The 9th Assembly is about completing its term. As a member of that chamber who recently won a fresh mandate, can you give us an appraisal of that Assembly in terms of performance?
To the best of my knowledge and ability, the 9th Assembly is a stable Assembly because if you look at the past, there were threats of impeachment here and there which usually mar a tenure of an Assembly. However, this 9th Assembly has been very stable. That stability of the 9th Assembly under the leadership style of the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaks volume. He has done very well for the Assembly. However, this will not be complete without a loyal deputy. His deputy, Idris Wase, has been there for him, he has done very well for him and the 9th Assembly has come out victorious. A lot of bills and motions have been passed which the executive has worked on.

There is a perception that both chambers were a rubber stamp parliament of the executive. Obviously, those of you on this other side see it as building harmony between the executive and the legislature. How do you disabuse the minds of those who believe you did not put the executive on its toes?
No, I don’t really believe that we were a rubber stamp because for this country to grow at this period, the executive needs much of the cooperation of the National Assembly. All we are looking for is for Nigeria to grow. We cannot grow when we are fighting. There are many ways of correcting the executive through various oversight functions which the House is noted for and we have done that excellently well. We don’t need to wash our dirty linens outside. All we want is for Nigeria to be prosperous and grow.

The smooth, cordial relationship between the executive and the parliament is predicated on the fact that the 9th Assembly has a comfortable majority but the fear out there is that the emerging 10th Assembly might not enjoy that in terms of having a comfortable majority to pull through?
Yes, you are correct. However, you know we are all politicians. The structure or composition of the National Assembly as we speak of the 9th Assembly is not a straight jacketed thing because no party can make claim to a huge majority. However, the trust we have is that the leadership of our party knows the right thing to do. We are all politicians, and we know about relationship building. Anyone that is campaigning now to be the Speaker has to carry everybody along. So that is why I said we are all politicians, we know how to navigate on all these things.

That brings us to the issue of zoning of different positions in the National Assembly. They have four positions that are being contested for. From what you have seen with the current President from the South West and his Vice from the North East, which region would you advise the party to zone the speakership and deputy positions to?
Naturally, it is a very simple thing if we don’t put emotions into it. The North and South have three regions each. The South West has produced the President, naturally, the Speaker can not come from the South West. North East has picked the Vice President, naturally the Speaker can not come from that area which means from the two bipolar levels of South and North, two regions are left. So, in the North, we are left with North West and North Central. And looking at the advent of democracy till today, the North West has produced four speakers. They produced Aminu Tambuwal, Salisu Buhari, Ghali Na’abba and Aminu Masari.
So, morally this should not be a big thing. Naturally, it should just go to the North Central without causing instability in the National Assembly. Yes, North West has contributed hugely to the electoral victory of Asiwaju Tinubu. Can we say that because of the electoral victory, the South East and South South should be blocked out from taking any leadership position in National Assembly? No.

So in this case where will you put North West which by peoples estimation contributed the highest votes for the president-elect if you are to advise the party?