All we want is justice – Rep Ikara
Rep Yusuf Bala Ikara, representing Ikara/Kubau Federal Constituency of Kaduna State in the House of Reps, is the deputy chairman of the publicity committee of the newly formed group in the House, called the Transparency Group. They addressed a press confe
DNo, anyone who says we’re just starting now because of Jibrin doesn’t know what transpired. We started more than three months ago. What happened was that we didn’t involve outsiders, not even the press.
We brought the issue of the budget to the attention of the leadership of the House, and they were forced to call an executive session, a closed-door session, on the matter. We raised our concerns vociferously but they told us that we should give them some time. They said when we returned from Sallah break, they would get back to us. But when we did, nobody said anything to us. We waited up to the time we were embarking on recess and still nobody said anything, so we felt the time had come for us to go public.
Coincidentally, at the time we were about to start going public, they said they had decided to remove Jibrin. In fact, Jibrin himself said he would join us later when he heard that the group was operating, but we rejected him. Because we believe he’s one of the major suspects in the whole budget issue, he couldn’t be part of us.
So, Jibrin’s allegations came after we started, but it’s just that the public didn’t know that all these were going on.
When we started, we came up with a name called ‘Members Against Padding by Principal Officers,’ but some of us later advised that it should be changed to ‘Members Against Padding.’ We wrote out the name, complete with letter-head and began taking it to members to sign for us. As I speak to you, we have about 150 lawmakers who signed that document, and they cut across all political parties and regions. We’re As a leader, you should be just in whatever you do. If you see this kind of injustice, you’re not supposed to keep quiet. I’ve told my colleagues that I’ll continue to struggle for the anomaly to be corrected even if I’ll be alone in my struggle. All we want is justice just starting. We’ll further make our position known in due course.
No, this has nothing to do with him. Remember he’s also part of the leadership. In fact, I was the one that sat down and brought out the projects that all of them got, including Femi [Gbajabiamila]. That necessitated a meeting of APC Caucus in the House, and Femi even said he was not aware, but we know based on the records that he also got some projects.
So, about this group, Femi knows nothing. We didn’t contact him before starting. If it’s about him, you know that PDP members didn’t vote for him, but we have PDP members among us. I personally know of about seven strong PDP members among us. Even some of those that Dogara gave committee chairmanship and deputies are among us.
Let me tell you, we have nine chairmen and 19 deputy chairmen among us. Was it Femi that gave them the positions? No. Remember that after the Speaker’s election and the leadership crisis, some supporters of Femi were compromised and they no longer relate with him, not to talk of spearheading any movement for him.
We don’t want their projects implemented, and we also want those culpable to be punished. We want a thorough investigation by independent bodies like we said on Wednesday so that those found guilty can be punished. Dogara and the rest of them knew our stand months ago.
For example, someone has N13 billion projects among them, while two others have N8 billion projects each. But some of us have projects of only about N50 million in our constituencies. Where is justice here? Do they have any justification for that? No. They are just opportune to be our leaders, but we’re all equal. Any of us can be there.
As a leader, you should be just in whatever you do. If you see this kind of injustice, you’re not supposed to keep quiet. I’ve told my colleagues that I’ll continue to struggle for the anomaly to be corrected even if I’ll be alone in my struggle. All we want is justice.
For example, as a member, I can write to the appropriation committee to put one or two boreholes in my constituency in the budget, and that will be done in the open. But a situation where people just insert projects for their constituencies to the tune of billions of naira, while other members have projects worth just about N50 million is very unfortunate. That’s our position.