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It is no longer news that one of the finest hand Ijumu is having in Kogi House of Assembly and a gallant servant formerly under the umbrella party called PDP has left the umbrella to hold onto the broom for better sweeping of underdevelopment from our land (Ijumu/Kogi as a whole).
His peoples’ opinion on his defection: there were cross feelings by the people of his constituency. Some people believe he should remain in PDP to get a better bargaining power to drive home benefits while other believe he has made a right decision that will make him have more voice, they believe he will have more voice has a member of the ruling party than staying in the opposition. Sampling people’s opinion on this issue, 81 percent of respondents believe he has made a right decision for the progress of his constituency.
Implication by the Constitution: There has been heated debates on whether the constitution should allow for carpet-crossing or not, but the recent constitution amendments carried out by the National Assembly (NASS) has put an end to the arguments.
A reversal of the 1999 constitution recently, the Senate voted to legalize defection among members of political parties. This development was a fall out of the amendment of Section 68(1) and (109(1)) of the 1999 Constitution which dwells on political defection for members of the Senate, House of Representatives and Houses of Assembly.
Section 68 (1) and 109(1) of the 1999 constitution under the” Tenure for seat of members” states that: “A member of the Senate or House of Representatives (House of Assembly) shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if-
(g) Being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected, provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
The provisions of these sections of the constitution were explicit in matters which concerned the legislature. It clearly mandates that any member of the legislature, who intends to defect to another party, must prove that division exists in the party of which he was a member, which even to a deaf, dumb and blind person will feel or smell from the wind blowing around that there is division in PDP today. This laid to rest the issue of whether he should vacate his seat or not.
It is only a deep thinking and selfless politician that will think of defection just to bring more dividend of democracy to his people rather than staying in the opposition where he can be antagonist to the governor and thereby attracting attention to himself from the executive arm as some of our politicians are doing today just to bring money to his personal pocket.
Benefits of his defection: as a good citizen and someone that believes in democratic procedure, instead of moving against the new direction governor on the screening exercise that has thrown the worker and Kogi people at large into unexplainable hardship which will win him public/worker sympathy, he simply implored him to soft-pedal on it as the screening is causing more havoc than good to the people of the state. With his recent defection, we want to believe that he will be able to use his closeness to the governor (Same party) to make him see reason(s) while the aims and objectives of the unending screening should be revisited.
Also in his recent saying, he said “I put Ijumu first in every step I take in politics and drawing the government closer to my people to enjoy the dividend is my fundamental priority”. We want to hope that as chairman house committee on works, he will be able to use this new relationship as party member to bring the attention of the government to deplorable state of our roads in Ijumu land most especially reconstruction of Kabba-Iyamoye road and not its rehabilitations.
Why Hon. Victor Adewale Omofaiye is one of the best hand when we talk about Kogi politics today: in recent times, many water has gone under the bridge of Kogi politics where there were accusations and counter accusations by the players, but surprisingly, Hon. Omofaiye has never been dragged into this politics of bitterness or personal pocket syndrome. He is known as a perfect gentle man who always face the reason(s) why he was elected by his people, his favorite quotes at every occasion is always “I put Ijumu first in every step I take in politics and drawing the government closer to my people to enjoy the dividends is my fundamental priority” how many of our politician can say this? This is why some people believe he is God sent of our time, some do call him a Godly Politician, a silent achiever, to call him voice of the voiceless is an understatement; his role on the on-going screening exercise by the new direction government while still in PDP is worth commending, he did not only support the worker in his primary constituency but Kogi workers at large.
A man whose many bills, motions and point of order on the floor of the house has given hope to the hopeless in his constituency and beyond, this is one of the reason why he keep getting award from every corner of the state and beyond. This highly honourable man is tested and trusted as one of the leader that will lead Ijumu, Okun, Kogi and Nigeria to greater height in the nearest future.
Long live Ijumu, Okun nation, Kogi and Nigeria.
– Ibileke Oluwaseyi (B.Sc, ACE, MBA, DIP. CIIN)
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