By Fred Itua, Abuja
Joe Edionwele is the member representing Esan West/Esan Central/Igueben Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. He is a member of several standing and adhoc committees. He is also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Before his sojourn in the House, he held sway as a local government chairman and secretary of South South of PDP.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, the lawmaker spoke extensively on the 2018 budget, defection in the House of Representatives, President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance and the 2019 general elections.
You have been in office for 30 months now. What are the high points of your period so far?
I have sponsored several bills and motions. In fact, I have sponsored 29 motions and bills since the inauguration of the current House of Representatives. It has always been challenging. It is not easy. By God’s grace, we are making progress. We are making intervention projects. The problem is funding. 2017 was the worst year. But it does not mean that we did not do anything. In my constituency, I was able to build a befitting townhall for my people. I have been able to influence so many road projects as well. We have done some outreach projects in health, education and training of our women and youth. In the area of roads, we are lucky that the NDDC is doing something. We are not talking about motorcycles and grinding machines. We have been able to touch lives.
Implementation of yearly budget is always a problem. In 2017, some agencies got something as low as 18 per cent performance. It appears that the National Assembly only barks. Why don’t you bite?
I am worried. Those we are fighting for see us in the National Assembly as the problem. For example, there were so many reasons why we could have stopped the presentation of the 2018 budget. The MTEF was not presented as at when due. The indices to be used for the budget was the MTEF. Ironically, details of the MTEF did not come until the budget was presented. This is against the rule, but those outside will not understand. We are the representatives of the people. We conduct our affairs in the open. We try to bend back and approve things for the government.
How do we solve the problem of poor budget implementation?
We even suffer it more. We are the ones the people reach out to and anything the government does will be located in our constituencies. The blame comes to us, but we do not have the power to execute projects…
People also blame it on poor oversight…
What will you oversight? You get to a Ministry where only about 15 per cent was released, what will you do? Even the procurement law says for you to award a contract, you need to have 15 per cent financial backing. In that case, what are we going to oversight? When people talk of oversight, what are we going there to do? If funds are released, we will have things to do. When you go on oversight, what are you going to ask officials of government who did not get any releases? MDAs do not have anything to implement. There are no releases. Another problem is what I call selective implementation of capital projects and selective releases. Some agencies even get zero releases.
At some point, lawmakers threatened not to pass the 2018 budget if their constituency funds were not released. Where are we with that threat?
Well, they have released 50 per cent of the money for constituency projects. They only released that of 2017. You cannot carry over budgets. We hope that when we resume, the Federal Government will cash-back it so that work can begin in our constituencies.
There was another threat by PDP lawmakers to protest during the presentation of the 2018 budget. Some members went into the chamber with placards. Why did they jettison the plans?
It is the same thing. You know the public will not understand what is going on. We had to back down. Apart from that, the PDP is in the minority. When you consider the relationship we have enjoyed from the Speaker of the House, there was no need to go ahead with the protest.
Defection from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is the main issue in the House. Are you also defecting soon?
Politics is local. Before you defect, it has to be approved by your people. You are not the one to determine where to contest. PDP is strong in my area. Why will I defect to a party that is weak in my area? Before you talk about defection, you must meet with your people? On what basis should I defect? Is it that at the state and federal levels, the APC is performing? Certainly not. It is also good that the other party is wishing that you were with them because of your popularity and good works. Haters want to rubbish me. In my local government, it is annoying to think about defection. Haters are responsible for this rumour. For now, I am focused on how to get the dividends of democracy for my people. I am a strong member of PDP. I have gone up to the position of South South secretary of PDP. I am passionate about PDP.
Back to the National Assembly. We have always had the case of budget padding. Already, the same blues are already showing up. Why is no one talking about how to solve this problem?
People always accuse the National Assembly of padding the budget. There is even no way you can pad the budget. It is only MDAs that can pad the budget. It is our duty to unravel any budget padding. We have been doing surgical operations on the budget every year. We do not just make any noise about it. If you see what we vire to other areas, you will praise the National Assembly. It is our duty. In the real sense of it, there is nothing like padding. It is our duty to ensure that monies are properly appropriated. The word ‘padding’ does not exist. It means people are insinuating that what was not there was inserted. If we feel it was provided for the previous year and it is not an ongoing project, we move the funds to another area.
Lawmakers have rubbished the 2018 budget and have described it as unrealistic. Do you subscribe to that claim?
I share that view. In this country, we use yearly budgets to construct roads. In other countries, it is different. It is always a public private partnership arrangement. Critical infrastructure are funded through this arrangement. They will perform better. What has changed that we are now over promising? Is it that the Niger Delta problem has reduced? Is it that we are now selling more oil? How can you say that you are basing one dollar that is N360 in the open market on N305? We need to make a budget and remove infrastructural development from it. We cannot generate enough money to fund these projects.
As a member of Appropriation committee, do you foresee any possibility that the budget could be reduced?
It cannot be reduced. If you use the exchange rate to assess the budget, despite the huge amount, you will discover that it is lower than the 2017 budget. We are even saying that it is not enough. We need to stimulate the economy. What we have is just an increment of 15 per cent. What will you further reduce?
Your party, the PDP is against the proposed withdrawal of $1 billion from excess crude account to fund insurgency war. Do you think the National Assembly should stop the move?
My problem is not about giving money to fund Boko Haram. When we give such monies, it should be included in funding the budget. You do not have to be specific. It cannot be done in one day. The money is owned by the three tiers of government. It should have been used to fund projects, with special focus on Boko Haram war. Insurgency equally has money for it in the budget. Those things were provided for. There is going to be a lot of waste. The timing is also wrong. The Military came to the House and they defended the budget. What they needed was provided in the budget. That is why people are thinking that it could be used to fund elections and it is not far from it.
Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila holds the view that the National Assembly has no constitutional powers to discuss the planned withdrawal. Is he right?
He is wrong. Only the National Assembly has the power to appropriate funds, irrespective of where it comes from. The Federal Government cannot use funds without approval from the National Assembly. If he is saying that we cannot discuss the issue, what then can we discuss? Every money belongs to the Federal Government and it must be accounted for.
People believe that your party, the PDP may not be able to produce a match to wrest power from the APC. Judging by what you see, do you think your party is ready for 2019?
The truth of the matter is that, everybody is tired of Buhari and APC. Everybody is going to fight and ensure that power is rescued from the grips of APC. The suffering in the land is beyond party matter. Anybody will be able to wrest power from this government in 2019 that has not fulfilled one promise. Even promises made have been denied. It is not about the PDP; it is about the people. You cannot even compare this government to the previous one. We generate more money now. For the first time, Customs is hitting N1 trillion. We are not talking about taxes and oil. We are not talking of recovered loot. What has happened to these monies? To the ordinary man, there is no impact. That is why every Nigerian must join hands to save this country. Like I said, anybody for now can match President Buhari. His performance is close to nothing.
What about the argument that if PDP gets power in 2019, the south may have to wait till 2023. Do you think that argument is valid?
It is because of the non performance of our leaders that people are asking if you are from the South or North. The reason why people also say that is because of the way we site projects. People believe that you only get something when your person is there. But it should not be so. As a leader, you must take the country as your own. If that is what the South will sacrifice to ensure that everybody is carried along, we will sacrifice it.
As a stakeholder, what are your expectations from Buhari in 2018? Do you also believe that he needs to dissolve the cabinet?
To me, its too late. 2018 will be a political year. If Buhari brings in technocrats, he will run into problems. The people they are asking him to remove are politicians. I just think that Buhari is too late to do anything right now. Its an election year in a way. When will Buhari do anything? He had all the time to do something. He did not do anything. Its too late for them. To me, there is little or nothing they can do. We just hope that the budget will be fully implemented in 2018.