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Hon. LASUN YUSUF, Former Deputy Speaker, House Of Reps.
There’s a topical issue going on right now, regarding the take-home of the National Assembly members. As a former law maker, what’s your take on this?
My take is that you go there, you ask their salary. That’s all. You want me to tell you how much we earn? Let me answer your question this way. They are the most endangered, and I’m deliberate about it, and I want this one to be high lighted. Anytime you go into Nigerian politics, and you happen to be elected, particularly to the National Assembly, you have become an endangered specie. One, you are doing something before you got elected. That thing, you can no longer do it. When you come back, you can’t fit properly into what you were doing before you left. And so, because of that singular statement I’ve made, you are a journalist. You go and research, take the statistics of politicians that have gone to National Assembly, and come back and see how many of them, or the percentage of them, that can successfully feed themselves after exiting National Assembly. It’s less than 10%.
Why is it so, sir?
Oh, when you are there, it’s a full-time job. And people think you are earning so much there, and they want to collect everything from you. And whether you like it or not, no matter how tough you are, they will succeed in collecting more than 80% of what you earn there from you before you leave. And when you come back, the smooth path into what you were doing before you went there, it’s not going to be easy again.
So, it’s like you are starting life. People don’t look at that. People don’t see it. Please do a research. It’s not much. Just take 50. If you want to do research, I’m ready to sponsor it. Take 50 of former National Assembly members who have gone to National Assembly and look at their life after they left the National Assembly. It’s nothing to write home about. And so, when you go to National Assembly, you become endangered. And that’s why, today, I go to my farm every day. I do little jobs that I can do. And I make sure that I live my ordinary life within the means of what I can afford. And I don’t allow anybody to rate me so high and say, oh, that’s for my deputy speaker. I just walk away, because I know the implication of that. And I don’t have the consequences of, oh, this is the former Deputy Speaker. I know the consequences, and I don’t have it. And people will become your enemy. So, the experience is horrible. It’s bad. And I pity those who are there now. I pity them, because when they come out, 6 months after, they will be living a life lower than the one they were living before they got here.
What’s your advice to the law makers currently on seat?
My advice to them is that when you go to National Assembly, first of all understand your job. It’s tough. Understand your job. Your job are just 3 items. One, even the most important one is Representation, it’s not just law making. So, they are representation, law making and oversight. Confine yourself to those 3 things and don’t give your Constituency the impression that you can bring Hospital, you can bring School, you can bring Bridges, you can do things. When you do that, you have lost it. And when you have lost it, you lose focus. And so what will be primarily in your mind is how to satisfy them. And so, I promised I was going to bring a hospital when you know quite well that you are not in an office, it’s a seat. A member of National Assembly is occupying a seat. It’s not an office. There are 4 people who are occupying offices in National Assembly, just 4. The rest have seats. But even those ones that are occupying offices, the authority of the remainder of the members are donated to them so that they can use it as office. And that is the Senate President, the Speaker, the Deputy Senator and the Deputy Speaker. That office is donated authority, not even delegated. Delegated authority, you can withdraw it. But when you donate, you have donated it. It’s final. And that’s why those 4 are always very powerful. So concentrate on your functions of oversight. And it is in oversight that you can tell the Government that my constituency needs this road. Follow it up. If you can put it in the budget, if you can lobby the relevant ministry or agency to come and put it in your constituency, but don’t let it look like you are the one that can do it. So you should concentrate on that.
Then when you go to National Assembly of Nigeria specifically, don’t think of coming second or third term. Concentrate on the one you are. So that when you concentrate, you always remember that if this one finishes, how do I go back home? So that I don’t get lost. Why people get lost most of the time is that when they get there, they think they can be there for the rest of their life. And when you make that mistake, Nigerian voters, they can be good but they can be wicked. They will suck you dry. They can be good when they want to be good. But when they want to be wicked, they suck you dry. So Nigerian politicians, you have to watch. Don’t go to National Assembly and say, I’m here now. In the next 4 years, I’m coming back. Don’t do that. So that you don’t lose focus. And finally, if you have anything you are doing before you go there, why don’t you put people there to be doing it for you on your behalf? So that when you come back, it will be a smooth entry back into where you left it. If you don’t do all these things, and you get there, you get carried away. I lived in the rented quarters for three and a half years as a Deputy Speaker.
For 3 and a half years, including the first 4 years, I didn’t have a personal house in Abuja. It was when I was leaving, 6 months to the end of my tenure, that some friends came together and said, this is not right. As a former Deputy Speaker in the future. So, when you come to Abuja, you’ll be sleeping in a hotel. I said, what is bad in it? That was when I now went to go and purchase a small house in an estates. So, for seven and a half years in Abuja, I was a tenant. Even as a Deputy Speaker of Nigeria, I was a tenant. I was paying rent for somebody. I never missed my focus for one day, because I know that office will come to an end, and I will come back to come and live a normal life. And I don’t want to be seen and be pitied. So I had to get focused.
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