By: Kayode Odunaro
On June 9, 2018, the 8th Senate clocked three years in a government that marked the first time an opposition party is mounting the saddle as ruling government after an election in Nigeria. It has indeed been a novel period in our history seeing a ruling party transformed into opposition and vice versa.
For elected representatives in Legislative Houses with four year tenure, three years down the line is a good point to look how it will all end in terms of delivery on the mandates bestowed by the people. It is much like a student undergoing a 4 year degree course in the university. By the end of third year, it will be pretty clear, barring “Act of God”, if the student will end the programme with a First Class, Second Class(Upper/Lower), Third Class or “Let My People Go” Pass Degree. At the end of third year a total failure is not objectively contemplated or possible as the student would have been withdrawn at some points earlier.
It is in this light that one would attempt to look at one unique representatives’ performance in the last three years at the highest legislative body in Nigeria, the Senate and see if he measures up for passing in flying colours. The senatorial district he represents is unique in several respects and could indeed be taken as a microcosm of Nigeria. Lagos West Senatorial District of 10 unwieldy Local Governments Areas, representing half of Lagos State, is unarguably the largest senatorial district in Nigeria with a population of over 12 million constituents. It stretches from the State Capital, Ikeja through Oshodi, Alimosho (most populous Federal Constituency) Mushin, Ajegunle, Festac Town, Ojo and right up to Badagry at Nigeria border with Benin Republic. Representing this area with virtually all tribes of Nigeria present in at least hundreds of thousands is a herculean task considering that each senatorial district in Nigeria have equal rights and entitlements. Some districts have less than a quarter of the population of Lagos West whose population is greater than that of some states in the Federation.
When Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola aka Yayi was popularly elected a senator in the 2015 National Assembly elections, many that knows his antecedents as a legislator both at the Lagos State House of Assembly for two terms and a member of the House of Representative for a term, were sure that Lagos West would not be disappointed in their choice. Doubts were however expressed that with a population of over 12 million representing over half of Lagos State mega city, Yayi may find it challenging effectively representing the district in the Red Chamber. He did but that did not stop him putting in a “good day’s work” in the last three years in all the critical areas of the function of a legislator.
The doubts were further reinforced by the crisis that bedeviled the leadership election at the Senate which saw Senator Adeola rooting for the party position with intrigues and fallouts that denied him his rightful position even in the traditional ranking of positions in the Senate. On the sideline was the costly distraction of an election petition by the PDP and its candidate that went right up to the final appeal before his popular mandate was further judicially validated. And within the three years covered by this summary, the nation fell into a recession which impact vitiated otherwise effective representation.
These circumstances notwithstanding, Senator Adeol
On his primary function law maker and in furtherance of his belief that we have enough laws that are not operational or needs to be amended to bring them up to date instead of making new laws, he has presented a bill “Federal Capital Territory Act Cap F6, LFN (Amendment) Bill, 2015” to correct the anomaly of double taxation affecting Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory. And let it be known that it is not only bills presented or supported that a senator is assessed in a democracy. Their opposition to the passage of some laws or motions affecting the interest of their constituents and people also counts. In this wise, Senator Adeola opposed the now dead Social Media Bill that wanted to criminalize use of social media under the guise of curbing frivolous petitions. He also kicked against the attempt of GSM Service Providers to increase tariff for data.
The Senator however caused not a small stir in the course of the second year as a senator with the introduction of 14 Constitutional Amendment bills. These 14 amendment bills were aimed at addressing various issues that ails our constitution or provisions that need adjustment to take in realities of the present and future times. Twelve of the bills were successfully introduced, passed the first reading and were committed to the Constitutional Review Committee for further legislative work in accordance with Senate Standing Rules.
One such is a “Bill for an Act to Alter The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Guarantee Freedom of Speech and Legislative Actions of Members of the National Assembly”. Another amendment bill of his is Bill No.SB 345 which seeks to prevent torture or inhuman or degrading treatment like parading of suspects by police, stripping of arrested person in detention of their cloths or using sticks, whips, baton, guns or any other form of torture to extract evidence from suspects. It is noteworthy that two of these bills were among the 23 passed by the National Assembly for further constitutional processing.
In the area of legislation for educational development, Yayi introduced two bills for the upgrade of two polytechnics, namely Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos and Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State to the level of a degree awarding universities of technology. The two bills have passed first reading and will soon be debated to pass second reading. So far, Senator Adeola has single handedly introduced 15 bills to the 8th Senate while co sponsoring many others including the Sexual Harassment Bill and Special Status for Lagos Bill.
In the area of motions ,Senator Adeola was the sponsor of the motion to ‘‘Investigate Revenue Generating Agencies over alleged Leakages, Non Remittance and Misuse of Generated Revenue’’, which led to the inauguration of an ongoing Senate Ad Hoc Committee that he chairs, to investigate all revenue generating agencies. Adeola also sponsored the “Motion for Legislative Investigation of Local Content Elements and Cost Variation of the Egina Oil Field Project and other Related Matters” which was passed and the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the issue headed by him has since made startling revelations of ploys to possibly shortchanged Nigerian in the $16 Billion offshore oil project contrary to Nigeria Local Content Law. Adeola was also the sponsor of the “Motion to Investigate the Collapse of Etisalat following inability to Pay Multi- Billion Dollar Loan” which led to an ongoing investigation by a Senate Committee. It is noteworthy that all these motions led to investigations to expose corruption or inefficiency which indeed is the role of a legislator in oversight duties.
Senator Adeola has successfully presented 5 petitions to the Senate and one of the petitions has been fully resolved in a case of injustice against one constituent Sgt. Amos Olaniyan. He was verbally suspended from the Nigerian Police Force 21 years ago for an offence that a Police Orderly Room trial has since exonerated him. The Senate has adopted the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Petition and its Resolution ordered the IGP to apologize, reinstate, promote and pay Sgt. Olaniyan all salaries and allowances due him. He has since been reinstated and is processing his papers for payment of salaries from 1994 to 2015. With the reinstatement, he was retired and is due to collect gratuities and pension.
Furthermore, he contributed and fully represented Lagos West Senatorial District in the confirmation of ministers for the Federal Government, the chairman of FIRS, the heads of NCC, AMCON and in the deliberations to approve the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Appropriation Bills. He also contributed to the debate and was part of the Senate team that visited Lagos State in furtherance of approval of a Second Tranche of $200 million out of a $600 million World Bank loan for infrastructure development in Lagos State. The Senate and the Federal Executive Council have since approved the loan for Lagos State Government.
As it is his practice as a representatives’ over the years he have continued his goodwill gesture to reach out to leaders and members as well as other critical stakeholders in the senatorial district during festive periods to the best of his ability and of the resources available. Of course the usual undocumented transfer payment for school fees, house rents, naming ceremonies, burials etc of some constituents are regular occurrences that needs no trumpet blowing.
However it is in the area of empowerment that Senator Adeola greatly excelled in the last three years. In recognition of the vastness of his district and the fact that locating a project in an area will marginalized other areas, Adeola adopted the approach of spreading his empowerment across all parts evenly to avoid accusation of favouritism. He mobilized and paid for the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, JAMB examination for 500 indigent but brilliant students for 2016 university admission programme. The format adopted in terms of pre qualification tests was to ensure that a high success rate is achieved in this educational empowerment for our constituent youths. He granted 56 tertiary institution scholarships distributed evenly across Lagos West. The scholarship is to run for 4 years. He also facilitated Entrepreneur Development Training Programme for 500 youths of Lagos West with beneficiaries spread across the district.
In the area of infrastructure development of his district in assisting and complementing the efforts of Lagos State and Federal Government, Senator Adeola donated 10 Nos of 500KVA transformers to a community in each of the 10 LGAs that made up Lagos West. The Senator has sunk 28 Boreholes spread across 28 LCDAs of the district. The Senator also donated several 18- Seater Toyota Buses to Lagos West stakeholders including Obas, the Council of Baales Lagos West Senatorial District, the CDC, the Christian Association of Nigeria, Lagos State University, LASU, Lagos State Student Union, the League of Imams amongst others.
Other empowerment of the Senator includes 300 Grinding Machines, 380 Sewing Machines, 150 2-KVA Generators, 120 Hair Dryers with stands, 250 Hand Held Dryers, 250 Clippers, 500 Helmets, 44 wheelchairs, 500 Lifejackets for Distribution to riverine LGAs, 40 Modern Vulcanizing Machines, 40 Welding Machines, 10 Tricycle and 25 Block Molding Machine as part of employment creation and entrepreneur development scheme.
No wonder a popular magazine recently adjudged him as “Senator of the Year 2016” in the years under review while the Senate Press Corps gave him the “Best Senator from South West Award 2017”. As it is, Yayi has done his best to ensure he get nothing less than a political Second Class (Upper) from his ‘scores’ at the end of third year considering he gets the same allocation as any other Senator with negligible population of constituents. Certainly as we enter another era of political campaign for offices, he is set for any elective office he desires with such a sterling record in office in the humongous Lagos West.
