Former federal lawmaker scores 8th assembly low

A former member of House of Representatives representing Ado-Odo Otta Federal Constituency, Hon Babatunde Ogunola, yesterday described the major challenges facing the legislative arms of Nigerian government as lack of strong political will that would always put the executives on their toes and ensure that they serve only the interest of the people.

Ogunola, popularly known as Tomo made this known while identifying the challenges he faced during the election and the reasons he lost the just concluded elections.

The former federal lawmaker who was also the 2019 Ogun West Senatorial candidate under the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC) explained that there were lot of challenges facing Nigeria as a nation that has not been address by the National Assembly.

He described the 8th Assembly as a rubber-stamp, adding that “whatever the executive bring on board, they dont challenge it, but they just approve it, they let the executive go away with so many things which was not the case during 7th Assembly”.

He disclosed that people have lost confidence in government and there is a need for the 9th Assembly to bridge the gap.

According to him “Cost of living is too high, security is threatening foundation of our existence. There are a lot of things that need to be done.

While identifying the reasons why he lost the Senatorial election, he said “I want to believe that electing people to office should be based on credibility, especially those ones that care about serving the people to have the opportunity of assessing their performances in the office, and then put that into consideration by giving them another opportunity to serve”.

His words “One of the reasons that I have observed is that there is no appreciation in good governance, my observation is that most credible and House of Representatives members as well as senators don’t usually get the opportunity of returning back to the office.

He maintained that in this past election, money played a major role and it boils down to people not appreciating good governance.

“People often neglect the good performances of their elected people into office because I cite myself as an example,  I did well and I performed credibly during my tenure in office.”

He described issue of money bag politics as major challenge most candidates face during the election, explaining that money played a major role as most of the electorates demand money before picking people to vote for saying that this was not to say that he did not spend money for the election but anybody that cannot play with “A lot of money” may not make any headway.

“It is quite few places that people emerged without spending a lot of money, very few, I cannot even associate any state or any constituency that do not spend tremendously in this particular election.

“Imagine, a party that came up between a months to the election and they want a huge votes because they spend a lot of money, they do a lot of vote buying, but we that are willing to serve are not compatible with them, so money played a major role, he insisted”

While answering question if he will still contest the same position in 2023, he said, “Everything lies with the almighty God. Nobody is sure of what is going to happen in the next one hour talk less of 2023, it all depends on the dictate of the good people of my constituency.

You don’t venture into politics at your own request. It is due to call of serving, so if my service is still needed, I will consider it, he affirmed”