HOW are you going to ensure that there is no friction between the executive being controlled by the APC and the Assembly being led the PDP? What is happening in the house, where we have the executive in the hands of a different party and the executive being controlled by another party is not the first time in Nigeria and globally. Even in the United States, there are occasions whereby majority of members of the Congress may belong to a particular party and the executive arm of government in another one. There are examples in Nigeria. We can take the example of Nasarawa State. So, what we need is what the late the politician, Chief K. O. Mbadiwe described as “accord concordian.” We need to have the interest of the state at heart. Once the governor brings a bill or any programme that is for the good of the state, definitely the state House of Assembly will cooperate. What we need is cooperation. Once we are able to achieve this, coupled dialogue, things will work well. It may sometimes even be better than when the same party controlled the legislature and the executive. There have been crises in the Assembly, what is the situation of things now? In any society when men and women come together, especially in political settings, there is bound to be issues of crisis and tension. One of the strengths that you have is the ability to go into dialogue, even while you have taken action. The other person will explain and after you have the understanding, we will move on. In my first term in the Assembly, there were crises and this time around also, we have had cause to deal with crises. One thing is that we are able to talk to one another and there is great understanding among us. There was a good number of members at the plenary for the screening of the deputy governor. Is that to say that you have settled the leadership crisis?. Yes, we have settled that issue, and it was demonstrated in the house. It is only when members of a family agree that they can march on. With the understanding that we have got, we now have one house. What is being speculated outside is different from what we are seeing physically. We have demonstrated the unity among us. What is your take on the concentration of power in a particular zone of the state, as we have the governor, the speaker and the Chief Judge from the same zone? There are certain things that may happen that as human beings, you may not have immediate and direct answers. What has happened is that God has shown his power; what we do not expect has happened and if things like this come up, we cannot begin to change it overnight. It is still by dialogue and understanding that we can put certain things right. With the prevailing situation in Kogi now, we can see the power of God at play, even right from the death of the late Prince Abubakar Audu to the emergence of the new governor. Therefore, we need to be patient. We need to dialogue; we need understanding before we can take any other concrete action. Are you saying that we should not expect any immediate change in the leadership of the assembly? To an ordinary person, the expected change in the Assembly can be automatic, but to the system it may not be automatic. What we need is little patience, understanding and we should study the situation and then come out with a resolution. Since we are all indigenes of Kogi State, anything that can move the state forward is what we should key into. But, we don’t want to be in haste. As a leader of the PDP in the state, how do you ensure that your party remains relevant in the scheme of things? All PDP members should know that this is not the first state that this kind of thing has happened. What we need to do is to be patient, we can come together and still bounce back powerfully. We still have the structure of the party and the majority in the house, we will go back to the drawing board, this is just a little hitch, which not only in Kogi, it happened at the national level. With the meeting we had with the National Working Committee, we still have a lot of hope in the PDP and I believe in Kogi we will organise ourselves and come back to power again. How do you see the gale of defections affecting the PDP across the country? That is not strange, but I can only implore all PDP members to be steadfast, as running and jumping to other parties may not work well. There is even a signal from APC that newcomers are not welcome. That should be a signal to members of the PDP to remain where they are and take their destinies in their own hands and luckily for members of the state Assembly, there is a law that prohibit cross-carpeting at this moment. Therefore, when you do not have any alternative, you have to be steadfast, work for the party and make advancement. Source: tribuneonlineng]]>