Daily Independent Online.
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Monday, August 16, 2004.
N25b capital base for banks is too ambitious -Ajata
Hon. Joseph Jaiyeola Ajata is perhaps
the oldest member of the House of Representatives from Lagos State, and as such,
naturally emerged the leader of the Lagos caucus in the House. The banker
turned politician represents Alimosho, Oshodi and Isolo Federal Constituency of
the nation’s commercial nerve centre in the House. Ajata's vibrancy in
the House populated by mostly youthful members however betrays his age. In this
interview with National Assembly
Correspondent, Uchenna Awom, the legislator brought out the wisdom in
him as an emerging senior citizen and cautioned the Federal Government to be
wary of hard stance, pointing out the fact that what is at stake is the welfare
of the people. In the same way he advised another foe of Governor Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, Adeseye Ogunlewe, who is the minister of works, to stop the umbrage and
allow the governor to concentrate in the art of governing the state. Excerpts:
How would you describe the
activities of the House in the past legislative year?
So far, so good. In the last one
year, we have been able to treat about 99 bills with the majority of them
passed, though some of them are still at the committee level. But so far, I
feel we have done better.
As a lawmaker from Lagos State
now locked in a legal battle with the Federal Government over the seizure of
the council funds, and failure to comply with the court’s order that the
withheld money should be released, what would you say about the development?
I should say the case is still in
court. So to give an opinion on it will not be conducive, because the court has
not actually given a decision. What the court said was that the lawyer handling
the case for the Federal Government should go and speak to the President and
get his opinion whether he will be able to allow the payment to be made. So the
Supreme Court has not given a ruling. The idea of the court was that since ruling
would not be ready immediately, that the president should look at the matter
compassionately and say okay, the teachers who are there working and suffering
should be looked after, and some workers of the council also. It is still under
negotiation. Well, for the mean time, nobody is rejoicing whether a decision
had been made.
What are your views about the
insistence of Lagos to hold on to the newly created councils, which is the crux
of the disagreement with the Federal Government?
We have to look at the background of this era. First of all,
the constitution of Nigeria is there. It is very clear and it gives power to
the states to create additional local governments if they want to, but the
power to do so must come from the people who must make a demand for it. The
wish must also be subjected to a referendum. In Lagos State, the people asked
for additional local governments and a referendum was conducted and the result
sent to the House of Assembly, and the lawmakers looked at it and made a
decision on it and said, okay. They also made returns, which were sent to the
National Assembly. So as far as the Lagos State Government was concerned, it
had completed what was necessary to have additional local governments. But the
National Assembly has to concur with it by confirming the names and the
headquarters; this they have not done, no doubt about it. But as far as Lagos
State is concerned, it has done
what it wanted. If you ask me to go further on the issue of money withheld by
the federal government, I would say it should be part of the negotiation. This
is because the President has looked at it and said the exercise has not
received the assent of the National Assembly; the journey has not been
completed. The President also said that looking at the constitution, the names
of this new local governments are not yet in the constitution, and that as such
the Federal Government will not accommodate them in the release of allocations
from the Federation Account. This is what the Supreme Court wants to clear.
The state has done its job, but when it is completed, it must
ensure that it is still within the confines of the law. The National Assembly
also has to do its job to complete what is to be completed in the entire
process. It is left for the Federal Government to say whether they are
accepting it or not; that was the reason why they landed in court in the first
place. In actual fact, Lagos State did not go to the Supreme Court to find out
whether what they have done was right or wrong, rather they went there to find
out whether somebody has the right to withhold their funds and this is not in
the constitution. It is now left for the Supreme Court to give its judgment.
What are lawmakers like you from
Lagos State doing to resolve the raging battle between the Minister of Works,
Adeseye Ogunlewe and Governor Ahmed Tinubu, which is capable of stalling
progress in the state?
I think if problems arise this way,
those who feel concerned enough should step in to resolve such that the
friendship will continue. Each of them has points and they are holding on to
the points, but afterwards they can sit down and iron out the problem areas and
end the feud. Maybe the people emphasizing it are those who are also fuelling
it. Both of them mean well for Lagos State, because the minister is now
repairing some of the roads in the state. But if he is repairing the roads and
says that LASTMA and KAI want to control the roads as such he would not want
it, well, this is rather unfortunate. Now
the minister wants to convince the world that he is the one that has the
right to do so. I think all this amounts to political gimmick because I have
not seen the law being enforced in other places other than in Lagos. So I will
ask why has the minister not gone to Maiduguri or Sokoto to enforce such a law?
In Lagos, there is no doubt that the traffic is very heavy; in fact there are
even more cars than the roads and some people whose other name is ‘hurry,
hurry’, always compound the already bad situation by muddling the traffic
the more. That was why the state government created these bodies to solve the
traffic problem in the metropolis. It should also be realized that Tinubu is
the governor of Lagos State and he should be allowed to govern without any
external factor disturbing him. People use federal money to solve problems and
develop the society, but now they are turning it to political fight, which is
not necessary. Again, some people are saying the minister wants to be governor.
If he becomes a governor in future, will he allow a minister to come and start
telling him what to do in Lagos State? Of course he has to bear the overall
responsibility. He has to look at the interest of the residents of the place.
As the chief security officer in the state, he is the one that people would
rush to. You don’t rush to Abuja and say minister, something is happening
in Lagos. No. So I believe that the Federal Road Safety Commission officials
are there to work. There are also other people working seriously, but I think
they have brought politics into it and I believe that it should stop. They should stop unnecessary fight and
unnecessary politicking, because when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
As a member of the House
Committee on Banking and Currency, what are your views on the recent directive
by the Central Bank Governor that banks must recapitalise to the tune of N25
billion before the end of 2005?
Well, the increase of the
bank’s capital base to N25 billion is very ambitious, because at the
moment they have N2billion and to raise it to N25 billion, I think it is just
asking some banks to go down or to merge as they are. But if the increase is
meant to save depositors in the case of banks going down as rumours are making
the rounds that some of them are no longer solvent enough to continue, then I
think it is a welcome development. However, it is my belief that this should
have been done gradually, not the way it is now being done, jumping from N2
billion to N25 billion. How realistic will it be within one and half years from
now, to 2005? I don’t think some banks can meet up. In other words, the
Governor of CBN, Professor Charles Soludo, would have been specific on how to
deal with this problem, but asking banks to jump to N25 billion, I don’t
know how this can be achieved. Well, he is the custodian of information about
the banks, may be he thinks that is the best way to do it. We will see how it
will go, but I personally believe that the way we do things in Nigeria is too
swift; we should allow things to gradually take effect so that people
don’t suffer. We are representing the people; a lot of people have lost
their money in most of the banks. I too had lost my money in some of the failed
banks, despite the fact that I was also a banker before I came to the National
Assembly.
But I do not want a situation where
people will suffer again because it is not their fault. You cannot insure
against such a loss. The NDIC that insures people against such a loss does so
at just a paltry N50,000. Look at a situation whereby somebody has deposited
about N20million and the bank goes bankrupt and you ask the person to collect
only N50, 000. The tendency is for such a person to want to go and hang
himself. This is not a good idea; let things be done gradually.
What will your committee likely
do in the circumstance?
Definitely we have the power to ask him what happened and
suggest what should be done to take care of other exigencies. But again, until
we hear all the details, we cannot make a decisive or categorical statement,
because they have the information more than we do. But if they are able to
address us, then we should be able to know what next to do.
In what way have you affected the
life of your constituents since being elected to the House?
Honestly, I will tell you that I have enjoyed the best of
cooperation from my constituents. For this, I have found it expedient to
institute some form of scholarship for some indigent students in the
constituency in addition to other welfare programmes we have embarked on and
those we are yet to unveil. Again, the most important thing now is that I have
used the instrumentality of sports, particularly football sponsorship, to unite
the people of my constituency. I will continue to do these because I realize
that peace is paramount if we must achieve meaningful progress. I strived to
solve the last problem of oil pollution that ravaged the area from the burst
NNPC pipeline. I know you were aware that the wells that are the main source of
water for majority of the people got polluted when a section of the NNPC
pipeline burst. I effectively mounted pressure on the management to rectify
that even though I am still talking with the management of NNPC to see what
next can be done for the people to permanently stop the leakage. On the whole
and as expected, I have worked assiduously to get tangible things for my people
in the last budget. I believe Almighty God will help me to achieve more in the
days ahead. I will never disappoint my people.
