The Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Micheal Adeyemo has blamed the slow pace of development in Oyo State on the instability encountered by the state’s House of Assembly, the crises-ridden proceedings of the state’s legislative House and the relative legislative inexperience of some lawmakers in the state.

Expressing his views on Monday 27th June, 2017 during an interactive session with CEOAfrica on its online television programme ‘Community Today’, Hon Adeyemo revealed that Oyo State suffered a lot of instability and volatility in its legislative house which has inadvertently contributed to the snail-paced development currently being experienced in the state.

Hon Adeyemo, who compared Oyo State House of Assembly to Lagos State House of Assembly, noted that unlike what obtained in Oyo State, Lagos’s legislative House has over the years, enjoyed uninterrupted, crisis-free legislative regime with experienced, long-serving lawmakers who are familiar with the intricacies and functionalities of law making.

Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Micheal Adeyemo at CEOAfrica

According to the Speaker “The legislative arm of government requires experience. It requires people of high intelligence and sound professional background. The legislators are expected to make laws and that means they must have adequate experience of the duties of a lawmaker. In Lagos, we have people who have served as lawmakers since 1999. But here (Oyo State), hardly will you see one or two lawmakers return. Then we start training the new members. We start telling them how to go about their legislative responsibilities.”

The legislative leader however noted that during his tenure, the 8th assembly is committed achieve stability in Oyo state’s legislative House by ensuring that all lawmakers are well-versed on the duties and responsibilities of their positions. He said “It is not about making noise, attacking people or open confrontation, it is more of using our brain and common sense to achieve our goal without rocking the boat.”

Achievements of the House So far…

The activities of the Oyo State House of Assembly has not all been negative, as Hon Adeyemo has enumerated some of the achievements of the 8th Assembly for the last two years of his tenure as the leader of the House to include the passing of 45 Bills and the nurturing of 15 other Bills in the Second Reading.

With a vision to carry out their responsibilities of serving the electorates, the Speaker revealed that the State House operates on an all-inclusive system that ensures that all lawmakers in the House, irrespective of their political affiliations, head one committee or the other, adding that members of the House have resolved to set aside their party interests to work as one indivisible team in order to synergise with the executive and ensure stability in governance.

In addition to partnering with various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) on societal needs, as well as addressing some individual issues brought to the House through the writing of petitions that concerns members of the public, the Honourable Speaker stated that the House has been able to take a proactive step to stem kidnapping in the state by making an anti-kidnapping provision law which was emulated by other states.

Hon Adeyemo explained “Prior to the making of this law, we were told by the then Commissioner of Police that there was no law to prosecute kidnappers, because the previous law on kidnapping was obsolete and could not be used to get justice for kidnap victims. So we made a law that whoever aids, conspires or gets involved in kidnapping will be adequately prosecuted and charged accordingly.”

Criminal Administration System law is another bill which was passed by the House upon discovering that the criminal procedure encouraged delay in bringing criminals to justice. According to the Speaker, “The Criminal Administration System law ensures quick trial of any criminal which put an end to what we call ‘withholding charge’. Before now it used to take a long time to investigate a crime and prosecute the criminal which sometimes amount to delayed justice to the victim. Now, the new law has set a time frame within which investigations must be concluded and the criminal tried.

“Also, formerly, when people get defrauded or have their money stolen, the perpetrators only get punished with jail term, while the victims don’t get their stolen money back. But with this new law in place, victims of theft or fraud will get their money or property back. So there is justice to the criminal and for the victim. So this is an improvement on what we have on ground.”

      Rt. Hon Micheal Adeyemo flanked by Journalists at the Interview

Hon Adeyemo also noted that the Community Service law was enacted by the House to punish minor offenders who hitherto, were kept in the same prison cells as hardened criminals. He said “When you go to our prisons, minor offenders were put together with hardened criminals and by the time these minor offenders finish their sentences, they go back into the society worse than before because they would have acquired some sophisticated criminal training.

“We realised that this wasn’t proper and it was better to have these minor offenders engage in community services like; sweeping the streets, cutting grasses, clearing drainages, cleaning public places to serve as a deterrent. When people who know the offender see him/her doing community service, they would know that such person has committed an offence. This is the way to check some vices in the community.”  

The Speaker further mentioned other laws that were passed in the House to address challenges of the society includes; the Land Grabbing law to address land grabbing issues; the Educational Trust Fund law to establish a trustee that will fund education; Revenue Generation law to improve the state’s revenue; Economic Law; Mineral Development Agencies law and many others. He also added that some old laws were reviewed like laws that have to do with Fire Services, Hospital Registration, Agricultural laws.

Noting that the House is not financially autonomous, Hon Adeyemo stated that legislature gets finances from the executive which has been hindering legislative independence. This challenge, according to the Speaker, prompted the passing of a Self-Accounting law which ensures transparency in the financial administration of the House. “This law was passed to ensure that we are accountable in our finances and in our stewardship,” Hon Adeyemo said.

Legislative/Executive Relationship

The Speaker who observed that people tend to view Oyo State legislature as an appendage of the state’s executive, however compared the relationship between the two arms of government to that of a married couple, noting that since a marriage in crisis can never be peaceful, it will not benefit the state if the legislature and executive are always at each other’s throat.

“Oyo State is the only state in the Southwest that experienced crisis all through in the House of Assembly and this retarded our development until this administration came on board. So, now, we engage the executive constructively without any unnecessary confrontation. People expect these kinds of altercations and condemnations openly but that is not what the law requires.

Whenever there is a wrongdoing by the executive or any agency, we have committees who will meet with them, correct them and address the issue. And in fairness to our executive, they take to our corrections. If we engage in open confrontations, it won’t help the system and it won’t help the state. So if we are there for the interest of the people, we must work genuinely for their benefits,” the Honourable Speaker stated.