Amosun’s performance is not impressive – Hon. Remmy Hassan Hon. Remmy Hassan Former Deputy Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly (OGHA), Hon. Remmy Hassan, is a Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and currently an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) legislator. In this interview with Uhuru Times, he expressed disappointment in the performance of the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Excerpts: It is two years since the current Administration assumed office in Ogun State. What is your assessment of its performance? It’s for me, not too impressive performance. Because, if we are to just look at it from the face value, it is possible to conclude that things are going on (positively). But if we are to look deep down into what is really going on … project pricing, project externalities, the cost implications on people’s source of livelihood, even the cost implication to the state (government) in terms of cost of finance, all of that put together will throw up further matters that will be of critical issues for discussion. So, I will say that if we look at all those things that we’ve talked about, it is not possible to look at it as impressive. There is an intention to out-perform the former government, but the approach has not really been without all these hitches that I have talked about. So, for me, I am not really impressed as to what is going on. I just hope, maybe with the little time that is left something can still be done to correct this entire imbalance. But so far, not too good. Some time ago, the Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, declared that Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) will be merged with Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU). What is the situation today? I think the last issue that made it more controversial was the merger of the budgets of the two institutions, that is, OOU and TASUED, during the OGHA consideration of the 2013 budget estimates. And some of us did not submit to that backdoor approach of wanting to achieve a very unwelcome policy of that merger or consolidation as the Executive tried to put it. Before then, there were some behind the scene efforts to ensure that the issue gets a political solution. But when this issue came up again through the budget merger, we did not see that as a transparent way of getting this issue resolved. And it threw up so many controversies, from the traditional institutions and stakeholders in Ogun East (Senatorial District) as a whole, and at the end of the day we resolved, especially those of us who are of the belief that the institution should stay, that since no meaningful merger can be achieved except there is an amendment to the existing law setting up these institutions, it clear that irrespective of any other thing that is done, TASUED continues to exist legally and nothing can change it, except there is an amendment to that law. I don’t see any true son of Ogun East (Senatorial District) who will submit to this type of policy. So, we can as well say that TASUED has come to stay. And with the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor, we believe that there is a possible change of heart (by Amosun). Of course, like I said, unless that law is amended to reflect such (merger), TASUED exists. And for us in Ogun East Senatorial District, that is the way it is going to be. Your answer to the last question lends credence to speculations about an ongoing Ogun East/Ogun Central Senatorial Districts ‘war’ among members of Ogun State Government. Could you shed some light on this? Of course, it is very obvious there are some anti-Ogun East policies that we are not comfortable with. First of all, the issue of the Cargo Airport. We are aware that land acquisition has been done by the former government, design has been done, the approval of Nigeria’s civil aviation authorities has also been sought. The only thing that is probably remaining is for the contract to be awarded. But here we are with this current Executive proposing another airport for Ogun Central. That is pure anti-Ogun East policy. Who will not think that way? Except there are superior arguments why they don’t want us to feel that way. For now, I don’t think there is any other manner in which this can be properly situated that will convince us it is not anti-Ogun East. Olokola Deep Sea Port and Free Trade Zone that could take more than 50 per cent of our unemployed youths off the streets, nothing has been mentioned about it till date. Even if it is just the road from J4 Junction to that site that is done, the state government will make billions of naira from land allocations alone, not to even talk of other investment opportunities that will come from there. We (Ogun State Government) are spending over N200 billion on road construction, that road (to Olokola) was valued at N26 billion. That would have opened up that axis and business activities would have more than doubled or even tripled the expected initial business activities envisaged for the area. But here we are, it is still the way it was left by the last administration. And, of course, this issue of merger of institutions, scrapping and what have you, we were most affected in Ogun East. TASUED, Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Gateway ICT Polytechnic and others are all in Ogun East. So, you can just fill in the gap and understand why many of us are feeling the way we are feeling. But the onus is on the Executive to convince us that is not the intention. And until that happens, we have the right to feel the way we feel. Right now, there are speculations that you are no longer a member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Do you want to clear the air on this? Thank you very much that you called this speculation. Till date, and until I decide otherwise, I am a card carrying member of ACN. That is the record I have with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). That is the record I have with the OGHA. But, when the time comes for us to take decisions, decisions will be taken. And everybody has a right to do what he likes. So, for now, I am an ACN member. Tomorrow may come, I may choose not to be. You were a legislator in the immediate past dispensation. You are currently a member of the OGHA, again. How would you weigh both Administrations? I, actually, was in the last government. And I am also in this particular government. We came into this government with a little bit of disappointment from the last government. And, of course, hopes were so high that all of what we saw as imbalance in the last government would be corrected in this particular government. But unfortunately, I am beginning not to see things that way again two years down the line. And I have my reasons. First is the way the financial engineering that we seriously looked forward to is turning out. There is a disturbing news from the Debt Management Office, I have not really confirmed. But they say our debt profile as a state is now over N200 billion. That is disturbing. I’ll still do my own background research to find out how we got to that level. But if the former government in eight years left a debt of N49 billion, out of which over N10 billion was still discovered to be a wrong computation, and forensic audit revealed that, it has brought down the debt to about N39 billion in eight years. And here we are, an office of authority in Abuja is saying that our external debt is over N200 billion. I need to do a lot of research on that. The other thing that will make me not feel that this government is really pro-people is that the rate at which people are out of business in town is so high that even as we have not been able to put food on people’s tables, we are also taking away the little that they are managing to put on the table themselves. Especially that we did not do a well though out urban renewal project, and we are facing the consequences now. There are so many other things that I may not be able to marshall at this point. But I think if you go out there and do a random sampling of people’s opinion, you will see that the perception is not really in the favour of the government of the day as having not been pro-people. But I hope those in authority would do a lot more of deep thinking and begin to find a formula to put smiles on the faces of the people. People are not smiling. And it (government) is all about the people. That’s what democracy is. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And if it is all about the people, and the people are not happy, that is failure of governance. There was a rift in the OGHA recently. What is the situation today? The situation is that we have one House of Assembly that every member has a right to his/her say. And majority will finally have their way. That’s the way it is now. But it is more of a truce, as it were. And when I say truce, you should be able to understand what I mean by that. Everybody is there now … cool and calm atmosphere. But, of course, it is a truce. And that’s what it is.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 17:30:30 +0000
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