The 10th House of Representatives Minority leader, Rt hon. Kingsley Chinda has said that the opposition parties are ready to provide effective, credible and alternative opposition to ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) dominated house.
The member representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State made this position of the minority parties of the house of reps known in an interacting session with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday
Rt. Hon. Chinda noted that in order to carry out their plans successfully, they have designed a minority caucus agenda, but were unable to start the implementation before now because of the litigations that followed the February 25, National Assembly elections. He insisted that now that the litigations are coming to an end, Nigerians should expect a robust and populace beneficial opposition in the house.
He said for them to achieve the mission and vision of their caucus agenda, they have mapped out plans to have a roundtable with eggheads in the country, and best brains in every field so that their contributions will guide them with facts and figures with which they can present credible opposition on the floor of the House. Indeed, Chinda said, it’s part of their agenda to make parliamentary representation closer to the people.
“We sat down and looked at it critically and decided that the minority position should be one that’ll add, and not just as a watchdog, but also provide credible alternatives. And then it should be a group of people that are deep thinkers. And whatever we do, our interest should be the interest of Nigeria first and foremost, not a personal interest, not for purposes of popularity, not protecting interest. And so, we have also come up with what we called Minority Caucus Agenda, which is a guide to us on what kind of opposition we should present before the House.
“You are all aware that even after the elections up to recently, members of the National Assembly were still litigating. A lot of members were in court have done that they have killed and so that has made it a little bit difficult for us to take on fully, but I can tell you clearly, part of our vision and mission of our programme is still in what we’re doing this morning. We expect that quarterly we’ll have a roundtable with eggheads in the country, the best friends in every field, in every area that will make their contribution in governance and then guide us with facts and figures with which we can present credible opposition on the floor of the House, aside that we also talked about making parliamentary representation closer to the people.
“We’re going to have a one hour programme on radio, television and also have some of you to be part of that programme. We are will allow Nigerians to also give us feedback on whatever we are doing and their feelings concerning issues in the society,”he said.
On the abandonment of Ajaokuta Steel company, he said, it will be difficult for Nigeria as a nation to develop without developing the steel sector, adding that infrastructure will depend heavily on steel therefore as long as we continue to import steel, it will be difficult to develop local industries, car manufacturing industries, and several aspects of construction. However, he assured that attention will be given to that sector very strongly, as much as power and other sector
In the same vein, Chinda supported the call by the for president, Goodluck Jonathan on the need to scrap off-cycle election, saying that the off-cycle elections has been beneficial to only the executive; governors.
He explained that, for the legislature even if they got their judgement a day to the expiration of their tenure, they will definitely vacated offices as others are going, but not the case with governors who will run a fresh four years.
“There is already a bill that we’re processing to unify the electoral system. So I agree with the former President Goodluck Jonathan. The off-cycle election has not been helpful to us. If you look at it critically, it is just for the benefit of the individual involved. Not just the larger society. You have a situation where you begin to plan for elections almost all year round. And if we continue that way Nigeria will continue to be in election in the next four years, because we expect that we’ll have more off-cycle elections as elections are being nullified by the judiciary and fresh elections conducted.
“On Tuesday some people were sworn in. So if we go by that trend, what it means is that they will come after us. So I think that the proper thing for us to do is both the legislature and the executive, at any point in time that you are sworn in, at the end of the term, everybody goes and the election is conducted. So I agree with Jonathan that there is a need for us to look inwards. Let us completely scrap off-cycle elections.
