I Ventured into Politics Because I Wanted Better Representation for my People – Rt. Hon. Laori …I Present My Scorecard Every Year, Says PDP Will Bounce Back as it is Still Nigeria’s Only Viable Opposition

Rt. Hon. Kwamoti Bitrus Laori, representing Demsa/Numan/Lamurde Federal Constituency in Adamawa State, has carved a niche for himself as a grassroots lawmaker with a passion for service. In this exclusive interview with citypost.ng Iyojo Ameh and Ugbede James, he speaks on his political journey, legislative interventions, and vision for his people. He also addresses critical issues such as insecurity, youth empowerment, and the future of the PDP.

Question: You started politics at a very very young age; How did you make your way into politics?

Answer: Thank you very much. My name is Rt. Hon. Kwamoti Bitrus Laori, I am a lawyer by training, and a politician by vocation.

I studied law at the University of Jos, and of course my law school in Lagos, and I also did my masters at the Federal University of Technology, Yola. I also have a certificate on security from the Swiss Institute in Switzerland. I am a member of various other organizations, and the current member representing Numan/Demsa/Lamurde Federal constituency in the House of Representatives.

I was not that very young but at least by the time I joined politics I was above the age of not too young to run. You know a lot of things happened during one election and I didn’t like the way things are going and we had a member representing us and I felt he’s not doing what he should do as a representative. He doesn’t even have a constituency office so I felt that look you cannot be saying this man is not doing right because you are not in his shoes.

You cannot be saying people don’t know how to do things. If you think you can do it why not go in and do it? I felt I can make a big difference from the way representation is being given and that’s why I ventured into politics and in 2003 I contested and I lost at the primary stage. With my loss at the primary stage I did not stop and I proceeded again in 2007.

I had opportunity to contest again. Not only did I win the primaries, I also won the general election and since that 2007 till date I’ve been contesting and I’ve been winning elections. For this I give it to my people.

My people are very educated politically and you cannot impose things on them. Once they make up their mind on issue you can’t change it. It may interest you to know that it is only in my constituency that there are five different positions and they elected five different people with five different political parties.

So this goes to show that my people are well politically enlightened and I trust them and I’m not taking for granted the confidence they have in me that they say I should continue to represent them and I’m eternally grateful for that and it is a promise that I have to keep and I have to work assiduously hard to ensure that they are well represented and what is due to them they get.

Question: Nigerian politics. Many people do not look at Nigerian politicians with good eyes in those days. How would you describe the political terrain in the country today?

Answer: Now the political terrain is in a bit of a mess, in a bit of confusion. It’s quite unfortunate that most of the political parties we have today has no ideology.

None of the parties we have today you can attach it to an ideology like the ones we had during the First Republic or during the Second Republic. At least those people have a semblance of political parties that have ideology. When you talk about PRP of course your mind goes directly to the Talakawa and when you go to the UPN you know that yes this one your mind will now go to free education.

When you go to GNPP you know all of them at least have a direction on what to do. Their manifestos are clear and that is what they are pursuing. Look at NPN. NPN came with a housing program and that is where we have all this shaggery housing unit in every local government of the Federation. You have it in every state. Every state has this shaggery housing unit.

It is a deliberate policy of the federal government then and it is a party program and they were following it systematically and assiduously and they build those houses. Now they also have a program of green revolution delving into agriculture. Now these are parties that have direction and you will see their programs there and when you go to other states you see that like Gongola state then it was GNPP you see GNPP program different. Kano with PRP you see their program different.

Now what’s coming now the parties will make so much noise about their manifestos and no any action being taken by those various parties to fulfill the manifestos they have gone to campaign with. You see that whoever is at the hems of affair runs the country within his whims and caprices because he can change things from today you say diverting to this and he was doing this and unfortunate for us we in this country are not holding people so much responsible and of course we is because of our division we have placed so much emphasis on ethnicity we have given religion a prominence and the front seat that it doesn’t deserve and that is seriously affecting us as a people and as a country. Today you would so much praise your constituents about their political enlightenment.

Question: The issue of thuggery, how do you address that in your own constituents among your constituents or there are no issues of a thuggery in your area during the elections.

Answer: You have those things where you have the highest concentration of non-indigenes but like I said my constituency is one of the most peaceful constituency and even when it comes to election it is a constituency that look you know that your vote will count.

You know that your vote will count and they will start to defend their votes. So the issue of thuggery you cannot rule that out completely I cannot say there will be no one or two cases but it is not in a scale that can be alarming or that we can say there are those issues there. They are so infinitesimal that you cannot even mention them when it comes to issue of election and electioneering in my constituency.

Question: Now this issue does not exist in your own place or if it exists it is infinitesimal like you said but thuggery is deadly.

Answer: These are people full of potentials, full of ideas and if you see them behaving that way is because they have not gotten a place for them to express themselves. So it’s our responsibility to create avenue where these young people will express themselves and by the time you keep them busy nobody is going to do that.

The fault lies with the government. What are the educational facilities are you providing or building on? None. And you know they are full of energy. They need places for them to dissipate this energy. So if you don’t create those environment for them to utilize it is a panacea for crisis. And of course you know we need to engage them.

I had several other programs that I engaged them in. I trained some in solar installation, shoemaking. I’ve trained some in peace building in the community and they were appreciated and after training of course I empower them. You know so these are programs that we need to put in place and we need to sustain it for us to take the youths serious.

You know if you sit down and talk to them and give them direction they will do. It is where some people want to deliberately take advantage of them that will be having issues with them. And I think we need to wisen up and open up.
Anywhere we feel that our youths will be put in danger by any other person, that person should be held responsible and face the full wrath of the law.

Question: Sir, in the National Assembly there was no week or two that there will be no standing up for one minute silence in the case of killings occasioned by unending insecurity in the country. And the motions have been moved several times. Are we not tired of this issue of moving motions and giving one minute silence to victims of insecurity in this country? Which way forward?

Answer: Really it’s quite unfortunate. One life one minute silence, many lives, one minute silence. It’s really becoming monotonous. It is true we have moved lots of motions in respect of all these killings, in respect of all this issue of insecurity.

The government came in on the mantra that they are going bring this insecurity to the barest minimum. In fact they are going to eliminate it altogether. You know the rest. But of course in reality we know that there is not any society that is a hundred percent without issue of insecurity. But it is the government responsibility to ensure that the Constitution is carried out to the letter.

The Constitution has spelled that security, well-being of the citizens is a primary responsibility of the government. But unfortunately government have not put square pegs in square holes but they are taking round pegs and putting them in square holes.
What do I mean? There are people that are saddled with the responsibility to tackle this issue of insecurities. We have various security apparatus. A lot of time you call them they will tell you funding.

The National Assembly will approve funding and then you will not see results. See results you know that are so dismal. It’s quite disheartening.
But I will put this squarely at the foot of the executive because it’s their responsibility.

The legislator is for them to draw the attention to the executive to do that. Also I was where I will now put a blame in the front at the doorsteps of the legislator is where sometimes we refuse to stand our feet and you know insist on things that government must do this or we are going to withheld some of these ones.

We have a right to do that but we will not do it because of sometimes primordial sentiments of ethnicity, religion or at worst towing party lines. No, it is our party that is decided. Let us peddle softly. No, let us not do this. We will rock the boat. It’s not an issue of party.

We are talking about lives of the citizens of this country and I think we we need to we need to up the scale. We need to up scale. Every life matters but unfortunately it’s only in this country that you see hundreds of people will be killed and then you will see nobody is held accountable. The security heads are there, heads will not roll. No, you will not hear anything again after a one week or two.

You will not hear anybody is arrested because of that. You will not hear somebody has been punished or jailed. So as long as there are no punishment and heads doesn’t roll in terms of those people that have been given responsibility, we’ll continue to have this.

Question: So as you are saying now, there may be no end in sight to the issue of insecurity because of our primordial sentiments.

Answer: The way for us to put the governments on their toes is to get up, put on our working shoes and gloves and go out and carry forensic oversight. Our oversight mechanism is very weak. And sometimes we go in there, we do our findings and do not make it public because maybe the president is from this party and the party is the majority and they will not hide the report to say, let us not embarrass the president.

Let us not embarrass whoever is in charge. Let us hide our dirty linens. Let us not expose our dirty linens. Now, this kind of attitude will not bring solutions, it will not bring an end to all these things we are saying.

But if we can just open up, it’s just like you have a wound, open it up, wash it and dress it and then it will heal. But if you are just covering it up, there is no way to heal. It will continue to be a sore and before you know it, gangrene will set in and your leg will be amputated.
So, the legislators have to wake up to their responsibility of oversight.

Question: Most analysts are saying that Nigeria is drifting to a one-party system and the victims of the movement from one political party to the other is members of your party, the PDP. How comfortable are you?

Answer : I am very comfortable. Like I told you, the parties we are having today have no ideology. If they have ideology, people will not move.
I remember we had a workshop organized by PLAC and Conrad Adenuer in Fraser suites in Abuja with people from Germany where the some issues were discussed and defection is very strange for them. Why are people defecting from one party to the other? It’s strange for them.

But, like I said, it’s because we don’t have strong ideology. And also, the party that we are having now has been distorted. The party, the National Working Committee of the party that is supposed to be very powerful, they are not powerful because they depend on the governor or the president to be funding them.

Normally, a party is supposed to run its own program. A party is supposed to call the president. I remember, Shagari cannot call Akinloye to Dodan Barraks for a meeting.

If it is a party matter, Shagari will leave Dodan Barraks and come to the National Secretary of the party for a meeting. And, if Akinloye speaks as the National Chairman of NPA, if he speaks on an issue, if you ask the president, Shagari, he will tell you that my chairman has spoken. And that’s the position. Because they have programs and they insist on whoever wants to have issues with the party must be a life contributor, must be a card-carrying member, must be paying his dues. People pay dues to participate in the party things.

But now, the party are relying on only those people that are elected to fund it. It’s quite unfortunate. So, the gale of defections we are having, it was the same thing. When PDP was in power, a lot of people were defecting to PDP. Now, it is APC. A lot of them are saying that they are out of their wits. So, they want an easy way out.

What is an easy way out? This is the party that is in position. So, let us align with it and get what we are going to get. And, if you are a party person and you love that party, you ought to be consistent.

You have to stay in that party. Why should you be elected in that party and you are leaving that party? I bet you none of those people that have been elected, that defected, has gone back to the people and called them together, those that voted for him, and said, I’m changing. So, as it is, yes, some people are looking for an easy way out because they don’t want stress.

They don’t want to suffer. So, they are looking for an easy way out and that is why they want to align with the government in power. But, I’m telling you, the PDP that you know will bounce back soon.

PDP is the only viable opposition vehicle that we have in this country. And, this is the only party that has never changed or has gone into any alliance. It has stayed on its own. All the others have metamorphosed from one part to the other. But, PDP has remained the most viable opposition vehicle. And so, like I told you, I’m not bothered about this scale of defection.

Time will come. When the election comes near, you are going to see what will happen. Some of those that defected, by the time they are angling for tickets and they don’t get it, you’ll see them, they will make a U-turn and go to another party again.

Question: What do you want this federal government to do for you that you can you beat your chest that yes, I have done this for my people?

The One thing I would love the federal government to do for us, of which I have written to the ecological department in the office of the Secretary of the Federal Government. I have paid for survey and year in, year out, our people have been at the receiving end of flooding. And it’s a simple thing that the government can do. There are certain places that the government will just build up, it will reduce the level of flooding. And, of course, building the buffer dam is something that has been overdue. So you can see the inconsistency in government policy.

If anybody comes, it is what he wants and how much he can get. It’s what is driving this country. If not, since the construction of the Lago Dam, we have been at the receiving end in the 80s up to now.

You are talking about 40 years we are still at the receiving end of the Lagdo Dam because of the damming of the Benue River in the Republic of Cameroon. We have agreed that we are going to build a buffer dam. We did not.

I have moved motion twice on the dredging of this river, Benue, in the chamber. Nothing is happening. Because it’s another way of, you know, ameliorating the suffering of our people from all this perennial flooding that we are. It’s to dredge the river. The sand can be sold. After all, those people in the Niger Delta don’t have sand to build. We have sand here that is very high in value that can be transported if it is dredged.

But, like I said, there are certain areas of the river once the government takes care of it, it will reduce drastically some of the flooding that is pulverizing my constituents year in, year out. I have done my part.

I have shouted about it. I have written about it. I have paid for thiings to be done. But the federal government has not done anything. And it pains me.
In respect of my contribution to the constituency, I think I have in all modesty I have set a standard. This is the first time that the federal legislature is doing project ward by ward.

Now, I have 30 wards. Out of the 30 wards, it’s only 4 wards that are remaining that I have not touched with projects. And, of course, by the end of my tenure, every ward will have a footprint, a signature of my project there. And, in essence what I am doing is setting a standard that whoever is coming, this is how you are going to reach the people because the vote comes from all these wards.

So it’s not just only for one local government capital or you have your town or your village and you put structures there and that is all. If we are sharing equitably some of these structures, some of these projects, you will find out that the development will be coming at the same level. But, unfortunately, sometimes we concentrate on the state capital, we concentrate on the local government capital to the detriment of other parts of the local government or parts of the state.

And I felt that is not good and that is not fair and that’s why I introduced this. It’s a new phenomenon, I’m doing it and I believe it is something that needs to be emulated by others so that people can feel the impact of those they have elected. And, of course, a lot of issues in my community has been raised here on the floor and I believe I am putting my best for them and for your information each year I do have a town hall meeting with them.

I go to give my people my scorecards what I have achieved and what to be expected in the next year so that they can hold me accountable.
Now, this is something that they have not seen before for somebody that is elected to come back each year call them from each unit there must be somebody from each polling unit.