It’s Too Early To Rate Kwara Lawmakers Achievements’, -Group

Less than 5 months into the life of the 9th assembly, precisely in November 2019, some members of the political class accused Kwara Must Change of keeping quite, over what they described as poor representation of Ilorin West/Asa federal constituency.

According to them, if it was during the reign of the defeated dynasty, Kwara Must Change would have led a call for the recall of the lawmaker representing the constituency,  Hon. Yekini Alajagusi.

But Honourable Alajagusi is not the only lawmaker being accused of none performance. Within few months of getting into office, almost all of the lawmakers from Kwara State have been accused of not doing one thing or the other.

In Kwara South for example, some dissatisfied youths and members of the political class had also mull similar narrative of recall against Hon. Ismaila Tijanni, the lawmaker representing Offa, Oyun and Ifelodun federal constituency.

As a matter of fact, advocacy and consultation was made to this regard.

Similarly, Hon Abdulraheem Ajulo Opin, Tijjani’s counterpart  representing Irepodun, Isin, Okeero and Ekiti federal constituency also wasn’t spared in this critical review. Ajulo Opin, who had earlier served the remaining months of late  Hon Funke Adedoyin was even nicknamed sakamaje by those who felt strongly about his person.

Cook Olododo, Ndakene and Hon Bio have also had fair share of their own criticism.

Furthermore, apart from members of federal house of representatives, the 3  Kwara Senators, particularly that of Kwara Central, Dr Ibrahim Oloriegbe and Kwara South, Arc Lola Ashiru has both been accused of one thing or the other and the same goes for members of the Kwara State House of Assembly.

All of these critical reviews were being made against them, just few months into office as legislators.

While the lawmakers would claim to be working, showing some activities they are doing, the political class on the other hand continue to come hard on them, forcing them to make certain personal commitments to certain individuals.

As a matter of fact, some of the lawmakers even had to engage social media agents to assist in propagating their activities, hoping that this would calm some nerves, since the social media seems to be the battle ground.

However, when one listen to the criticisms being advanced against these lawmakers, not many of them are based on substance related to their job as legislators.

While there are legitimate claims being made by some critics, some are outrightly unnecessary, as they do not even fall within the expected jobs of these lawmakers.

To make matter worse, some of the lawmakers themselves may not necessarily have a full appreciation of their own responsibilities, thereby focusing on aspect they consider important to the public based on public criticism, just to impress and be seen to be working.

The implication of this is that, our lawmakers maybe working only to impress or shut critics up, not necessarily representing the people in the way that would improve their lives and strengthen our institutions. I do not think this is good enough.

It is important to note that, not many in the polity truly understand the job of the lawmakers in the way that it should be understood and neither have the lawmakers themselves made efforts to sensitize the people. This is so because, some lawmakers have limited their own scope of operations to what is popular, rather than what is expected. But I am of the views that, all aspects of our legislative capacity should be fully explored, experienced and strengthened.

Let me also add that, it is practically impossible to rightly rate any law maker just few months into office, as such rating would be premature.

No matter how sincere, such rating would best be described as subjective and lacking in any kind of substance.

Yes, you can criticize singular action or inaction, but you cannot, in all honesty, rate the performance of a legislator few months into office.

It is this realization that propelled Kwara Must Change into maintaining its cool in the past one year to give our lawmakers the space to work over a legislative year, after which we would have something substantial to assess them on.

Although, 1 year, out of a tenure of 4 years can still be regarded as introductory, preliminary and planning period, but the plans and future direction of the term can still be assessed based on the lawmakers’ activities within this period.

So, as the 9th assembly near its 1 year anniversary, Kwara Must Change has therefore introduced a legislative assessment program simply known as legislative watch, to begin the phase one of a 4 phased assessment for all legislators in Kwara State.

The Legislative Watch is a novel national program by Grand Plan, a development and research based media firm, being piloted in Kwara State, Nigeria by Kwara Must Change. The program shall rate in a comprehensive manner, legislative performances within the first 1 year.

The Legislative Watch assessment shall be done in a professional and apolitical manner, with the aim of strengthening legislative accountability and help create healthy engagement, hoping that such engagement will create needed competition for legislative excellence.