‘You dropped the ball there’

Lawal Ogienagbon

ONE of the big revelations in this present administration is Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, who did not hide his interest in occupying that office from the word go. If truth must be told, he has not disappointed so far. We got a taste of what to expect from him shortly after he was elected to lead the House of Representatives last June.

Without mincing words, he said he would step on toes, if need be, adding: “we will shake the table”. The Number 4 Citizen has been doing just that. Through his acts and omissions, he has shown that being in government does not mean that you should not do what is right by the people.

Thus,  we should not shy away from saying so, if he is doing what is right. Not many in his position can do what he is doing. We have seen how Speakers before him acted.

To say that Gbajabiamila has brought a breath of fresh air to that office will be an understatement. Less than a year in office, he has shown that the Speaker must speak for the people and not the government of which he is a part.

He does not spare top government officials who appear before the lawmakers. He asks them the hard questions, thereby putting them on the spot. Check: Hajia Sadiya Farouk and Dr Osagie Ehanire, ministers of Humanitarian Affairs,  Disaster Management & Social Development,  and Health, respectively. Farouk and Ehanire had no answers to the questions he asked them.

Farouk could not give details about the social integration programme,  just as Ehanire could not say if health workers who are in the frontline of the Coronavirus war were being paid hazard allowance.

The minister, who claimed that the health workers were only taking temperature and all that,  said: “I don’t know if they are being paid hazard allowance”. The Speaker retorted: “How can that be when you say the Coronavirus is novel. You dropped the ball there, honestly”.