Hon Abbas Adigun Agboworin is a National Assembly member representing Ibadan North East/South East Federal constituency at the lower chamber of the National Assembly. The Peoples Democratic party chieftain who was re-elected for another term in this interview speaks on the need for the opposition parties to form a formidable team in the 10th Assembly.
Few weeks ago the All Progressives congress APC announced consensus candidate for leadership of the 10th Assembly, Hon Tajudeen Abass and Ben Kalu were chosen for the House of Reps what is your position on this and the personality of the candidates
Well, in our constitution 1999 as amended you know that the speaker of the rep must come from majority party, although the minority party if you add all of them together they are about 183 and majority party members are just about 177 but all the opposition are not together as one , we have members from, Labour Party, PDP, NNPP and others and we in PDP are just 116, choosing Tajudeen Abass and Ben Kalu as speaker and deputy speaker respectively is their choice, we cannot control or influence whom they choose but the only thing we can do as minority is for us to have a strong opposition and minority leader because out of 10 positions we have at the house 6 is for the majority while 4 is for the minority so I am just appealing to our party members to let us have a strong minority and deputy as well as minority whip and deputy that will be able to do justice for our country so as for who they zone or not it’s their party affairs . As for me personally, I did not have any problem with Tajudeen Abass because when you are looking for a lawmaker that can stand toe to toe with another speaker anywhere in the world, Tajudeen absss is more composed, capable and well experience, other candidate are also qualified but Tajudeen Abass has in the last three years and half years that I have known him is always active at the chamber during plenary more than other candidate except Hon. Wase who always preside whenever the speaker is not around, you know presiding is not the only thing that we need but quality leadership and knowledge about the operations and rules of the house so Tajudeen Abass is ok
The outgoing National Assembly is seen as a rubber stamp assembly due to what Senate president said that he is ready to pass into law whatever the former president, muhamadu Buhari sent to them and he did demonstrate it so what are your expectation from the 10th Assembly
I will not agree with you that the 9th Assembly is a rubber stamp assembly, anywhere in the world where the ruling party is the one controlling the presidency and the leadership of the National Assembly, whatever they bring from the presidency are always approved that is why I insisted that we in the minority party need a strong and well experienced people that can able to fight for the people, during the 9th Assembly the PDP picked a strong candidate for the minority but the speaker them choose one of his allies in the PDP as minority leader just for him to have his ways and that is why people called the 9th assembly rubber stamp, assuming those nominated by our party were allowed to function as minority leader we will get a better results in term of quality representations and deliberations at the house, there is limit to what we in the opposition can do because if you go against any house rule because you want to lend your voice to a debate or something on the floor and the speaker refuses to call you may be suspended for six month and if you are not in the house for six month how will you make money and bring succor to your people at home.
Do you go there to make money?
No that is not what I mean, I do take care of my people from my salary and allowances and if for six month I didn’t bring anything they will ask me did we send you there to go and break rules or bring something for us at home so we have to comply and play along or keep silent
What should people of Ibadan North East/Ibadan South East be expecting from Agboworin in second term?
Well. all I can say is that, we thank God today that out of all the federal reps in Oyo state today Ibadan , I receive the blessing of God and I am hoping to enjoy such privileged again so that I can bring more dividends of democracy to my constituents, I brought the largest Airforce base to Ibadan Oyo state I am hoping to bring another thing again in the coming dispensation and for my constituents a lot of people benefited from our various empowerment schemes and those who are yet to benefit should wait for their turn as I will ensure that dividends of democracy reaches everyone in my constituency.
Omitutun 2.0 what are your expectations
The continuation of omitutun 1.0, which includes the infrastructural development, road network, education training for our youths creating employment opportunity for the youths, moving the IGR from number 26 to number 4 in the country , if north because oyo state is not an oil producing state , I would say Oyo state should go to number one and for our governor to have in the last two years increased our IGR fr0m number 25 to number 4 I think he has done well and the continuation of his landmark achievements is what we are expecting in omitutun 2.0 which he has promised and I am optimistic that he would deliver.
