Hon Aliyu Ibrahim Gebi is a lawmaker representing Bauchi Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and chairman, House Committee on Internal Security. In this interview with PEMBI STEPHEN-DAVID, he posits that, freedom of expression does not give one the licence to insult the sacred religious beliefs of others and other national issues.
How do you respond to the Award of Politician of the Year conferred on the Honourable Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal by LEADERSHIP Newspaper?
Firstly, I will like to congratulate our leader, the people’s Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, it is an honour well deserved and this is Insha Allah, the beginning of many more deserved honours that will come his way, so we as a House, as a single entity wish to congratulate him and wish him many more happy years and more rewards. I think that the Politician of the Year Award is symptomatic of the kind of person the Speaker is, it is also symptomatic of the leadership style that he exhibits and his level of integrity, dexterity of character, transparency, accountability and humility.
The most admirable quality of Rt. Hon. Tambuwal is his humility. I have never met any person that is as humble within the context of leadership like the Hon Speaker. And our advice is simple, we are behind him, we are loyal to him, we chose him based on certain characteristics that he should continue to exhibit and I pray that he continues to be the same Aminu Tambuwal that we knew before we elected him, the same Aminu Tambuwal that we know, now that he is our presiding officer and the same Aminu Tambuwal that I know personally as my older brother and for an individual as unassuming as Aminu Tambuwal? to be able to hold 359 members together is a remarkable achievement.? And as long as he continues to be the person we know him to be, he has our absolute loyalty and once again I as an individual and as a representative of Bauchi Federal Constituency, congratulate him, and encourage and pray for him.
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From the period before the recess when the House urged the Executive to speed up implementation of the budget to now that the House is back from recess, do you think that there has been a remarkable improvement in budget implementation by the Executive?
I would not say that there has been remarkable improvement, but there has been some improvement in budget implementation and this is the much one can ask from a very stagnant system. The fact that we raised certain red flags and the Executive for the very first time listened and started implementing certain changes is a good sign not only for the relationship between the National Assembly and the Executive but also between the leaders of this country and the followership. And if you can recall we were given our marching orders, those that oversaw MDAs to verify the level of implementation of the budget and then report to the House so that we will take a decision as a united body. But it is a good thing that we raised certain red flags to spur the Executive into action and I think Nigerians will stand to be the greatest beneficiary of that singular action.
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Under your leadership of the House Committee on Internal Security, there has been a marked improvement in the security situation in the National Assembly. Also recently your committee held a meeting, what were the objectives of the meeting and the conclusions arrived at?
Well, by the grace of God and the cooperation of every security apparatus in the National Assembly and of course my wonderful committee members, we were able to redefine what the security protocol is for the National Assembly and to the Glory of Allah, it has been very effective as you journalists have testified to.? We had a meeting to kind of recap as to what we have done in the previous year and incidentally, the committee members passed a vote of confidence in my leadership and that of my deputy.? And if you will recall again, the Hon. Speaker has already told the leadership of the committees that if the other members are satisfied with our leadership, no problem, but if they are not satisfied, for any reason, they have a right to change their leadership. So at any point in time if the members of a committee are not happy with their leadership they can make recommendations to the presiding officer, the Honourable Speaker for a change. It is a very transparent process. My particular committee, despite the challenges that we face and will continue to face in terms of operational resources, has handled itself well with the highest level of integrity and I must praise the cohesion and brotherly love between myself, the deputy chairman and the committee members. So we just sat down to have a postmortem analysis of the previous year and to chart a way forward.? Very soon we will have a meeting with the leadership where we will make a presentation on our milestones, our achievements, our aims and our bottle necks.
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Taking a look at constitutional amendment, what areas do you feel should be amended for the benefit of your people and Nigerians as a whole?
Well, speaking for myself personally and not on behalf of my people, we need to look at the issue of who an indigene is critically, we need to redefine who a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is and we need to re-empower and re-energise that definition because in my humble opinion, most of the problems we have are caused by a lot of grey areas there. Because there is more emphasis given to an indigene than a citizen and I think we should not totally abolish the indigene clause but strengthen the citizenship clause; it will engender nationalistic tendencies where we will look at ourselves first as Nigerians before you are an indigene of Bauchi federal constituency or whatever. And truly you will now be practicing true federalism, for instance the only time you are asked for your international passport is when you are leaving this country, but in terms of contracts, employment, school admission etc, you have to fill an indigene form, you have to tie yourself to one particular locality. So I am saying that it is grossly unfair that you have to reduce yourself to one particular microscopic area of this country and we are shortchanging ourselves and there is need for a drastic change.
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You have severally criticized the leadership style of Governor Isa Yuguda in the past, has your views changed or remained the same?
It saddens me to say that my views have not changed and this is my position and that of my party, the CPC. Because if you are an elected public servant, you are supposed to be on your seat, you are supposed to look your people squarely in the eyes and address them. Let us remember that the only way to solve a problem is to walk right through it, not to walk around it or hide underneath it. And I think this is not a situation that is particularly unique to Bauchi State; we have a lot of governors that spend a lot more time and resources here in Abuja and all over the world than in their various states. We have had several security breaches in Bauchi State and natural disasters, and we ask where is our governor, where is our leader, where is our chief security officer? There are certain components of government that should not be delegated.? Mind you, I have the greatest respect for Mallam Isa Yuguda as an individual but as my governor, my chief security officer; there are a lot of questions that are begging for answers. And I think that what we expect of him, what he is capable of doing really has not been matched for now, and we are still asking where our governor is? And he should come and address those issues so that we can say yes, he is truly our governor, he is our chief security officer. It is not a personal issue; it is an issue of principle.
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What is your reaction to the outrageous blasphemous film that has caused much anger and embarrassment in the world especially among the Muslim Ummah?
Let me correct you, it is not an embarrassment, it is an insult to Muslims all over the world, it is an insult that should not be condoned, I don’t condone acts of violence, wherever they may happen, we as the Muslim Ummah, abhor violence in any form whatsoever. However, our own sensibilities should be respected, you will never hear Muslims come out and insult Jesus Christ, Moses or any of the Biblical Prophets, then why is it that consistently people come out to insult our Holy Prophet (PBUT). It is most unfair and when we get up to protest, it is as if we are fundamentalists and jihadists coming out to fight. So it is as if we Muslims don’t have a right to or show our anger at certain things. Yes, sometimes protests may get out of hand but if we look at the root causes of these protests it may be understandable. We condemn what happened in Libya, Egypt etc, but we also condemn with the same voice the anti-Islam movie that came out of the United States.
What we want is that the government of the United States as a responsible government should look at their own protocols as it concerns freedom of speech. For example in Europe, it is a criminal offence to deny that the Holocaust ever occurred, if you do that, you go jail. If we can do that for the Holocaust, then we should be able to respect the sensibilities of others. It is not a criminal act for you to express yourself, but if that expression brings abut a breakdown of law and order or causes grievous bodily harm to people, it can be traced back to you then you are criminally liable. We need to respect each other at this period when there is a lot of misunderstandings and crises here and there. Even though the United States government has come out to condemn the movie, they should go further to criminalize certain actions like the movie production that can lead to a breakdown of law and order, division around people and violence, not to deny people their freedom of expression but to state clearly the consequence of that freedom of expression. But I also call on our Muslim Ummah to exercise restraint and understand that the person that produced this movie is not the American government or some Nigerian Christian but one individual in the US who should be held accountable.
I must also commend President Goodluck Jonathan for coming out to condemn the movie at the UN General Assembly, it was a good thing that he did and this shows that he respects the sensibilities and understands the importance of Islam in Nigeria.
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