Hon Charity Aiguobarueghian is a lawyer of long years standing, former chairman Edo State Law Reforms Commission and member representing Ovia North East Constituency in the Edo State House of Assembly. He was the majority leader in the 24-man Assembly until recently when his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), became the minority party and he was also nominated as the minority leader. In this Interview with Francis Ogbuagu in Benin, he bares his mind on current issues in the Assembly, insecurity in the state among others. Excerpts.
Your party the People Democratic Party (PDP) days ago nominated you as the minority leader of the Assembly, this speaks of the confidence the party has in you. How do you feel transiting from majority to minority leader?
Indifferent, because I do not see any substantive impact, except on the capacity of the person using the position to positively effect the lives of those you are representing and for the wellbeing of the state in general. As a majority leader, I occupied the position for almost two years, it will be two years in June. I strived by all means to ensure that I delivered to my people the dividends of democracy. I also pursued people-oriented legislation, myself being a lawyer and having been a very consummate legal draftsman. Before the Edo State election, I was the chairman of Edo State Law Reform Commission and as a matter of fact, of inclination, I have always had a passion for lawmaking, law reforms, law development and using law as a tool to achieve societal stability and growth.
It is not the cloth that makes the monk, it is the personality. Yes, I know that the position of the majority leader has more responsibility than that of the minority leader especially in his direct connection in interfacing with the governor of the state, but insipite of that, it is a thing of capacity and pursuit. So taken over the position of minority leader, I have decided that I will make the best of it, that proper legislation that will impact our people positively are passed and in doing that I will look at everything with an eagle eye like the way we used to do, so that when it comes out, it be the best for our people, and that it benefits the interest of the highest number of people and at the end of the day, people will say that these lawmakers know what they are doing, it will not be that these lawmakers do not know what they are doing. I was originally elected to be a lawmaker. If I now get a new position, it’s a call to duty and to do it for the good of our people.
There were rumours from your party, PDP, that some members who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) were offered financial inducement. Were you approached by anybody?
No ! No! Nobody offered money to me for the purpose of defecting to APC, but that is not to say that, people have not made advances to me, which is usual. I have also made advances to people to join the PDP, I have largely been unsuccessful in that regard, but on their part, they have been successful. What informed their decision to go to the opposition party? Because they are opposition for me. That is what I don’t know, I don’t know if it was finance. I doubt if it is finance, because as members of the Edo State House of Assembly today, where we operate financial autonomy, money should not be the issue, whatever the inducement for that decision, it is left for the persons, but I was not offered money.
As the leader of the opposition in the House of Assembly, how do you intend that the legislative arm checkmates the other arms of government, especially the executive?
It is not just the duty of the opposition, but a responsibility of the whole legislative arm of government. We have a responsibility to be a check on the executive, that is the expectation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from us; that the parliament or the legislative arm should serve as check, so to that extent, the members of the Edo State House of Assembly have resolved to make sure that the best for the highest population of Edo people is what comes out of the Edo State House of Assembly. And whenever they bring anything that will not be in the best interest of Edo people, we will let them know.
So far, so good, all the demands that have been made in this House have been very developmental, beneficial to Edo people. To the extent that we are going to be receiving bills that are going to impact positively on the lives of Edo people. But if that is not the intention of executive, we will not shy away from letting them know that we cannot subscribe to it. As at today, all the demands that have been made to this House, have been legitimate and developmental driven. To the extent that we are going to be receiving things that are positive, things that are going to impact best on our people, we will definitely say yes.
What is your position on the Edo State 2024 Governorship Tribunal judgement that has re-affirmed governor Monday Okpebholo as the governor of Edo State?
Well, I ‘m a lawyer, and as a lawyer I have practised in the area of election petition. In fact that is how I came into politics, I will say I am a political lawyer, I was doing so many cases for politicians (pre -election, election and post election matters). We got discussing and as they say in our local parlence, ‘ who no go no know. ‘I have now come and I have now known. That being my background, though I was not there at the Tribunal, but I have studied the judgement.
I see the case as very appealable, I see some issues there that will be to the advantage to the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) Dr Asue Ighodalo and I know that if it is pursued vigorously and at the end if the judges thinks that the cases are good, it may go to the other side. If not, there is no problem. Ours is to work with whoever emerges for the good of Edo people. We have been elected even before the election (2024 Governorship election) Our election is on the purpose of lawmaking, it does not depend on who is governor or who is not governor. Our responsibility is well cut out for us. The Election Tribunal is the first point of call, like the candidate of PDP has said that he is going on appeal. As a member of PDP, I support the appeal, and I pray that he wins and whatever decision that comes from there, there is another level, which is the Supreme Court . Whatever decision the Supreme Court makes, as a lawyer we say as the court pleases.
What is your assessment of the administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo so far?
It will be too early to assess, the reason is that this administration inherited a budget that was already running, the administration started running its own budget in January, this is April, so for a four-year journey, I will not be able to properly assess this government. My conscience will not allow me say the government has done well or has not done well. If I were a governor, I won’t be talking of assessment on the fourth month of my first year. At this time, it should be at the stage of planning, not at the stage of execution, that will come after planning. When planning has been properly done, else, there will be mis-steps.
Looking at the issue of security. Some persons brought a protest letter to the Assembly some days ago on the incessant attacks by herdsmen. What do you think the Government should do to stem the tide?
The problem of herdsmen attack is a state wide problem. Because I was in the last administration of Mr Godwin Obaseki, I will tell you that there was a positively working programme on security. That’s another thing about democracy, there is continuity, you can’t say because I was not the one that owe a debt, I will not pay, and as well if it is something good, it will be best for you to adopt it. There was a security architecture that was on ground.
They used to call it Edo State Security Corps, we passed a law to legitimise that outfit in 2024, the Assembly went further to dip hands into our scarce resources to procure heavily guided motorcycles for speed and efficiency, I also know that there was a central command room where the activities of hoodlums, Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers and cultist were monitored from. Whatever form of criminality committed in Edo State will get quick response, because there was a channel of communication, where people who should hear, will hear and those to be mobilised will be mobilised. I think we should go back to that, where there Edo State Security Corps and also the Constabulary which work in covert system, so that they get information and feed the central command. So, whenever there is a challenge, the centre can quickly say, who is the closest person there to where this thing is happening. If criminals know that whatever happens there will be a very quick response, they will be very careful because nobody wants to die, even the criminals don’t want to die.
They will think twice, before they go into criminality, they won’t be as daring as they are now. It is becoming problematic. You know criminals will want to attack soft targets, they know our guards are low, I suggest we raise our game in the area of security interventions and the best way to do it is to adopt a system that has worked which this House legitimised. Remember that we had nine APC lawmakers then, but they were all in unison, supporting the passage of that law. Because it was for the good of Edo people, not for PDP, APC or LP. The reason is that if anybody is to be attacked they will not ask if you are APC or PDP. If there is anything we should not play politics with, it should be security.
And those people are our own people, most of them are apolitical, they don’t belong to any political party, we can still call them on a round table, arm them, many were trained at the police barracks, Ogida. The director of DSS the other day came out to say that if it were not that the people in Bauchi State were armed when the people were attacked, they would have been overwhelmed by terrorists.
But they came out with their own arm and fought back. The terrorists never went there again. This should be a case for self defence, the government should arm them with guns that are allowed, let it be licensed, let it be profiled by the police, so that it should not be a case of laying prostrate, while terrorists have a field day.
What are your achievements as a member of the Edo State House Assembly in the last two years?
Well, ordinarily, this should be something that a third party should do not me.
But, let me mention some things we have done. I said earlier that I am a lawyer of long standing, that I am a passionate believer in law reforms. I have also trained myself to be a draftsman, and by God grace I was appointed chairman Edo State Law Reforms Commission. So, coming here with that wealth of knowledge, and experience, I have been able to push for the passage of several peoplegoriented law as a majority leader. I have sponsored more than 22 bills that had been passed into law in less than two years.
Some of the ones that I am very proud of are: the amendment of Edo State Law on Anti-cultism; the Edo State Security Corps Law, 2024; the Edo State Oil Palm Produce Law, 2024; the Edo State College of Agriculture, Ugiuoriakhi Law, 2024 ; the Edo State School of Nursing and Health Technology Law, 2024. Others are: Edo State Electricity Law, 2024 among others.
In the area of interventions, I have concentrated more on education, the reason is that a man who is educated becomes impossible to be a slave, even when he wants to be one. The education would have emancipated him. To that end we have renovated primary schools and provided chairs.
