Nigerians yet to understand a legislator's job - Lawmaker

Lawmaker Olumuyiwa Jimoh

Lawmaker Olumuyiwa Jimoh

Eromosele Ebhomele

Lawmaker Olumuyiwa Jimoh
Lawmaker Olumuyiwa Jimoh

A member of the Lagos State House of Assemblyn Olumuyiwa Jimoh, on Wednesday lamented that many Nigerians still lack knowledge of the responsibilities of a legislator in the country.

Jimoh said many Nigerians often equate the legislature with the executive arm of government expecting an average lawmaker to construct roads, hospitals and meet the provision of basic amenities to the people.

The lawmaker also said for the country to reach the desired goal, then politicians and the people must begin to discourage the idea of ‘stomach infrastructure’.

He revealed that though the idea on the heads of people like him might not tally with the reality on ground, people should understand the basic functions of the people in public offices.

As granted by the Nigerian constitution, the legislature has a duty to make laws for the smooth running of a state or country. It is also saddled with the responsibility of checking the executive arm of government against excesses just as it also has the powers of oversight on the executive.

Jimoh, who represents Apapa Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, “if you see the comments on the Facebook and other social media, you would be surprised that those that are even educated do not understand what a lawmaker does, not to talk of the illiterates. I don’t even believe in sharing money, but stomach infrastructure is a reality we have to live with.

“Even after office, some of us might not easily find our level. My salary for four years could not sustain the campaigns I did for the last elections, I had to raise money from other sources.”

To him, Nigeria cannot sustain a monetised politics and ethnicity, which played out in the last election.

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“Despite the fact that I used the money from my imprest and salary to empower people in my constituency and encourage international scholarship for both the Yorubas and non-indigenes in the area, the Igbos didn’t see me as one of them during the elections, but rather they supported someone they didn’t know before.

“That was why Chief Obafemi Awolowo said that we must understand our problems. It is like plants, it has roots, if you don’t tackle the roots, you would not get results,” he added.

He also stated that violence could be minimised during elections, but that it cannot be curbed adding that political violence has always been part of the world’s political development right from the French Revolution of 1789 and that it is now the responsibility of Nigerians to know that it is one person that would win any election.

“We should appreciate winning when we win and those who lose should accept it,” he said while suggesting that the Nigerian government should stop using soldiers and other such security bodies for elections as it is done in other climes.

On the apathy experienced during the last governorship and State House of Assembly elections in the country, Olumuyiwa said that most people operate on gadgets and social media rather than going out to vote.

He gave example of Lagos State, where about five million people registered for election and that those who voted for the two main governorship candidates in the state were not up to half of the figure.

“People believe that when we get there we want to go and embezzle money.

“Until we realise that those that go to public offices would determine our pattern of life, we will continue to have problems.

“Any decision we take would affect the people whether they like it or not, but because of the non challant, you want to stay away from elections,” he lamented.

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