By Sunny Anderson Osiebe...
Hon. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje is the
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this
interview with the Publisher of HallowMace Magazine, Sunny Anderson Osiebe, she
speaks on the functions of the Committee and other sundry issues.
Brief
introduction
My name is Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, a
member representing Bende Federal Constituency. Am from Abia state and I’m the
Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and a third term
member of House of Representatives.
As
an experienced lawmaker, how would you define lawmaking?
Let me start by saying that Democracy
goes way beyond the conduct of elections, the counting of votes, installation
of a Government. In a democracy, there has to be a legislature. The legislature
for me is a one pivotal cradle of any Democracy. Now, you cannot speak of Democracy
without the rule of law, you cannot speak to the rule of law without the formation
of laws. For us to have a Democracy that is very active and entrenched, you
must have a body that makes laws. Lawmaking or the functions of the legislature
are in three folds, there is Lawmaking, there is representation and there is
also an attraction of equitable development to our constituency. Now, in
Nigeria what we have is representative democracy, in my constituency for
instance, there is a large population of people in my constituency of about
300,000, my job is to collate aggregate opinion of critical people in my constituency
and then come to the centre and make laws that hopefully will impact them in a
way that makes them feel better integrated in the country.
The process of lawmaking is one that
is very hard and I must say that in the National Assembly which is our core
function, there is the first reading of the bill, second reading of the bill,
to the public hearing and diverse opinions are collated on a particular subject
matter and of course with a lot of expertise hopefully to formulate laws that
are all encompassing, enduring and will stand the test of time. For me, it is
often greatly believed that without a legislature there is no democracy. The
legislature is the arm of Government that speaks for the people. The
legislature is the first arm of government in a Democracy, it is pivotal and
central.
What
are the functions of the Foreign Affairs Committee?
Every country has two policies, its
Domestic Policy and its Foreign Policy. Now, with regards to the Domestic Policy,
we have so many arms of government or organs of government. We have the
Ministry of Works, Ministry of Petroleum, and so on but the Foreign Affairs
Ministry is the only Ministry that has to do with Countries Foreign Policy. The
Committee on Foreign Affairs has a job of ensuring that our country's Foreign Policy
works seamlessly. The job of the Committee on Foreign Affairs or the areas of
jurisdiction of Committee on Foreign Affairs is one; International congresses
with other countries, Engagement with other countries generally.
The job of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs and all other Committees in the House of Representatives is to
oversight laws, appropriations and policies. What is the country's foreign
policy right now? We have a foreign policy that speaks a Foreign Direct Investment,
which speaks to citizen’s diplomacy. I will quote President Muhammadu Buhari at
his inauguration that says “Nigeria is willing to serve in any leadership
positions she finds herself”. Nigeria's Foreign Policy also speaks to Migration
policy, our Defence policy, our Growth policy, our Planning policy, Population
policy, Climate change policy and the job of Foreign Affairs Committee is to
ensure that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs drives those policies in the way
that works with the policy of Government. It is our job to ensure that whatever
we appropriate, we ensure that it is spent and it is applied for the reasons it
has been set.
Nigeria also plays a very strong leadership
role regionally. The Committee on Foreign Affairs must oversight and make sure that
Nigeria continues to maintain her central role in the leadership of that
region. Another thing that we do is overseeing Nigeria congresses and Nigeria
belongs to myriads of international institutions like the United Nations, African
Union, my Committee is to ensure that Nigeria's role is protected in tandem
with the Nigeria's foreign policy objective.
Of course part of our jurisdiction
as well is pilgrimages, Nigeria is a very religious country and we oversee the
pilgrimages of both the Christians and the Muslims. To that end, the Committee
on Foreign Affairs is very involved in that. Repatriation is another thing, in
a country of about 180 million people, repatriation is something that must
necessarily happen when you have very migratory 180 million people and so we
ensure that we look at the agreements, welfare of Nigerians who live outside of
the country. Generally; those are things the Committee on Foreign Affairs does.
But basically, it is to ensure that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is the
driver of Nigeria's foreign policy does so in the best interest of our country.
As
the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, what
legislative agenda do you have for this committee?
Let me tell you, I think that the
greatest thing Nigeria suffers or our mission suffers is inadequate funding. It
is very tragic that 0.05% of the National Budget is committed to Nigeria's
foreign policy. The platform for the comity of Nations is one that you must
show strength and the only vehicle that through which we show that presence is
by our missions. It's about prestige and one of the issues that have always
been central to my focus is improved funding for our foreign missions. Wherever
there's an economic recession or wherever a country finds itself in economic glut,
the first budgetary fact that you stream should be one on foreign policy.
The benefits of Foreign policy
sometimes are not tangible, they are not like roads, schools or hospitals or
things you can see but the truth of the matter is that in engaging with other
countries or comity of Nations, it is important that we commit enough money to
our foreign policy if indeed we want to be the leaders as it were in the region
and in the sub-region. For me, one of the things I’m looking at is improved
funding, unfortunately it is very difficult for us to speak improved funding at
a time where harsh economic realities stare us in the face but if we are
looking for investors then we must have a very robust trade desk.
We must have Nations that says to
the people that we are available to be traded with and this is the time where
I’m looking for the introduction of Foreign Direct Investment. Now, Technical
Aid is another thing that we oversight as a Committee. Our plan as the
legislative agenda as far as Technical Aid is concerned is to amend the law and
it is something that we started in the 7th Assembly. We want to amend
the law for it to encompass most of the countries in Africa, Caribbean and the
Pacific. We have come to realize that one way in which Foreign Policy can
actually be driven or your country can be sold is through more informal means
and one area of that is legislative diplomacy.
We have found out that every
Nigerian who's over a certain age knows how much Nigeria worked to roll back apartheid
in South Africa but unfortunately a lot of South Africans are not aware and so
because I believe that the xenophobia attacks on Nigerian businesses and
Nigerian people would be reduced if indeed the people or citizens of South
Africa understood because at the top of the post level or at the levels of the
President, they are always very friendly but that friendship does not trickle
down to the institutions nor does it trickle down to the citizenry and of
course if we know and indeed we know that the legislators are the people that
will fuel the thought processes of their people and that we believe that more
engagements with those legislators there via friendships is going to ensure
that there is more understanding of the countries and the people and therefore
a greater understanding and probably better synergy in the world.
Another issue that we are looking at
is that we have come to a place where we must start to recognize that a foreign
policy without a Defence policy doesn't work. Defence policy without a strong Foreign
policy is almost tainted. So, I think we are also at a place where we are
trying to find out a way to synergize between our Climate Change Foreign Policy
and Migration policy, because Climate Change is tied into Migration, Migration
is tied into Security issue, Security issues of course have a large component
on Foreign policy, Foreign policy has a large component on Migration issues
especially now as we battle global terrorism.
We realize that we live in a world
increasingly without borders and so there is so much cross Migration, when you
speak to the fact that Boko haram for instance has its leanings with Al-Qaeda,
ISIS, Alshabab and you come to realize that we cannot have a Foreign policy
that doesn't speak to our Migration policy, that doesn't speak to our Climate Change
policy and that does not speak to our Defence policy. We are also looking at
integration between those three policies in such a way that protects our
country. We also see that a lot of the things that happens abroad have
implications on our Homeland Security and a lot of things happening in Nigeria
have a lot of implications on International politics and International
security. Another thing we are looking at is to be preemptive as regards to
protecting our missions abroad and this a lot speaks to funding. One of the
things that this Committee is seriously looking at now is securing more
security for our missions especially in volatile states. We have seen in
several states and we also saw recently in South Sudan; wars escalate very
quickly and it also deescalates very quickly.
Another thing we are doing is
working with the Ministry with the hope that we are able to have a quick 48hrs
response time in the case that needs evacuation of Nigerian citizens in the countries
that are volatile. There is so much to do; we are reviewing the visits of Mr
President to America, China, and to other Countries, and what the implication
is on our country and the treaties we entered into, and what the implications
are on our homeland. That is the ambitious legislative agenda in a nutshell for
the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
It
is on record that you expedited the Petroleum Industry Bill, are you not
worried that the passage is taking longer time in the House of Representatives?
I don't want to take credit for the
PIB bill. In the recent past my name was amongst the co-authors but we have our
concerns. It speaks to our diversification, even resort in foreign circle that
Nigeria was about to pass the PIB bill increased the confidence in Nigeria, the
investors’ confidence. Yes, it is something that is of great interest to us and
it is also something that is of concern and the House of Representatives is
already in the process of working on the PIB. Now, sometimes a lot of people expect
that PIB it is pivotal hitherto Nigeria was basically a petrol state, petroleum
was our mainstay until petroleum left us and now we have to diversify. But
everybody comes up that we need to unbundle NNPC.
I also think that it calls for a
pivotal role, there is a process and I’m aware that about two weeks ago at a
stakeholders meeting at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja all the stakeholders in
the oil delivery service and exploration came to speak about their own
inclusion into the PIB bill. It is work in progress and very pivotal piece of
legislation, we recognize that time is of the essence but I believe that we
must do a proper job and I also believe that it is something that supposed to
speak to the host communities, and all stakeholders involved.
There are so many components to it
like the local content, there is a component that has to do with the host
communities like I said, and there is a component that has to do with taxes. It
is a very wide bill and it is a bill that touches on so many things and it also
touches on the livewire of Government. It is one thing that has to be done
piecemeal. It is constructive piecemeal in such a way that all the stakeholders
and every person’s interest are captured in the bill. It is moving along slowly
but it is moving and I believe that before the end of this session, the PIB
bill will be passed.
How
many Bills and Motions have you sponsored or moved so far in this present 8th
National Assembly?
With regards to bills, right now the
bill that I have and that has actually come to the floor of the House is the
one on "anti-trust in broadcasting". Of course, “Proliferation of
light weapons and ammunition commission bill”, there is the “Public officers
protection Act” those are still the ones that are actually in the offing but
the ones that have actually been debated and have been committed to the
committee is the one on “anti-trust law in broadcasting” and that is something
I’m very passionate about.
The former speaker of the House,
Aminu Tanbuwal made a point that sometimes is not about how many bills, it is
about important bills and the passion about the bill. I have never been a bill
turner, I have never been one of those who would say I have sponsored 21 bills
but the bills I have sponsored are bills that are very dear to my heart. The
bills I’m very passionate about. I will speak about anti-trust laws, everybody
talks about deregulation in the broadcast industry but there are no codified
set of laws in which we opened up the market but the truth of the matter is that
unless there are anti-trust laws then it means that we would not be able to
open up markets that attracts smaller businesses because whether you like it or
not the bigger more established businesses are going to sniff the lives out of
them.
We cannot have a deregulation
without laws that tells you how to deregulate and I think that is exactly what
is about.
Proliferation of small arms light
weapons, that's something I’m very passionate about, with all the wars around
the world, with us not cleaning the theatres of violence, with us, signing the
treaty on gun laws and the arms deal treaty. Not having a whole commission that
speaks to proliferation of small arms and light weapons, where Nigeria has
turned to a dumping ground and our military have gone to Sambisa Forest, the
entire Northeast was a war zone, what happened to the arms that were there and
the mop up? Those are the things I’m very passionate about and I’m going to see
that these bills are passed into law. I think for me what will be more pleasing
is the day I see those bills signed into law with my name as the author.
What
do you really think is the cause of the recession and what possible way would
you advocate?
So many people have talked about why
we got into recession, we didn't save enough, we didn't plan enough and the
crisis in the oil industry, the fall of the naira, the lack of planning, waste
in Government. The Senate and the House concurred with a plan with several
components as to what the executive arm of Government should do and am sure
that the executive arm of Government must be in the driving seat to getting us
out of it. What the National Assembly can do is to create pieces of legislation
that would help the executive arm of government to achieve their plan.
The concern we have is that and I
made the point on the floor of the House the other day, I said we found
discordant tunes coming out from the executive arm of Government. We found a
situation where the fiscal policies are not aligned with the economic policies,
the economic policies are not aligned with the planning policies, they are all
in disagreement and so basically that is the reason why Nigerians are a bit
scared because we do not see synergy. What we would like to see is a synergized
articulation of a short and long term plan, midterm projection and a long
benefits of whatever hosterity measures or whatever projections we need to do
and what it is that we need to do in the immediate so as to get out from this
recession.
What is the plan? Obviously from a
legislative view point is to come up with pieces of legislation based on a synergized
economic policy by the executive arm of Government where the National Assembly
will come up with whatever legislation that will give feelings to whatever the
policy direction is.
President
Muhammadu Buhari recently set up a Committee on Electoral reform, which area do
you think the Committee should lay emphasis on?
The truth of the matter is that we
have to recognize the need to strengthen our institutions. You can't have an independent
electoral body that is not independent, that is improperly constituted. We have
come to a place where we have gone so far yet I see us retrogressing. The
reason is based on empirical evidence. In the last couple of elections, a new
word has been added to our electoral lexicon "inconclusive
elections". I’m very concerned because in the last general election under
professor Jega, we were saying that the issues were about the efficacy of the
card reader. We have gotten to the place where we are getting technologically
advanced even in running our elections.
We are looking at electoral reforms
to the extent that our elections will be seamless, that the expectations of the
elections would be seamless in Nigeria. We have come to a place where we have retrogressed
to inconclusive elections. To me, I’m very concerned about every spectra of the
Independence of INEC, the return that comes out of INEC inspire a lot of people
who are running elections, the way parties bring forth their candidates,
select, elect whoever they like as their candidates. I think that whatever
progress we have made in the last 16 years we have lost in the last couple of
months.
I think we need to look back at the
entire electoral structure, there's no part that says we have made progress
here or we are looking better here. I found out that the conversations around
the electoral process are such that they are making people loose some kind of
confidence in whatever gain we have made in the last 16 years, which have been
lost unfortunately. We must look at the sanctions for electoral offences, are
the penalties a little bit relaxed or should there be any new one? We have to
look at everything to the election proper. Another thing is Diaspora voting and
if we are having inconclusive elections in the House of Assemblies, then how
are we going to collate the Diaspora votes in a way that is transparent and
fair. A total overhaul of the institutions, structures and system must be looked
into.
What
has been your greatest challenge as a Federal lawmaker?
My greatest challenge is that Nigerians
have no appreciation for the National Assembly and that is not their fault, it
is because we have fallen into the trap of the tragedy of the singles story in
capturing what work the National Assembly does, everybody says they are
thieves, the National Assembly should be part-time, the National Assembly
should be scrapped and today nobody takes into account the fact that the
National Assembly passes the laws that guides this country. Nobody take cognizance
of the fact that we stand here on a daily basis and come up with petitions that
speak with the down trodden Nigerians, nobody speaks to the fact that we as
Representatives of the people have fought to include into the budget something
that ensure that there is equitable distribution of Federal projects even to
our local communities. In my constituency, most of the new projects are Federal
projects, the projects that were attracted from the centre. It's unfortunate
that we have fallen into the tragedy of the singles. There is also the good
part in the National Assembly that ensures they speak to the freedoms of the
people. I will give you an example, under the last administration, there is
this much talk about Petroleum subsidy, it was the National Assembly that waded
in, when there was the need for us to have a state of emergency in the Northeastern
states for us to liberate the Northeastern states, it was the National Assembly
that waded in and when there was almost a constitutional crisis in the death of
late President Yar'adua, it was the National Assembly that waded in and the
list goes on and on. When Nigerian women were turned back in Saudi Arabia, it
was the National Assembly that waded in, when Nigerians were stranded in Gabon
it was the National Assembly that waded in and even the recent strike that came
up with the removal of the petroleum subsidy, it was again the National
Assembly that waded in and so the National Assembly does not work? What are my
challenges? My challenges are trying to constantly justify to people and they
have every reason to be upset because of the reportage of the National Assembly
but let us not get thrown into the tragedy of the singles story. Nigerians must
start to look at our democracy synonymous as the National Assembly is
synonymous to our democracy.
What
is your relationship with your constituents?
Let the fact speak for itself, I
have been elected three times. I have a great relationship with my constituents
and I feel the pulse of my people. It's a very close relationship and the love
is mutual. Representing my people is not just a work but a passion.
What
is your take on the recent invasion on some Judges by the DSS?
In the words of Barack Obama, Africa
does not need strong men it needs strong institutions. Now, are they corrupt? I
don't know that, you are innocent until proven guilty. I believe that democracy
as I said earlier is about structures; it is about institutions and is about
processes.
This is one issue that has sharply
divided Nigerians, Pundits, Intellectuals and Lawyers.
I believe that we cannot tear down
our institutions, break down the very institutions that ensure the freedoms
that we have as a people and expect those institutions to speak for us when we
need them to speak. We cannot in executing corruption to corrupt our
institutions, I do not believe anybody who's corrupt, quote and quote should be
allowed to go scot-free but I believe that every institution must have certain
rules. We have laws, the NJC, if the NJC is ineffectual let us strengthen it. If
the NJC identifies members of the judicial body whose conduct maybe less than
above boards then let us strengthen the NJC to do the work they must do. I do
not believe that violence after structures and institutions is the way to go;
you know everybody has spoken to one phrase and they call it the Gestapo style.
On whatever side of the divide you
may stand, the most important thing in any society is the law, Olisa Abgbakoba
pointed out that DSS is not even known to the law, that what we have in our
statue books is the SSS and if we are going by the law, those people that
invaded the houses of the judges under whatever guise are not even known to the
law and there is no democracy without the rule of law, there is no rule of law
without freedom and we cannot corrupt our freedom. By all means let us cleanse
our society of corruption; I believe that corruption is the bane of our society
but must be within the confines of the law.
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