Hon. Odeneye Kehinde, popularly called ‘’Ok is Okay’’, represents Ijebu Central Federal Constituency comprising Ijebu Ode, Odogbolu and Ijebu North East, at the House of Representatives. He hails from Ogbogbo and graduated from Lagos State University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN. In this interview, he speaks on pay cut for lawmakers among other issues. Excerpts;

odeneye

Can you tell us about your journey into politics

Before 2011, I hated politics with passion but, one day, I realised I could continue to stay at the background criticising politicians for no cause and I made up my mind to identify our problems and proffer solutions.

In September 2010, we attended a social function in the village where I met some of our zonal leaders and the first thing that came to mind was to advise them on the need to choose the right candidates for the 2011 elections. All I told them was ‘I hope you guys will choose those who can represent us well this time around,’ but to my astonishment, one of them said, ‘look, we have been discussing you all this while and we feel you have all it takes to represent us at the House of Representatives’’. My intention was to assist them in my own capacity to get the right candidate but I ended up being picked as the candidate and this beat my imagination. I told my wife what transpired thinking she will kick against the idea but, to my consternation, she gave me her support. Another interesting part of it is that, I could not boast of N100,000 in my bank account but, miraculously, I ended up spending millions of Naira for my campaign.



President Muhammadu Buhari apparently began his fight against corruption by advocating for a special court to try offenders. What is your take?

I want to congratulate Nigerians for having President Muhammadu Buhari who has something in mind that he was unable to complete before his regime was overthrown in 1985. God intentionally allowed him to be voted into power at a time Nigerians have lost hope of a better tomorrow. It is true that many people have tagged him ‘’Baba go slow’’ all in his bid to fight corruption.

The issue is that he came at a time Nigeria cannot boast of any meaningful development than oil and, gradually, the nation has grown from boom to doom. I wholeheartedly support his war against corruption and I know this will attract criticism because Nigerians are not used to this kind of war having been governed by one party for over 16 years. Many Nigerians have resigned to fate and this gave PDP members the opportunity to rule the way they liked.

We have been putting our trust in the cloud but God later blessed us with President Buhari. We must wage war against corruption and that is what Buhari is doing.

The special court is necessary to give room for accelerated hearing, the President wants incorruptible judges to this effect. If we don’t fight this war now, when are we going to do so ?

This is a country where an individual can boast of foreign currencies which can compete with the budget of a nation.



Mr President made some promises during his campaign. Do you see him fulfilling them by 2019?

I can assure you he is going to fulfil them but Nigerians should exercise patience with him because there are so many projects to work on. I am so glad to work with such a man who appreciates the problems on ground and takes time to study them. There are many companies who want to partner Nigeria in some programmes but they want to be assured of our readiness. They want to be convinced their investment will grow well before investing their resources. If those platforms are not provided, how will such partnership come into being? All what he is doing is to prepare the minds of Nigerians that he is in for a change. When everybody follows the rule of the law, Nigeria will be safe for all of us.

Some people are of the opinion that some of those around Mr President also have their hands soiled. Do you agree?

You cannot judge a person as being corrupt without presenting the evidence but he has assured there won’t be sacred cows as the laws are not made for the opposition party alone but for all Nigerians.

He said we are going to fight corruption in totality, even among party members, let’s not forget that we have the judiciary to do the job.



There is a proposal to cut lawmakers’ pay by 30 percent. What do you say?

President Buhari does not have the power to slash salaries. He cannot even slash his personal salary because there is the Revenue and Fiscal Mobilisation Commission to determine our salaries and remuneration. When reports said President Buhari was going to slash salaries, I was surprised. On the Revenue Commission can come up with recommendations that have to be tabled and discussed.

For those saying that members of the National Assembly earn so much here and there, I will seize this opportunity to educate them. When the head of the Revenue Commission spoke, he said the proposal was that no member of the National Assembly will earn more than N1,000,000. The truth of the matter is that even during my first tenure, I did not earn up to N1,000,000. All allowances including wardrobe allowance will be deducted from our salaries. Abuja is the most expensive place to be and this is where the senators are expected to live.

All agencies, parastatals and ministries have their own allowances. I wonder why people are not talking about the judiciary and the parastals but the lawmakers. May I state categorically that there is accommodation problem in Abuja and what this means is that the senators are left with the choice of lodging in hotels or renting apartments apart from the capital expenditure that is usually incurred by the lawmaker. Have you forgotten that many of us pay medical bills for people in our various constituencies and organise empowerment programmes?

ok

Yes. Let him call 911 sharply