Hon. Ganiyu Folabi Salau (AGF Salaudeen) is a member representing Omupo Constituency in the Kwara State House of Assembly. He is also the Chairman House Committee on Ethics, Privilege and Judiciary. In this exclusive interview with Opeyemi Adeoti, the lawmaker speaks on his efforts and plan to ensure his constituents enjoy dividend of democracy among other sundry issues
Your people entrusted you to represent them the second time after a successful first tenure. How will you consolidate on your first term achievements that earned you 2nd term in office?
I have to thank God for giving me the strength, the stamina, the courage and the wisdom to pilot the trust reposed on me by my constituents, it is indeed wonderful and it is one I really appreciate, the task would not have been very easy if not for God’s help. it is no gain saying that it is because my constituents were satisfied with my performance in office during my first tenure that gave them the confidence and courage to tell me to continue. Immediately after the election, I pledged that I shall not take the trust reposed in me for granted.
Going forward, what are you going to do differently for your people in this era
Thank you very much, during campaign in 2019 I went round and discovered that some of our communities did not have portable water, it was really worrisome to me and I marked some of these communities, during the 9th Assembly, I was able to provide portable water to some of these communities through sinking of boreholes, in fact, some Fulanis in the interior parts, we made sure that at least, we sunk well for them to solve their quest for water.
Water is life, I cannot imagine a community existing without portable water, so we’ll look into this and other areas. Road construction is also paramount, His Excellency, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq commenced road construction in parts of Share/Oke-Ode Constituency, I will make sure the road construction in Warantashi gets completed. Of course the style of His Excellency is that when he starts a project he would usually complete it.
We have some other roads that are of essence to our constituents such as Idofian-Igbaja road and Agbeyangi-Yaru road that needs urgent attention, these roads will of course give more life to our people, these roads are not tarred they are in very bad conditions. His excellency has graciously granted approval for these roads to be constructed and I am sure by the grace of God, everything possible will be done to make sure that these roads are embarked upon and completed.
There are so many other areas that we can be of benefit to our constituency and we are ready to explore those areas and give them the opportunity to enjoy the dividends of democracy.
In the 9th Assembly, we had just one returnee, but now in the 10th Assembly, many Honorables are returnees including the speaker, from your angle, How do you see the assembly leveraging on that to perform better than the previous Assembly?
Of course, you see, the first tenure so to say was mostly for training, in my valedictory speech, I said when I came into the assembly I was. coming with my legal knowledge, but when I got to the assembly, I discovered that it is different from my practice, different from where I was coming from, there are activities that happen in court that have the same name as some activities in the assembly, like when you are talking of motion, we move motions in court, a motion is a simple thing to a lawyer, so coming to the assembly now as a lawmaker, you feel relaxed that you know what motion is all about but when you get here you will discover that you have to learn what a motion is and how to move one.
Unlike in 2019, we have started on a very smooth note this time around, so we are going to leverage on that to do so many things. Also there are many laws on ground, we only need little amendments so that the laws meet up with the current age that we’re in, so many laws already on ground guiding day to day governance, we only need to examine how they suit the present realities on ground, laws that are archaic, how do we amend them whilst that is on-going? what are the new laws to be made to make our lives better? Another thing most people don’t understand is while we are bound to make laws, passing resolutions, over sighting and giving approval to His Excellency’s request, all these are our familiar expected activities including giving attention to our constituency. All these makes a lawmaker.
What should we be expecting from your committee in terms of oversight?
I chaired Ethics, Privilege and Judiciary and like I said earlier, we have a lot to do when it comes to oversight functions. It is a matter that will continue reoccurring because it is a way to assess the activities of government