We’re repositioning Ondo Assembly Commission –Ogunmade

[Mirror]

Hon. Idowu Ogunmade is the Chairman of the Ondo State House of Assembly Service Commission. In this interview with OJO OYEWAMIDE, the former Majority Leader of the Assembly spoke on issues concerning the commission, the state government and the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State. Excerpts:

What are the functions of your commission?

The role of our commission here is to appoint, to promote and discipline any erring members of staff that is working in the House of Assembly.

Since your appointment as the chairman of the Assembly Commission, what have been the challenges?

There are lots of challenges. When we got here, members of the commission that we met were not applying the law that established the commission. None of our staff should be transferred from this place to any other commission or any other agency or any ministry. And no staff can be transferred to this commission. The commission is to manage its staff, to recruit, to promote and discipline.

So, when we got here, the laws were not applied by those who were in this commission. Immediately we got here, we wrote to the Establishment Department in the Governor's Office and to ministries that they could not transfer any staff to this commission. We issued out forms to those that we met here because this government is not interested in retrenching staff.

Those who are willing to stay and retire in the commission indicated their interest. Those transferred to this place were allowed to go back to their MDAs. In fact, we recorded 99.9 per cent of people that wanted to stay and retire in the commission. We asked them to write in their own handwriting their intention to stay with this commission because we don't want a situation where somebody will just deny tomorrow that they wanted to stay, though we are not saying that anything will happen to them because this is still part of Ondo State.

We found out that the vacancies we had when we got here were those of higher levels. We now advertised for those who are still interested in transferring their service from other MDAs to fill up these vacant positions.

This is what we did and this is what we've been doing because people keep on retiring everyday and we keep on filling all these vacancies. Presently, we are about releasing the list of the people that have signified their intention to transfer their service to this commission.

Another challenge is that this commission is new to many people in the state. Some people believe that it is the commission that manages the honourable members. They cannot differentiate between the functions of the honourable members and this commission. Other challenge we have is the issue of recruiting people.

Like I have said, people thought that there should be vacancies because it is a new commission. We could not ask those we met here to go away. The only thing we did was to retain them. That did not give us room to actually help. The vacancies that we have are in the higher level. I cannot recruit a fresh graduate to a position of level 12 or level 13 or 14 or 15. So, those are some of the challenges that we have.

How about the relationship between the Commission and the Assembly members?

The relationship has been very cordial. We are the ones managing the staff that work with them. The commission is to look for suitable staff that will work in the various departments that we have in the House of Assembly. You know, the honourable members cannot do the work alone without the civil servants. We manage the civil servants; we take care of their careers. We train and retrain them within and outside the country.

There is no honourable member that can be efficient without having these career officers working with them. They are the people that will be secretaries to various committees.

They are the ones that will be doing the work with the honourable members, day and night. So, there is a cordial relationship between the commission and the honourable members, bearing in mind that the chairman and members of the commission are former members of the House of the Assembly.

Since you became the chairman of the commission, what have you achieved?

Like I said, prior to our coming here, members of staff were not promoted. There was a controversy over who were the real staff of the commission before we came in. When we came in, we made sure that the real staff of the commission were known. We did staff auditing and we know our staff.

We know those who belong to us. Since we have been here, we have been doing the promotion as at when due, even earlier than what happens in other MDAs.

The commission is autonomous to appoint, promote and discipline members of staff. Since we have been here, there has been a good relationship between the commission and the House of Assembly members. When we got here, the ruling party was in minority. But in a very short time, it became majority. So, if there wasn't any good relationship between the commission and the House of Assembly members, if there hasn't been any good interaction, this thing would not be made possible.

The Legislature-Executive relationship in many states has not been that good. In the case of Ondo State, how would you describe the relationship between the two organs of government?

I think the relationship has been cordial and it has to be cordial. I always tell people that as a member of the House of Assembly, when you are campaigning and you are telling people to vote for you, what you tell people is that you will use your position in ensuring that roads in your constituency are tarred when you get there. There will be provision of water. There will be provision of electricity. These are the things you promise. There will be free education. We will give you markets; we will give you hospitals. These are the things you promise. When you get there and you see a government that is doing that in your community, what you need to do is to align with that executive. Some people believe that what you do here is to always have a brawl with the executive.

No, it shouldn't be like that. If your constituency is not benefiting from what the government is doing, you can ask questions. If you know your people are not taking any benefit from the government at the time you are there, you can ask ques-tions.

If government does for your people what they need like roads, schools, hospitals, markets etc., you don't have any choice than to cooperate with the executive. If there is a cordial relationship between the legislature and the executive, there must be a reason for that. People don't just go to the floor of the House and start pointing accusing fingers at the executive if what your people need is given to them.

What's your assessment of the present government in the state?

We have to thank God that this state is better than when we came in 2009 and that is what every politician is after. Governor Olusegun Mimiko has used his wisdom, his vision, his initiative to ensure that there is development in Ondo State. Nobody can say that the impact of this government has not been felt in every community in the state.

I stand to be challenged that this government has touched every community, every local government area, that this government has done more than four projects in one particular local government since this government came into power. And this had not been happening before. The governor has opened the eyes of the people of this state.

People now feel that the goal of those coming into government is how to perform and satisfy the people. Those coming behind will have to learn from his performance.

All the projects are physical and real. They are not schools on the television or on pages of newspapers. It is not water running on radio and television, not hospitals on television. No, they are physical projects. They are what you see every day. I give Mimiko 100 per cent.

The belief of some people is that the governor will not perform in his second term. How would you react to this?

People saying this don't know the man they are talking about. This man is a politician. He is not a person begged and brought from London to contest an election here. He has lived all his political life in this state. Do you think he will leave all these projects across the state uncompleted and want other people to come and rubbish him when he must have left?

If he doesn't perform in the second term, how is he going to have a successor that will start from where he stopped? He is not a man that will leave Ondo State for London after he leaves office. He will remain here. He will remain here and monitor what his successor will be doing. I know he will perform more than he did during his first term.

A couple of months back, the Ondo State Election Petition Tribunal affirmed the re-election of Governor Mimiko. But the verdict is now being challenged at the Court of Appeal. Does your party still entertain fear?

It is the right of the opposition parties to challenge the verdict. But they are not going to achieve anything at the Appeal Court. Everybody that was in Ondo State on the day of the election knows that it was the most free and fair election ever conducted in the state. There were no reports of ballot box snatching; there were no reports of thugs invading polling booths that did not allow people to vote.

There wasn't any security report that there was crisis, unlike what happened in 2007. Security operatives were on ground more than we had been experiencing in this state. The tribunal has ruled that the election was free and fair.

The opinion of some people is that the LP in Ondo State was built around Governor Mimiko. What do you think are the chances of the party to survive after the tenure of the governor?

The party will still wax stronger. No doubt about it that when we started, his personality assisted the party. Because of the various positions he has held before and his attitude to people, many joined the party. I want to say that people are still joining LP on daily basis. Why Labour Party will not die is because Mimiko has set the pace. The LP government has done enough unprecedented things that the people of the state cannot forget. So, the party will still wax stronger after the performing governor leaves office.

National Mirror