Dele Anofi and Victor Oluwasegun spoke with Da’u Aliyu Magaji, who has declared interest to contest for the office of the Deputy Speaker of the 9th House, and report
HE was first elected into the House of Representatives in 2015 to represent Birnin Kudu/Buji Federal Constituency in Jigawa State. His re-election in the just concluded polls suggests his constituents’ trust and confidence in his quality representations at the parliament. Apart from being a good ambassador of his people, he has equally proved, with his short stint, that he is a true patriot and strong believer in Nigerian project.
His robust contributions both in the plenary and at the Committees stand him out. Saying that he is eminently qualified for the office of the Speaker, Magaji noted that his ambition was to add value to the office of the Deputy Speaker and change the erroneous notion associated with such offices. He said: “As long as the requirement is to be voted into and my people have voted for me and our rules provided that as far as you are an honorable member, you can contest for the position. But I know people will ask me why not the Speaker? Why Deputy? I realised that people underrate the position of a Deputy Chief but I believe the deputy is not a spare tyre. That office is key to the progress of the Speaker or the Governor or the President. If you look at the relationship between the current Vice President and the President, you will find that the Deputy is not idle. It depends on your principal. So, I believe there is so much I will do as a Deputy Speaker. You see, I am of the opinion and a strong advocate of separation of powers. So, if the Speaker is so engulfed in running affairs of the House, day-to-day, the deputy can be a source of communication with other arms of government.
There must be a window of interaction between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. So, I feel if I become a deputy, I’m here to add value and to do things differently. I’m qualified to be the Speaker. I feel eminently qualified, but you see, in politics, there is what they called zoning and I’m an advocate of party discipline. If you realise or you all understood that we are voted not based on our name, nobody has his name on the ticket or on the ballot, so it is your party’s name. So, if the party is zoning it to my constituency or to my zone, I would like to contest for the deputy but I’m also qualified to vie for the Speaker’s office”.
A bridge builder and team player, a detribalised Nigerian, he most of the time does not want to talk about ethnicity or tribe. Magaji sees himself more as a southerner than a northerner and proudly tells you that he has more brothers and associates in Southern Nigeria than he does in Northern Nigeria. This could be because he had most of his higher educations as well as his enterprise in the South-west.
It is in view of this that he stressed that party decision on the sharing formula is not negotiable for him, staying, “Yes, the moment they come out and say A B C D. I’m not interested in what is given to my zone if it is not the Deputy Speakership. My dream is to be a Deputy Speaker, because I feel that’s where I can add value and influence. I have a lot of ideas. How come there is no press club for members of National Assembly Press Corps? How can there not be an official vehicle for the National Assembly press, how can there not be a way to carry the Press along? I’m really concerned about this because we want people to hear us and see us as we are because many people have great misunderstanding of who we are. If you take into cognisance the amount of pressure honorable members went through or go through, it is enormous, but with the belief in God, we will succeed. But I will never do anything that is against the party”.
The lawmaker, who is a member of House standing committees on Petroleum Downstream; Appropriation; Aviation; Sports; Federal Capital Territory (FCT); and Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) and several ad hoc committees, said he has a focus and is equipped with the temperament to tolerate his colleagues. “My first responsibility is to my colleagues if I’m voted as the Deputy Speaker. Anybody can be anything here. You see, that’s what they call mutual respect. People earn respect, they don’t deserve it. And let me tell you, for the last three and a half years, I’ve been here, I have never been in anything that is out of bounds. Whatever happens on the floor or outside the floor is politics. But I believe I had the capacity to carry my colleagues along. It is like going back home. This is a smaller scale. Those people who voted for you are more temperamental, more daring, more impatient than your colleagues in the House. We never fight among ourselves. What brings friction is interest. And you are here to defend their interest and interest of your people. What brings quarrels is injustice. I’m going to be a just leader. I have started long enough. I had worked in various kinds of government, both public and private. I have interacted with people. If you’re not a politician, you have not gone to school. Politics is entirely a different university. But I want to be seen to be like an Awolowo or Aminu Kano or the Zik, that is, speak the truth, no matter how bitter it is, that they see Nigeria as their constituents. They see themselves as Nigerians first. I don’t see people making money in the parliament, what is in the parliament is the prestige, responsibility and honour that is here.
“Nigerians are the greatest area of my interest. You see, if you come to the National Assembly, you will find out that it is full of knowledge. One of the most important things that we wanted to do and to achieve is to bring unity in this country and this is the best place that you can bring unity, with 360 different people from every part of the country, with great or little knowledge of who the other person is. Laws are made for people. So, no matter how many types of laws you make in that chamber, if there are no people to operate it or to benefit, the work done is zero. So, my own focus is how to bring unity. Then my second focus is to ensure that our people benefit from this country maximally. What I mean by that is equitable share of government resources and opportunities”.
On his chances and the expected role of the opposition parties in the emergence of the principal officers, he expressed confidence of emerging victorious, while adding that APC won’t repeat a past mistake on NASS leadership emergence. “I didn’t come out initially without people asking me please can you consider this. I have been approached by my colleagues. Only today, one of the people that are aspiring came to meet me that he has stepped down for me. So, I feel I have what it takes with our colleagues to vote for me and we have 70 days to June 12 when we will have the next inauguration. So, the job is just starting.
On the role the opposition parties might want to play, APC is not willing to repeat the mistake of the past. Yes, we are not unmindful of that. We have our strategy, we are winning; we know everybody now. So, we’ll begin to count who are with us after zoning. All the scheming is for what? It is for self-interest. People who are politicians, they want to maintain them. People who have greater benefit, they want to continue to have greater benefit. But I feel this time, we will do it differently,” he added.
