…Kabba is the only province headquarter today that is not a state capital
Senator representing Kogi West, Otunba Dino Melaye said he has done the best he can as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in last two years.
In an interview with the National Assembly TV anchored by Bamikole Omisore, Melaye said every legislator has three cardinal responsibilities; the act of law making through motions and bill, ensuring his or constituency gets fair representation and oversight functions at committee level.
“I will say to the glory of God, I have the highest number of motions in the 8th Senate and I am one of the leading members with highest number of bills in the Senate. I want to say that I have done brilliantly well in that regard and possibly that might be the reason why I was elected and honoured with the award of the best Senator 2016.
“The core responsibility of a Senator has to do with representation. This is to ensure that your constituency gets fair representation in the sharing of the National cake. In this regard, I have also done brilliantly well because I have attracted some developments to my constituency and not only in terms of infrastructural developments. I have also helped in terms of employments into federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.
“I have influenced a number of appointments at the federal level. I have attracted over thirty federal projects to my senatorial district spread across the seven local governments – schools, hospitals have been built, infrastructure are here and there.
“I have 56 projects in the present budget running into billions including the Kaaba – Ilorin express road. In terms of representation, I have done awesomely well! Also, I have done a lot of empowerment scheme and skill acquisition programs, relief materials distributed across the seven local governments, scholarship programmes for indigent students and over three hundred students are benefiting annually.
“Apart from that, I have given my constituency a voice. Today, if you ask who is the representative of Kogi Central, they will tell you it’s Dino Melaye. That is the voice that is needed, speaking for the voiceless.
“One of the most important bill to me is the bill on the establishment of University of Agriculture, Kabba. That is the upgrading of the present College of Education to a degree awarding institution and the bill has passed the first and second reading. We have had a public hearing on the bill and we are expecting that within the next two to three weeks, the reports of the referred bill will be presented by the Senate Committee on Education and the bill will pass by the special grace of God!
“I want to say this bill is very important to me because education is one of the major priority to the good people of Kogi West Senatorial district.
“It is unfortunate that Kabba province used to be one of the 13 provinces in the country and it is the only province today that is not a state capital, other provinces have become 2 or 3 states but Kabba province is still underdeveloped, neglected and one of our cardinal objective is to have a University of our own and I am glad that bill has scaled through and it has gone through public hearing and we are expecting in the next month by the grace of God that the bill will be passed. This is one bill I am very passionate about because it has direct impact on my constituents,” he said.
Senator Melaye hinted that he will be asking his constituents for promotion in 2019. When asked what the people of Kogi West should expect from him in 2019, the Federal lawmaker said in the next two years, his people should expect programmes.
“The man who has passed his exams demands promotion. I was decorated as the best senator 2016 and I just got a notice a week ago that I will be decorated as the best senator 2017, from all of these, I deserve a promotion”.
