...I had to go and enter the Assembly through another road. I managed to find my way to the plenary. When I got in, I found out that the seat allocated to me had been removed.
When Hon Jimoh Raheem AGBOOLA, the lone opposition voice in the Kwara State House of Assembly walked into our office on a sunny afternoon, we knew he had come looking for respite. Here is a man who has been in the eyes of the storm from the very moment he forcefully claimed his mandate after a long legal battle that ended at the Supreme Court. From the narration of his ordeals, one couldn’t but surmised that his travails in the 9th Kwara Assembly put paid to all the tenets of democracy.
At the heart of all modern democracies is the principle of representation either directly or indirectly. Indirect democracy implies that an elected person represents a group of people through the party system. It also implies that there are oppositions at the wing watching the ruling party.
In all democracies, opposition and democracy are inter-related and cannot be separated from each other. Opposition is the very breath and soul of a democracy; one is incomplete without the other. Strong, constructive and viable opposition can play an important role in democratic functioning and governance.
Opposition works as a watchdog of public interests in a democracy and keeps the ruling party on its toes and criticizes the policies and programmes of the government which they think are not in consonance with the public good. It works as a check on the powers of the government in a democracy and sometimes it forces the ruling party to work as per its aspirations
Therefore, a strong and constructive opposition is necessary for the functioning of a government in a democracy. We agree that the opposition should not oppose for the sake of opposition but should work for constructive opposition for the common good of the public.
From the underhand tactics of candidates’ swapping and the eventual disqualification by the Court to the undisguised repression of the only opposition member, one would have the feelings that there is more to the situation than meets the eye. We leave our readers to make their judgment.
This is the first part of a two legged interview. It is conducted by the duo of Abdul Abdul and Gbolahan Balogun
Honourable, could you give us a bit of your background?
I am Honorable Jimoh Raheem Agboola, the Ilorin South representative in the Kwara State House of Assembly.
You were there before now
Yes, that was 1999 to 2003. But I have been in politics before then. I started in 1991, as a Counsellor representing Akanbi Ward1 in Ilorin East Local Government. That was before Ilorin South was created from Ilorin east. By then, I was the Deputy Speaker under the administration of Alhaji Zubair. Alhaji Ajape Bibire was our speaker then. So, when they excised Ilorin South from Ilorin East, I was the first Honorable member to represent Ilorin South in the state house of assembly, in 1999 to 2003. I had been in my private business for a while before I contested and won on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
How would you compare your tenure in the past to what is happening now in the state assembly?
Then, we had three parties, Alliance for Democracy, AD which I belonged to. We had the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All People Party, making three parties that formed members of the state fourth Assembly. We had eight members as opposition members. And by the special grace of God, we related well because when you contested and won, you must realize that you only use the platform of the party to contest an election and win. Once you have won, you are for the masses; you are representing the whole party. So we saw ourselves as one and colleagues and that was how we related with ourselves. No single rancor by then. By then Hon. Benjamin Isa was our speaker, and what happened then cannot be compared at all with the present situation now. That was the tenure of late Mohammed Lawal as Governor of Kwara State
There was ample progress. The Executive arm minded its business and we also faced our business. We tried to build that legislative arm as a vibrant one, because we are the first arm and the representatives of the people, and for the progress of our state. We had to work hard to see that every kobo accruing to the purse of the state was judiciously used. That was what happened in the Fourth Assembly. But in the 9th assembly, they are running a cult system of operation, whereby they are taking the whole House to be Assembly of APC.
What is the genesis of your present travail in the APC dominated house of assembly as a lone PDP member
Thank you so much. I love this question. You know when you contest an election, there is bound to be dispute. If there is a dispute, you will approach the tribunal. Then from the tribunal, it ends at the court of appeal. In my own case, I contested an election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. So also was Sheu Suleiman, who contested with me under the platform of the All Progressive Congress. He was the one declared as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The miracle we saw was that another person immediately stepped in claiming to be the winner of the election.
Can you clarify this?
Yes, I talked about the candidate of APC, Suleiman Sheu that won the election. But then, another person, Oluwaniko Elewu was the one that was given the certificate of return by INEC and would be the one representing our Local Government. This was what I challenged in court at the tribunal. So at the tribunal level, the tribunal said that the election should be cancelled and ordered a fresh election within 90 days. APC went to appeal. When we were not satisfied with the judgment we also approached the court.
They did the two appeals at the same time but they granted our own. Our prayer was that we were the winner because there was no rancor or problem in that election that would warrant cancellation. We argued that since they were presenting an illegal person, all the votes that accrued to the APC were wasted votes. So we succeeded in our own appeal, and they were fined N50.000. The judgment by the Appeal Court went further to order that all my entitlements be given to me and that they ensure that all the money paid to the APC house member be refunded by him.
So, the man in question, Oloruniwo Elewu took me to the Federal High Court. He joined me and the leadership of the house in that suit, so delaying my resumption in the House of Assembly. But along the line, the process was discarded at the court, he lost at the court.
Instead of the leadership of the House of Assembly to do the needful, by swearing me in, they too took me to the Appeal Court again, claiming that the other guy’s suit had been discarded but still went ahead to file another appeal at the Appeal Court. We on our own, since we know that state and national Assembly elections cases end at the court of appeal, and since we had our judgment, we slammed contempt of court on them at the court, because we didn’t want to take laws into our hands. We appealed to our members that they should not take laws into their hands. So, from there again, they took us to the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court, they asked them whether they knew what they were doing at all. They begged and begged and talked about the fine by the court. The Supreme Court told them if they were talking about the fine, it ends there. The Supreme Court does not have anything to do with matter relating to the State Assembly elections. So the Supreme Court dismissed their suit. We now came back to the Court of Appeal. It was then that the Court of Appeal gave them time to do the needful.
That was how they quickly called me, wrote me and performed the swearing-in ceremony on February, 9th 2021.
Does this imply that your constituency had no representation while the case was on?
That was the true colour of what was happening in the state then. They had a representative who my constituency didn’t elect, occupying the seat illegally with the connivance of his party
You have been on suspension for a while. What is the basis of the disciplinary action taken against you by the State Assembly?
Thank you. I granted an interview with a radio station in Ilorin, Kwara State, on 13th July, 2021 after my resumption. During the interview, I was asked about the state of a road in my constituency specifically, the road from Bishop Smith down to Agbabiaka Area and Amoyo. This was the road I mentioned; that the condition of the road was worse. Before the interview, I had written a memo to the House. I told Mr. Speaker about the condition of the road and that I wanted to mention the state of that road at our plenary. He disallowed me. The only place I could be heard was when I had an opportunity, which I did through the interview programme.
I now told that journalist at the interview programme that, I had planned a visit to that road with my media aide, so that we will be able to ascertain the level of damage and would be exposed to the public to see. The man who interviewed me asked if he could join the trip and I accommodated him. I told him I planned to take Sobi FM Road Station along on the trip.
How long did it take the Assembly to react to the radio interview?
Immediately. They reacted that same day in July 2021. At the Assembly that same day, a member stood up and raised a motion against me on the floor of the House, that I was trying to incite the public against the state government and the Assembly; that I also talked about the grassroots project initiatives that was in the budget and was not given to our local government. I mentioned provision of the budget too in the interview programme. So, it was the pronouncement of the House on that day that I should stand suspended from the plenary pending their investigation into what I said during the interview programme.
I was suspended for six months. I was away for six months from the House of Assembly and away for 17 sittings. Now, why I have been so quiet for that long was because I see them as first timers. The only person that is not a first timer in the Assembly is Saheed Popoola.
Do they have the right to do that, legally or constitutionally?
No. They don’t. Even the house rule they rely on they don’t seem to understand. You can only apply the House Rule when you are in the plenary, or in the chamber or when an incident occurs at the plenary. The interview programme I did was outside the Assembly. Anybody that felt aggrieved of my statements has the courts to go, or if you cannot sue me, you can refute my statement because my statement may form my opinion. That is how you settle anything that happens. There is freedom of speech. I am even representing a constituency, I am supposed to speak on the state of roads in my constituency.
Would you say there are motives in the actions of the house leadership or see it as lack of experience?
Yes, the two together. In the first instance, I looked at it as inexperience on their part. But I have also found out that there are some motives behind their actions. If you want to do something, you should do it well. Our rules of the House is clear on when you can apply any clause of the rules to sanction any erring member.
Yes, if they want to steal, they should be intelligent about it and not the way they are hiding their intentions. So that is part of the inexperience I saw.
Then the second one, talking about motives, was what I saw when we went to Rwanda. On getting there, there were series of meeting where we discussed and agreed that when we get home, they will quash the suspended order on me against my legislative duty.
What were you doing in Rwanda?
We went there for legislative retreat like the one they did in Ghana before I was sworn in. When we got back to Nigeria, they did the first, second, third and fourth sittings without any action taken about the agreement to quash my suspension from sittings in the House.
I went to see Mr. Speaker to remind him about what we agreed on in Rwanda and the fact that I saw that the House wanted to deliberately exclude me from the 2022 budget presentation by the governor. I told the speaker all these but he said NO, that in fact, the matter was 80 percent solved, remaining just 20 percent to be solved. I said when you have gotten 80 percent that means it is above pass mark and you cannot be denying my people, my constituency a voice in the house
When was this conversation?
This conversation I am telling you was in September, 2021 and the budget was in December, 2021. I told him that I won’t want the public to look at the House as not doing anything or give the impression that it is anything that comes from the executive that the House carries out. I also talked about not allowing the public have the picture of a rubber stamp House of Assembly of us. Let us do the needful. He promised that it was going to be resolved, that I needed to be patient. He even gave the example of former House member, Hon. Iliyasu in the 8th Assembly who was also suspended then. I told him my own was different. Why my case is different is because Iliyasu and the other members of the 8th Assembly belonged to the same party while I belong to a different party in the present Assembly.
So they sat on the budget without you?
No, I am coming to that. I now told him that since he would not allow me to be attending the plenary, I would be at the gallery watching the proceedings. He said I should not do that. I insisted that is what I would be doing, at least to give my people a sense of belonging. I told him that anything they were doing, I would be able to feed my people back through the gallery from the presentation at the plenary. He said he just does not want me to be around the Assembly. I said I can’t just stand like that because my people will be asking me questions and I need to get back to them. So I attended three plenaries through the gallery. When they now made announcement that coming Wednesday, there would be budget presentation, I decided on that day that on my own I must not be left out of the budget presentation, I must be there. So I came very early to the House of Assembly, sat on my seat and everybody met me. They drove everybody out and wanted to drive me out too. I told them the seat was allocated to me and there is no official notification to me, even on my suspension, it was just on the floor of the House. There was no official communication of the resolution of the House to me up till now. So I have every right to be at the meeting. So when they could not go further they allowed me to be. Yes, I sat with them, though they rough-handled me, and badly too. A member among them by name, Owolabi assaulted me physically in the presence of the Kwara State Commissioner of police. So I had to take my time and appealed to the people from my constituency that those are things that do happen and the fact that they didn’t need to foment trouble. This State is known for peace. I told them that anything that happens at the plenary is between members and not members of the public.
Were you able to contribute anything to the budget proceedings?
Yes, the presentation of the budget is usually the Governor’s affair, while we will listen. So the second meeting they had, I attended that one too, but when I wanted to attend that one, there was a standing instruction that the Police, Civil Defence and SSS should not allow me to enter the Chambers. I told the security men that they don’t have the right. So I sat at the second meeting. The third one, which was second reading of the budget and which by general principles allows each member to talk about the budget became something else. They blocked everywhere, even with the police and thugs.
So I had to go and enter the Assembly through another road. There is another road that leads to the Assembly. I managed to find my way to the plenary. When I got in, I found out that the seat allocated to me had been removed. So I sat on the table allocated to me. I raised my hand to contribute to the plenary, but I was not called, it was on that day they brought the report of the committee that looked into my suspension. It was that day they slammed another 14days suspension on me to be away from legislative sittings. So that was it. We are still on that till today.
How do you feel being in this situation in the hands of the house leadership?
You cannot erase politics from what is going on now because we are all politicians. As peace loving Kwarans and as a stakeholder, I have to keep calm and advise my constituents to keep calm too, because we cannot afford a civil unrest and most importantly, that we won’t be the cause of any unrest that could lead the state to unpalatable situation.
Please keep a date with the second part
Comments powered by CComment