Kunle Adelabu
The 9th Assembly of the House of Representatives, under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,as Speaker, has been described as the best in the country’s legislative history.
Rep. Babajimmi Benson, a two term member of the House who is representing the Ikorodu Federal Constituency, gave the verdict, stating that the House has performed exceedingly well.
Benson, who said that the National Assembly has done its bit in passing the Local Government Autonomy Bill, and awaiting the responses of the State Assemblies for their concurrence to make it into law, gave the statement during his appearance on ‘Your View’, a programme on Television Continental (TVC) recently.
“The 9th Assembly, under the leadership of Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, has done exceedingly well. I think it’s the best among the Assemblies that we have had”, he said.
“We have passed remarkable bills, the INEC laws is one of it; the Petroleum Industry Bill; we have supported the female and we are gender friendly House. In the sector, we have over 50 Bills.
Speaking on budgeting funds for what the presenters called ‘failed constitutional amendment every year’, Rep. Benson said:
“Our job is to make laws and we have made the laws. We have passed those laws to the State Assemblies in record time and if they don’t respond, the laws can’t be passed. We have done our bit and part of the laws is the Local Government Autonomy Bill and everything that people wanted..
On the issue of the failure of the Lagos State House of Assembly, his own state, to pass the LG Autonomy Bill, despite the outcry by Lagosians for freedom for the Councils, Rep. Benson said:
“That is the beauty of democracy. That is the State Assembly that represents every nook and cranny of the state. Maybe the citizens in the state said that they don’t want it, I don’t know and I can’t question that. If the state said that it is not in the best interest of our state, I can’t question that, but to say that we haven’t done anything….”, he said.
“We even did everything in record time. Please, put pressure on your representatives…”, he added.
On his ambition to seek re – election for the third term as the representative of the Ikorodu people and what he has done with his current mandate, Rep. Benson said:
“I am running again to represent the good people of Ikorodu”.
“I am not the best among the 3 to 4milion people in Ikorodu, but they have chosen me as their representative at this moment and I am exceedingly grateful to them. We have been able to do some things that have impacted on them. We have been able to move to Ikorodu and Lagos centric.
“I sponsored a bill removing power and railway from the Exclusive List; I sponsored Armed Forces Support Fund; Defense Research Development Bureau (DRDB), expanding the scope of DICON and a bill to increase the educational qualifications of our office holders.
“I have facilitated 32 roads and still going to announce more roads that are still coming. I have facilitated the reconstruction of the Ikorodu – Shagamu Road which my Senator has also been involved in. I also facilitated 24 schools which amounted to over 1000 classes.
“We have also built an 80 – bed hospital in Imota, and built about four other mini – hospitals around the city (Ikorodu). We have been able to employ a lot of youth into armed forces, civil service and federal agencies”, he added.
