you passed is not what the executive branch implemented?

A. That is not true. Not true in the sense that most of the projects contained in that appropriation law has been implemented. I have heard one or two persons say this project was there, and nothing has been done about it. I would want our people to realise that, the provisions of the appropriation law 2000, that have not been implemented are on the areas of construction. We will not say because we want to implement the provisions of this law, we go ahead and start construction of roads in May/June, considering the swampy nature of this region. Everybody knows that we could not carry out project construction in the rainy season, as I am speaking to you right now, if you go round the state you will notice that construction is going on right now. This is because we are just stepping into the dry season, I want to tell you authoritatively that all provisions of that appropriation act were implemented.

Q. You have just received 2001 appropriation bill, which you are going to debate very shortly, can you give us your preliminary impression?

A. We just received that, as the majority leader I am to present the bill to the House in the next few days, I will move for the first reading when the House reconvenes. I am still studying it to enable me acquaint myself with the provisions of the bill. But be that as it may, I want to say that so far just like the appropriation bill 2001 is christened, budget of continued restoration, I want to say that I am satisfied because the government is trying to improve on what they have just done. First of all budget 2000 appropriation was x-rayed, how far did we go with this budget and I want to say that all that were contained were implemented. Especially, when we were passing that bill into law, we talked about free bus for the students, rail transport system, free medical care for children and the elderly and in the areas of housing.

Q. You passed the Rivers State employment act, which requires 30 per cent of lower level positions to be allocated to the host communities, that has not taken off. The other is housing, I have heard complaints that the housing situation has not really improved, it is still very expensive. What plans do you have to tackle this in the next one year?

A. Let me start with employment, I want to say that we have passed that, the ministry of economic empowerment and employment generation is doing everything possible to implement the provisions of that law. But the problem is for those of us who come from the minority states, almost all-senior positions are held by non-Rivers people. So what they do, they don't advertise vacancies, they go home and bring in their cousins and nephews to occupy these positions.

Q. Are you thinking of amending this law?

A. Well what we are saying, that the commissioner should call for the nominal roles of all the companies, let us be able to confirm, as soon as that is done, the law will take its course. And that is to say we placed most of the burden on the government of Rivers State, if you go through that law. In a nutshell, I want to say that law is been implemented by the commissioner of employment economic empowerment.

Q. Do you the latest figure of what he has done in terms of placements?

A. I think that the chairman of the employment committee of the House should be able to furnish you. But as at the last time we received the report from the committee that should be two or three months ago, we are well aware that over two hundred Rivers State sons have been placed. Then the housing problem I will agree with you that the rent in the city is very, very high. The government intends to do two things quickly, by improving and increasing the number of what they have done in the city. That is the number of houses, and on our part as lawmakers, we are in the process of reviewing the rent edict in this state, as soon as more houses are provided.

Mr Jaja represents Opobo/Nkoro state constituency and is the majority leader of the House.