I won’t stop speaking for the people – Bankole says, as he turns 40

Posted by Jenson Okereke on November 13th 2009

Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole, Speaker House of Reps.

ABUJA - Ordinarily, the birthday of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole should come with much fun-fare, but his Special Adviser on Communications, Chief Kayode Odunaro says the Speaker feels differently, as he sees it as a time for deep reflection on his life and thank God for His blessings all these years. The Speaker Rt. Hon. Bankole turns 40 tomorrow, 14^th November, 2009.

Chief Odunaro noted that the Speaker is of the view that: “40 as an age of wisdom is a time when one has come to full maturity and as such should be a time for reflection. He doesn’t believe in partying although he’s a Yoruba man. But obviously in his home town in Abeokuta, Ogun State, his friends, supporters and well-wishers are planning to celebrate in his honour, but he won’t be there; and that does not mean he’s not identifying with them. No placement of adverts in the newspapers. It must be a quite time for him. He intends to spend his birthday with his wife and only daughter in Abuja. So you can see the kind of man he is – very humble and down to earth – in fact, he believes that people shouldn’t be making so much noise about such things.”

Commenting on his experience so far as the SA Communication, Odunaro said that having served as a three time Chief Press Secretary to Governors – both military and civilians, there is a world of difference between serving in an executive and legislative environment. “As the executive, the man in-charge takes decisions without recourse to anyone. You can call it executive fiat, but in a legislative environment, the Speaker cannot take decisions alone. Decisions come about as a resolution from the entire house and it must come through voting. The Speaker’s duty is only to implement, inasmuch as he presides over the proceedings. So for me, it’s a whole lots of difference, because it impacts on what I do as an SA” Odunaro said.

According to Odunaro, the Speaker’s young age has been a major source of strength in his performance in the House of Reps. He absorbs lots of pressure. Most times he worked till 3am and the next day he would still come out at the scheduled time for plenary. “So you can imagine: after sitting in the plenary, he goes back to the office – receives visitors – both local and international, handle other official matters and still find time to go to play polo – a game he loves so much” he explained.

Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole became the Speaker of the House at the age of 37. After 2 years as the Speaker, a total of 88 bills have been passed into law, a record that no legislature has achieved. He has indeed taken the House to a different level entirely. Although critics say that most of the investigations the House has purportedly carried out have not come up with anything tangible, but the fact remains that the Duty of the House stops at the findings and recommendations, then it is left for the executive to implement. This means that if there is no execution of the recommendations, the legislature cannot be held responsible for non- performance.

It is also on record that the Speaker spearheaded the investigation of the issue of unspent budget. When he came in as a Speaker in 2007, from his experience as a former Committee Chairman on Finance, he insisted that some questions needed to be asked. It will be noted that the issue of unspent budget has been a recurring decimal and nobody asked questions. To him, unspent budget must be returned to State coffers, instead of being spent on frivolous contracts. The Speaker’s guts, observers say, have been attacked by cliques who have been affected by his transparent approach to legislative matters. In order to take back the pound of flesh from him, there have been allegations of corruption against him and thus enquiries conducted, but none of them had come up with any indictment. As it should be, the Speaker is not being perturbed by these allegations, but insists, “My duty as the Speaker is to speak for the people and I won’t stop doing that.”