The Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Right Honourable (Pastor) Kola Oluwawole, has disclosed that there is peace in the government in that apart from the fact that all members of the state House of Assembly are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that produced the governor, they are all in agreement that whatever will derail the executive from making life better for the people will not emanate from the legislature.
According to a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Stephen Gbadamosi, Oluwawole made the disclosure during a press interview at the weekend, shortly after he arrived from a vigil of the Redeemed Christians Church of God (RCCG) organized by the Life Gate Parish Provincial Headquarters, Adehun, Ado-Ekiti, where he prayed for the progress of the state, on Saturday.
The cleric turned lawmaker opined that “if we, as a House of Assembly, are in constant squabbles with the governor, the government will never get its acts together. That is why we insisted that on every policy of the executive, we must be carried along from inception, so that by the time their bill comes before us and they have added or subtracted anything, we will cry foul. They dare not.
“Be that as it may, it does not mean that if they do anything untowards at the level of the executive, we will not frown at it. We do quarrel, but the bickerings are minimal, because we are usually part of the process, especially when it concerns appropriation bills. Fayose is smart, wise and above all, has the interest of the people of Ekiti at heart. He always avoids whatever will make the legislature to query his policies; he is thorough.”
The Speaker maintained that for the stability of the nation’s governance and democracy, the Federal Government needed to come off its high horse and learn good governance from the current administration in Ekiti State.
“We are not playing politics about this; the Federal Government should dismount that high horse and come down here in Ekiti to learn the art of good governance. The principle of separation of power was not put there so that chaos would continue to the detriment of the people we are meant to make life better for; round pegs need to be put in round holes.
“Check the excesses and work together for the common good of the electorate; that is the intention. If the executive in Ekiti State does not carry us along in the preparation of the budget, we wait for them, because the law of the land stipulates that all their efforts must land on our table. But they are wise; all the government parastatal agencies submit their budgets to relevant committees of the House for scrutiny before the overall budget of the state is passed. And we were always carried along in the preparation process,” he explained.
The Speaker vowed that all the antics of the opposition to impeach Governor Ayodele Fayose through the back door would come to naught.
“The opposition APC, both at home and the federal levels are intolerable. They caused a lot of storm in a tea cup, before, during and after the last governorship election in the state. All along, Fayose was vindicated, even up to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. The new plan to upstage the governor through some crooked people in the judiciary through the back door informed his recent letter to the NJC. He believes the judiciary should be the last hope of not the common man only, but every citizen of Nigeria.”
Oluwawole said that contrary to allegations by some sponsored elements, the Ekiti Assembly members had been carrying out their duties diligently, especially according to how they were spelt out in the 1999 Constitution (as amended), adding that apart from having made many laws that had impacted positively on the lives of the people, the members were never found wanting in their oversight functions and providing empowerment inputs for their constituents across class.
