I would have loved to take a short of Speaker ship but…

HonOURABLE Peter O. Akpatason is a member of House of Representatives, recently, he won his second bid to represent his people of Akoko-Edo Federal Constituency of Edo State, and also as a lawmaker who has passion for the well-being of his people spoke with the  National Assembly OBSERVER correspondence on issues relating to the just concluded general elections as well as other related matters.
He expressed mixed feelings over the just concluded general elections. In his reaction, Akpatason said that the election was very competitive and a major improvement in area of the performance of the umpire as well as the introduction of the card reader, including some other new policies that actually made for more transparency, thereby reducing the ease in which manipulation was done in the past.
He felt satisfied with the manner in which INEC was able to respond faster to challenges during the elections than the previous elections.
Though he was among those who believed that the military should not be removed completely from the electoral process due to the security they provide for the electorates, he was however disappointed over the role played by some of the military  officers during the election.
“But however the role of the military and the police were not commendable because in the first election in particular, some of them were actually out to manipulate the process in favor of the Government in power. As a result of that they harassed and intimidated the supporters of APC, including the candidates and also my humble self”.
“Imagine were a Brigadier General led a team of soldiers to bar people from accessing the collation center and to prevent materials being brought into the collation center in conniving with the PDP thugs. That was the worst situation for me. Thank God that at the end of the day, other forces intervened and we were able to sort out things”.
On the issues that most experienced lawmakers won’t be returning to the House, Hon. Akpatason was of the opinion that their absence will not have much impact since according to him there were still over one hundred lawmakers  that will be returning back to the House and the green horns will definitely learn faster the redume of lawmaking.
“There are still a lot of third termers whose elections-bid were successful and more of second termers. We are about a hundred or more. For this is the era of change that we are talking about, and also breathing new air. We are talking about new innovations and ideas, so it is therefore not surprising to me that there are going to be a number of new people than returnees. With about a hundred or more of second and third termers around, I think we have not lost too much on experienced because we still have a lot of experience lawmakers here. I believe in change and I believe there is need for new people to come on board so that things can be done  differently. With a newer and fresher ideas it is nothing to worry about at all. What is important is that now that we’re on board, we should start looking at Nigeria project and not our party affiliation. By the time we carried on with that notion and perception, it will be a better way of doing things than what we have had in the past.
Representing his people and ensuring that they are well represented in the House is what he loves to do and he didn’t hesitate to spell out what he tended doing differently this time around.
He said that his people expect better performances than before, and as it is a general believe that as second termers, one has  better opportunities, more experience as well as improved net work, therefore  they expect more qualitative democratic deliverable dividends. Aside that, his people expect him as a second termer to occupied a better position where he can deliver more dividends of democracy to them. He said that he had actually been in consultation with his people in respect to the next position he will occupied in the new dispensation. Not done in consulting with his people, he said he had equally consulted with other stakeholders and eventually decided to take a short at one of the presiding officer’s position that will be zone to his area.
“Ordinarily, I would have loved to take a short of Speaker ship but in the invent that it is not zone to my area, I will make do with any other office that will be zone to that area. The pressure has been very high and I have taken my time to go round to talk with people and I have also started consulting with various groups in the National Assembly including the new comers. We have second termers in different locations and I have very robust discussion with them. I am equally very hopeful that just like my people, that God’s willing one will have the opportunity to serving in a higher capercity this time around”.
As for the Bills that were yet to be passed by the 7th Assembly, Akpatason passionately, said that the Bills especially the PIB bill will be passed before end of the 7th Assembly.
Emphasizing the need why the PIB Bill must be passed, Hon. Akpatason said that the Bill was very key to the present Assembly, that without the Bill a lot of activities have been put on hold in the oil and gas industry that is the pivot of the Nigeria Economy and that all efforts will be geared toward passing the Bill into Law.
It didn’t go down well with him that the president, Goodluck Jonathan communicated his decision not to assent to the constitutional amendment, citing alleged failure of the National Assembly to meet certain constitutional provided threshold in passing the Bill.
“I think Mr President should have approached this issues differently, his approach was confrontational. The way to do it is to engage the people and see how that area can be addressed. I think he talked about the requisite number of States that will give approval and all of that. If some of this States were not comfortable with some of the clauses, that is not to say that they were not in agreement with the entire review. So it is a thing that can easily be sorted out instead of going to the public to raise such sensitive issues and also I think we should start thinking of how to review the constitution without necessarily given it to the President to sign. The President is just a representative of the people and is not Nigeria. Nigeria people have participated in reviewing this constitution and I want to personally believe that the Mr. President is blocking that constitution because he has put in more effort and hope on the conference that he supridended over and he would rather want a new constitution to emerge from that means. I want to believe that is the reason behind this refusal to give ascent to it, but whatever reason he has for doing so I think there is a better way of doing it. Nigerians desperately need a new constitution”.
With APC going to be the majority in the eight Assembly, Akpatason said that party membership or party affiliation was not a major factor in the House, until the big fight between APC and PDP towards the end of the 7th Assembly, they never felt the impact of party affiliation in the activities of the House.
“We saw the project as Nigerian project, we saw legislation as a responsibility that must be carried out with all sense of commitment, irrespective of party affiliation that is how we carried on until that stage of crisis where people started cross carpeting and the idea of police taken upon themselves the responsibility to allow or disallow who enters the National Assembly”.
In the 8th Assembly I believe that the situation is not going to be much different, but the only difference is that the group that was on opposition will now be the leading group and so will occupy those positions earlier occupied by PDP people, while PDP people will now have to start learning the new character of opposition because they have not done that before. The mentality with which you serve as the leading group is different from the mentality that is required to provide credible and effective opposition.