Leave Agagu out of your Calculations – Former Speaker Bello tells Ondo House,Akindele

Bakita Bello

A former speaker, Ondo state House of assembly Dr. Bakita Bello in this interview with ROVING REPORTERS reacts to the lingering crisis between the current lawmakers and governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. Excerpt :

As a former Speaker, Ondo state house of assembly. Can you give details of your efforts to ensure maintenance of the assembly Complex before you left ?

I took over the reign of leadership of the state house of assembly on the 1st of June, 2007 at the inauguration of the House then.

As at that time, the budget for that year was already passed ,so what i did along with other members of the leadership and membership of the house generally was to stick to the details of the budget, vis-a-vis maintenance of the house. All existing contracts, i made sure they were executed to the letter.

Committee of the house was put up to ensure this . That was an effort then and towards the next budgetary session, we made sure that necessary requirements as per the situation of the house were put in.

The House as the legislative arm of government has a privilege of regulating its own activities and making sure that their needs are also reflected in the budget. It now behoves on the leadership of the House to the timely release of such needed funds.

Were the funds released for you ?

Of course ! I remember there were votes for maintaining , fumigation and essential facelift of the House and all these we ensured they took place.

There was even one that was not in the budget. I got the understanding of our governor then ,late Dr. Olusegun Agagu and this had to do with the roofing of the House. The main complex has a concrete decking which was left open and it was leaking and almost destroyed most of the furniture and paperwork in the House then.

I brought in the ministry of works and got the understanding of late governor Agagu and we have to bring a roof of long span to cover the ceiling, that is after we sealed all cracks in the place and thereafter, it was roofed. So I enjoyed all these.

One thing is to ask for money, another thing is to ensure that the money is spent judiciously.

What then happened that the complex is as bad as its present state ?

Well, from what has been said and written, it is due to neglect and lack of due attention on the part of Managers.

What did you mean by the Managers ?

Don’t forget that constitutionally, we have three arms of government and the legislative arm is expected to manage its own affairs and if the House superintends over the budget estimate brought
by the executive and judiciary, there will be no problem or there should not be any difficulty in stating what their own needs are.

And if after stating what their needs are and getting the appropriate cost estimate therein, and once the budget is approved, it is left and behooves of the leadership of the House to pursue that the Executive arm releases funds as it were and since the financial autonomy is yet to take off. It you have a figure in the budget and you can not secure the release of the fund, then there is nothing the House leadership can do.

A Former speaker, Mrs Jumoke Akindele and current legislators have alleged past administrations of Late Dr. Agagu and Dr. Mimiko of failing to release funds for House maintenance. Is that true?

They should leave governor Agagu out of their calculations or out of their conclusions. As far as i am concerned, during my tenure, i remember when I took over the leadership of the House, there were some projects already approved and funds were released. That was when i took over from former speaker Oluwasegunota Bolarinwa.

There were also some new projects that sprang up and i ensured that those projects continued and those expected to be completed ,i ensured they were completed, while those needed to take off,took off.

I said earlier , it is whatever you take to the executive that you get out as at that time. If something was not in the budget and you now went to governor to ask for money , and i had a few of such experience.

Things that we needed to do and were not in the budget because we took over an approved budget and we went to Dr Agagu, justifying the reason for such.

For instance, the roofing i spoke about was not in the budget. I initiated it that ,look, staff and members can not continue to function effectively under a leaking roof.

We are talking of a building put in place by Baba Adekunle Ajasin. In my tenure, we went ahead and got the place roofed completely. It wasn’t in the budget so for somebody to say neglect by previous administration, i don’t think they knew what they are talking about. What initiative as a leader did they bring to the house ? This is essential.

I want to say that I served under Dr Olusegun Kokumo Agagu, he did not neglect the house. That is my conclusion.

What’s your advice ?

The leadership of all arms of government should remember that the mandate of the people reposed in us be protected. We should be responsible to that mandate and the people and not personalising governance and administration like sole administrators.

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