Chief Lanre Rasak
Rasak said in an interview in Lagos that the comportment of both the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate had been frustrating the trust the people reposed in the legislators.
Hesaid the National Assembly should not push the people to a point where there would be mass action against the lawmakers.
“Some people thought they are even above those who elected them and that they can do whatever they want, but Nigerians are telling them that, that cannot be, I pray they don’t get it done to a point that where there will be mass movement of Nigerians to the National Assembly to protest what they are doing,” he stated.
The APC Chieftain cited the issue of budget padding currently rocking the House of Representatives, describing the development as shameful and criminal.
Rasak, however, expressed optimism that the anti-corruption posture of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government would bring good tidings for the people of the country.
“Look at what the man they removed as Chairman Appropriation Committee is saying, it is shameful; for him to agree that they were padding the budget; it is a criminal matter, their duty is not to introduce new items into the budget but to look into it and approve.”
“But when we have strong committed leadership in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari who is enjoying the support of the leadership of the party, we will get there,” he reiterated.
On the chances of the APC in 2019, he hinted that the chances of the party were getting brighter each passing day, noting that Nigerians were not ready to go back to the dark days they experienced for 16 years.
“There is the need for you to do a comparative analysis of the parties we have, is it a party that destroyed the country for 16 years? Is it the party that is improving and renewing the hope of the people? There is no other party now than the APC, if you are a man who believes strongly in belonging to a political party, which party will you join? Is it the party that is lacking coherence or what? Who will Nigerians give the country back to? Who are the credible people to lead them? This time around, Nigerians will ask questions,” he said.
Rasak also maintained that the country was on the verge of collapse before the progressives came to the rescue.
Speaking on the call for restructuring of the country, the party chieftain believed the time had come for Nigeria to practice true federalism where each federating state is not dependent on the federal government for almost everything.
“The independence of each state in the federation should be clearly spelt out, imagine some states being unable to pay salaries, they are begging the federal government for assistance; each state should be able to sit down, plan its economy and cut its coat according to its size, states should have their own state police and manage their own security, there is nothing wrong if we have local police except for our level of maturity to handle that,” he said.
He also described as reasonable, the plans by the Nigerian government to hold talks with the militants as he noted that taking arms against the state was not the best option.
“Resorting to militancy to get what you want is not the best, the militants should think of what it will cost them, their environment and what it will cost the nation to clean up the degradation they are causing; so it is reasonable to talk to them, a person may decide to destroy his own house, but a reasonable person will say please don’t destroy this house because you may not have another house to live in, so if the President as the father of the nation has decided to do that, so be it, he felt it is better to jaw-jaw than war-war,” he said.
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