….Says Subsidy removal is in the overall interest of Nigerians
By Chijioke Asogwa
The Minority Leader House of Representatives, Hon. Kingsley Chinda has made case for synergy and collaboration amongst the arms of government to enhance socioe-conomic development in the country.
Hon. Chinda representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State made the plea on Wednesday while addressing a group of Online Journalists in his office at the National Assembly Complex. He noted that the success of any administration is dependent on investments and sacrifice made by different arms of government, including the legislature. He reiterated that the failure or success of any administration is a shared task and that no arm of government should be exonerated as it is a collective responsibility.
In his words; “that’s why I said everybody should be blamed. And I keep saying it. I said look, if the society, if the government is failing, some of the blame should also come to the Parliament, because we are supposed to oversight the government. We are supposed to ensure that they do the proper thing and if they are not doing that, it means that we are not actually being very active, we are not proactive, we are not working sufficiently so we should hold them to account .
“if we parliamentarians are failing also it means that you that we are representing are not checking us enough. Sometimes you clap when we do the wrong thing, at another time even when we are doing the right thing you criticize us and discourage us from working hard. I give you an example again today in Parliament take the vehicle issue as an example. Everybody was crying, crucify them.They are buying vehicle at this time in the economy of this country. It is too harsh, too bad .You have sent people to walk and you think that they don’t required cars to work”?
Speaking further on the issue of off-cycle election that has gulped Nigeria so much resources, the Rivers State born politician noted that there is need for harmonization to ensure that elections are conducted in a particular cycle .He acknowledged the fact the it is a herculean task looking at the electoral laws in the country but believes that, the laws can be amended to save Nigeria billions of Naira for off-cycle elections
“The off-cycle election has not been helpful, if you look at it critically. If care is not taken, we may have a situation where we begin to plan for elections almost all year round. If we continue that way, Nigeria will continue to be in election in the four years, because we expect that we will have more off-cycle elections as elections are being nullified by the judiciary.
.
Hon. Chinda also praised the opposition members in the House of Reps for ensuring that the administration is given enough support to deliver on its mandate.
Ever since the government came in , we have been grappling with the issue of economy following removal of fuel subsidy and fiscal policy that came on board. For us ,we haven’t opposed most programmes they have offered and they are anchored on palliative aimed at cushioning the effect of fuel subsidy removal, he said.
