In parliamentary setting, the world over, Legislative Aides have always play critical roles in strengthening democracy as they serve as researchers and knowledge basins for their principals and lawmakers in the upper and lower legislative Chambers of the State and National Assembly.

Like their principals who emerge through elections, legislative aides have over time demonstrated democratic norms that their executive officers emerge through elections conducted in-house by members of the forum.
The National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum, NASSLAF is set to conduct another election, the first since the 10th National Assembly which came into being on June 9, 2023 with virtually few members indicating interest to contest for chairmanship of the forum.

Unarguably, the time has changed for the Legislative Aides Forum of the 10th National Assembly and this time, the forum is searching for ‘primus inter pares’, the best among equals to serve as Chairman, given the indicators that the NASS management, Legislators in the upper and lower Chambers and their aides could harmoniously work to get the best out of the system.

Among those indicating interest to contest for the office of NASSLAF is Prince Barrister Afeez Kilani, who is popularly known as “Alhaji Prince Afeez Kilani” among his folks in the National Assembly. The Shaki born trained lawyer has been an aide to the ranking Senator Abdulfatai Buhari representing Oyo West Senatorial District. For nine years, Afeez Kilani served his principal, he has contributed in no small measure to the success of the lawmaker that has made him win elections on three consecutive times, a record no has broken in elections to the upper legislative chamber in Oyo State.

Kilani is not just naturally calm, mien, introvert and a man who is given to details on his job, but he cares and listens to concerns of not only constituents of his principal, but anyone who comes around the office to see his principal.
This is no wonder a member of the Legislative Aides Forum, from the North West, but who did not want his name disclosed told CAPITAL POST penultimate week, saying: “We have been in the National Assembly for nine years, some have spent times more than that, while some have less time they spent, but I honestly want that young man, Prince Afeez Kilani from Oyo State to emerge as our Chairman in the forthcoming election of NASSLAFF.”

“NASSLAF is about welfare of members and we have seen in times past where Kilani has used his personal resources to assist the forum to get issues sorted out and has canvassed for welfare even when he wasn’t a an exco member.”

According to him, he was excited when Kilani indicated interest to contest election for the office of NASSLAF chairmanship.
A member of the forum who disclosed his name as Abdulhamid was of the opinion that the Chairmanship of NASSLAF should be released for the South Westerners, insisting that rotational leadership would ensure cohesion, adding that whoever was considered fit and competent and has the approval the zone, should be voted.

According to him, he didn’t know much of Prince Afeez Kilani as he was less than a year in the National Assembly serving as a Senior Legislative Aide to a member in the House of Representatives, adding that some of them would be guided when the election comes.
He said, he got to know Afeez on the day he declared his interest, saying: “I could see quality of leadership in him in the way he was reaching out to some zones and try to reveal the innovation he intended to bring to bear on the NASSLAF.”
Meanwhile, ahead of election, Prince Afeez Kilani was on Monday endorsed for Chairmanship of NASSLAF, even as endorsement turned into testimonies of his leadership quality especially in the parliamentary setting by some members from the six geopolitical zones of the country.

Kilani in speaking with journalists, after his endorsement, said he has adequate experience having rose from Legislative Assistant 2 in 2015 when he came to the National Assembly to Senior Legislative Aide in 2024.

The lawyer vowed to build consensus and bridges between the NASS management and the forum that would bring about ease of transactional leadership that is most needed in the 10th National Assembly NASS-NASSLAFF for the betterment of all.

He has noted: “With that understanding, I am in the best position to pilot the affairs of the National Assembly Legislative aides. If you give me your support, I am going to serve you better.”

He explained that diplomacy in required in the handling of relationships between the Aides and the NASS management, stressing that as a Lawyer, he is well versed in dispute resolution and dialogue approach rather than confrontation in form of strike or protest.
“We are in the 21st century, and as a lawyer there is what is called alternative dispute resolution. In labour law, it is very important that confrontation, protests should be the last thing, should be on the last burner.

‘The first thing is negotiation, good approach to issues, we are in a democratic era. It is when all that fails that we can adopt confrontation which we are not going to even adopt. Prince Kilani said: “I have been here since the year 2015. I got here as a legislative Assistant, that is LA2 and because of the level of dedication my boss promoted me to LA1 in 2019.

“Now I am the SLA to the distinguished Senator Buhari Abdulfatai, he is a third time Senator in the Nigerian senate.

“With this carrier progression, coupled with my experience in the National Assembly, at least I have run through the ranks of the aides of the National Assembly.

“I think I am in the best position to understand the yearnings and the needed welfare of the legislative aides because I have gone through the ranks of the legislative aides.

“We don’t want a situation whereby an aide or a chairman will be elected and he will not understand what other legislative aides are going through.

Kilani graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University where he studied Law and later attended the prestigious Nigerian Law School after which he was called to the Bar.

He hails from Shaki West in Oyo State in the South West Nigeria and has been involved in grassroot politics before he was appointed by his principal.

“I know with my skills as a lawyer for more than 11 years of experience, it is not going to be difficult for me to meet with management to convince them of the reason why they should take care of us.”

Chairman of the Southwest National Assembly Legislative Forum, Ogumawola Ebenezer, said, “As you can see the ovation is loud because we have gone through rigorous screening and Southwest as a leading zone when it comes to affairs of the NASSLAF. We have taken everything into consideration and we decided one voice to queue behind our own Barr. Afeez Kilani as our candidate

“We are tired of recirculation of warn out leaders. We don’t want people that have been circulating themselves since the 5th Assembly.

“You have heard the voice of the aides, the first timers, and the semi first timers and we have decided as the South West zone we have decided to put our own, someone whose door will be opened, who will not stay in the office wanting people to come and meet him.

“He is someone that will go round to know the needs and yearnings of the aides. This is the man we are looking for. This is the reason we are doing to stand by him, He is not for South West but for all the zones.

Olusola Olugbami AKA maintain said they need Somebody that will do what others have not been able to do, you know in the South West, we don’t take the back seat.

“Whenever we said we have resolved to do something that is what we will do. This is our candidate and by the grace of God, he is going to emerge victorious.

By Abdullahi Mahmood

You may have seen a bunch of photocopied documents labelled “EC Conclusions” and marked “16th Meeting” which have been flying about. We did receive them again in the circuit this morning and decided to take a deeper look at these and share this view with the public. These documents are also marked “Secret”, but they are no longer secret because they are being widely circulated to all and sundry. The documents boldly bear the stamp of the “Presidency, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation” and was certified by its “Legal Department on the 7 September 2022”. They are the same documents that are referred to in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Barrister Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in December 2023. They are the same documents that the former President Obasanjo brandished at his interview with journalists in late August 2023 and the same ones that he (Chief Obasanjo) would quickly toss before the anyone who cares to hear his attempts to clear himself of any blames or faults in respect of the lingering Mambilla Power Project crisis.

The readiness of the former president Olusegun Obasanjo to remain a major player in the Mambilla power project saga was reasserted by TheCable, a Nigerian news vendor which reported on Wednesday, 13 Dember 2023 that Chief Obasanjo “has informed the federal government that he is ready to testify for Nigeria ‘in any forum’ over the disputed Mambilla power contract”. This was within a few hours of the unannounced arrest of the former Minister of Power Dr Olu Agunloye by EFCC on same Wednesday. TheCable which is thought to be controlled by or affiliated to a former Minister of Power under the Buhari Administration also published: “Obasanjo pledged his ‘continued commitment’ to assist the government ‘by shedding more light on these matters as may be required of me’, adding, ‘I have therefore resolved to make myself available to testify in Arbitration or any forum should you consider it necessary in our national interest’”.

Seeing these “secret” documents in circulation again reminds one that Chief Obasanjo did not explain to the public or those to whom he circulated the suspicious “EC Conclusions” of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, that he (as President of the Federal Republic) did not conduct any FEC meetings for the rest of May 2003 after the 21 May 2003 meeting. And that, in fact, he did not conduct any FEC Meetings throughout the months of June and July 2003 and, not until about middle or late August 2003, did he conduct the first FEC Meeting but with new members of the FEC, most of who were not at the meeting of 21 May 2003. Chief Obasanjo has yet not circulated the Minutes of the meeting of FEC where the Minutes of the 21 May 2003 meeting were presented, amended, and adopted and has not stated when the undated “EC Conclusions” he is brandishing were extracted. He has also not yet disclosed that he knows that “EC Conclusions” are not the same as “Minutes of FEC Meetings”.

Contrary to Chief Obasanjo’s claim in his letter of December 2023 to President Tinubu’s Attorney General, Barr. Fagbemi, as published by TheCable, Ministers had statutory powers to award contracts in 2003, and if this was not satisfactory to the President or FEC, either of them had the power to cancel the contracts. As the Minister of the Federal Republic in charge of the Power and Steel Ministry, Dr Agunloye admitted that he awarded the Mambilla Power Project as a BOT contract at zero Naira cost to FGN in May 2003. The President or FEC had powers to cancel the contract and if they did, they were bound to communicate formally and officially such to the Minister which they never did to date.

Contrary to Chief Obasanjo’s claims in his public letter to President Tinubu’s Attorney General, Barr. Fagbemi, that he (Obasanjo) never knew the 2003 BOT Contract was ever awarded, the then Minister of Power, Sen Liyel Imoke, under President Obasanjo, on 3 September 2003 wrote Sunrise, the awardee, to repudiate the validity of the 2003 Mambilla BOT contract and later in meetings with Sunrise and its lawyers, he (Minister Imoke) said he would report back to the President as he was expected to do. Chief Obasanjo is also feigning ignorance of the following facts: that his own personal lawyer and bosom friend, legal luminary Chief Afe Babalola, SAN wrote to his (Obasanjo’s) Government in Feb 2005 that the 2003 Mambilla BOT contact was legitimate; that the then Attorney General of the Federation, Barr. Michael Aondoakaa, SAN wrote to President Yar’Adua in 2007 that the 2003 Mambilla contract was properly awarded, that the then Attorney General of the Federation, Barr. Abubakar Malami, SAN officially confirmed to President Buhari and Minister Fashola in 2016 and 2017 that the 2003 Mambilla BOT was legitimate, and that Chief Femi Falana, SAN also wrote to President Buhari in 2018 and 2020 that the BOT Contract was proper and legitimate.

As a matter of fact, the statutory power of a minister to award contracts without explicit approval of FEC was taken away by the same President Olusegun Obasanjo only in November 2005 with the new edict, the ICRC Act 2005. However, Dr. Gbolahan Elias, SAN had pointed out to FGN in 2018 that the ICRC Act 2005 was not made retroactive and could not be applied to the 2003 contract awarded by Minister Agunloye.

Verily, it is of public interest that Chief Obasanjo’s now customary defence to clear himself of wrongdoings in the Mambilla Power crisis or of alleged corruption during his eight-year tenure as stated over and over by him and especially by TheCable may be misleading because the “Yar’Adua power sector probe of the 2000 to 2007” roundly indicted the former President Obasanjo and all his Ministers of Power except Chief Bola Ige and Dr Olu Agunloye. Also, the former President Olusegun Obasanjo is yet to absolve himself from allegations of mismanagement of a cash grant of $16 billion (sixteen billion US Dollars, approximately N24 trillion, today) that he claimed was spent on power sector procurements, considering the Col. Dangiwa Umar’s “Notes on Obasanjo in respect of the power sector from 1999 to 2007” and the damning investigative report of The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) of 2017 on the power sector titled “From Darkness to Darkness – How Nigerians are paying the price for Corruption in the Electricity Sector”.

Mr. Abdullahi Mahmood.
The Mambilla Collections.

By Qbiodun Komolafe

Nigeria is at a critical juncture; and in such a context, it is “cometh the moment, cometh the man”. For President Bola Tinubu, this adversity should be turned into a historic advantage which should propel him to be the creator of a new society and his place in history will be assured, not for all time but forever.

Men who took advantage of their opportunity include Park Chung Hee of South Korea, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. Take it or leave it, Nigeria is in it already but this is a historic task for Tinubu to right the wrongs; and it must not be long. In life, every day counts! Tinubu has already spent more than 20% of his four-year tenure.

By May 28, 2024, he will have used 25% of his tenure as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. So, the clock is ticking and time waits for no one! Reinventing the wheel shouldn’t be an option!It is a historic turning point for Nigeria and Tinubu has a historic opportunity to position himself as the creator of a new political economy and the builder of a new Nigeria. If he gets it right, especially by reconstructing an economy that was hitherto based on parasitic activities, the country will never look back.

If he is able to midwife a production, export-led economy, the changes brought will be irreversible and Tinubu will become the equivalent of Hee, Yew, and da Silva. Then he should forget about the next election as his place in history as the creator of a new Nigeria will have been assured and cemented. It will have been signed, sealed and delivered!

According to Karl Marx, “men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past …”

In a word, Tinubu is asked to make history but not in ways that he would have chosen or wanted but he still has to make that history in a positive manner.

In order to attract more support from the masses therefore, what is expected from our president is to understand that sermons will not quench thirst and hunger even as change is not expected to be in a day but a daily process. He must understand that dispensational factors are expected to play notable roles in the fulfillment of his agenda for the Nigeria of his vision and that the opposition and those benefiting from the afflictions confronting Nigerians are not relenting.

Since they are condemned to the monstrous conventions of politics, they aren’t going to sleep either. But if the president asked not to be pitied, Nigerians are seriously asking for his pity. Tinubu is expected to represent the progressive currents that have passed through the Nigerian space, going back to the foundation of ‘Egbe Omo Oduduwa’, Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) and others.

So, the president must return to the basic tenets of social democracy – the German-type social market economy and shared prosperity.But why are his ministers not functioning and why are they not talking to Nigerians about what their respective ministries are bringing to the table to help Nigeria out of this socioeconomic morass?

For reasons best known to most of them, there’s no functional, mobile and serious in-house media to help coordinate their media outlets other than the usual ‘kick-and-start’ creation of bureaucracy. There is no meeting of minds and it’s as if our ministers are scared of taking bullets for the president, which, of course, is one of their central functions as presidential aides. 

The two performing ministries in times of Balance of Payment crises ought to be Solid Minerals and Blue Economy. In the 1960s, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) alone provided not less than 42% of the Federal Government Budget, up to the end of the First Republic.

Impliedly, the Marine and Blue Economy under Gboyega Oyetola should be prepared to give about 18% of Nigeria’s Budget with ease. Whether we like it or not, Nigeria has to export her way up out of the wahala in which she’s currently immersed. To respond to the Balance of Trade and currency crises, the economic strategy is to export in order to import with a view to balancing its payments. One of the reasons the world continues to remember former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Bill Clinton is that, immediately after they assumed office, they set up what could be referred to as public sector targets with fixed timelines for every minister. Because they did that, the ministers were very effective, not just because they were brilliant. It’s because they had targets that were eventually met; and that’s why the two leaders ended well.

In Nigeria, how do we appraise performance without targets and timelines? Therefore, Tinubu should give every minister public-sector targets with fixed timelines as it’s done in sane climes.

This is very important because every hour counts! The performance evaluation team put in place by the president also has to give a dispassionate report on the ministers because Nigerians expect more from them. If truth be told, those who have been assuring Nigerians that all would be well are not telling us something new. As we speak, the hypocrisy of the dollar remains unsurpassed even as the inflation rate is 29.9%.

Yes, that terrible record is the highest in 28 years. The more reason Tinubu needs our prayers! Here’s a man who said that nobody should pity him because he asked for the job, that the current pains were products of his tough policies geared towards revamping the economy and that the situation would soon begin to smile. However, laudable as these promises may be, it is perhaps because most Nigerians see the president as being above their level that his messages seem not to be resonating with them.

They don’t see him as speaking the same language with them, coming down to dance their dance or taking their brand of tea. Should the president continue this way, his reforms may become wounded and, his legacy, troubled.As a Yoruba leader of the Afenifere bent, Tinubu’s cardinal focus should be the creation of state police, restructuring and better life for all. God forbid, should he miss this rare opportunity, then there may be no hope again for the progressives and Yoruba race will be worse for it. Yes, he might have come at the wrong time but the satisfying truth is that he remains the right man for the job. He is a pro-democracy fighter and an advocate for human dignity.

He has promoted self-rule with all his might and fought oligarchy and shallowness of thought in governance. He has led many situations perceived to be for the good of all and spearheaded measures aimed at restoring values and a new beginning. 

So, what practical things does Tinubu want to do in practical ways that will bring practical succor to the people? If it is a four-lane road that he’s going to construct from Ijebu-Jesa, my Native Nazareth in Osun State, through Fenwa Community in Oyo State, to Daura in Katsina State, the president should let us know! If it is power, he should give instructions to Adebayo ‘Penkelemesi’ Adelabu on how to move beyond cruising in the unmatched comfort of wattages of darkness to truly deliver on his mandate.

Nigerians are no longer interested in excuses that do not edify prosperity. What Nigerians want going forward is result.May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!*KOMOLAFE wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)