Hon. Omirin Adewale Albert, Speaker Ekiti State House of Assembly
Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Albert Omirin, rose to the corridors of power in the state in unprecedented speed. He is a first time legislator who became speaker of the House. The 56-year-old medical doctor who represents Aiyekire Constituency 2 in Ekiti State, spoke to Vanessa Okwara about his early childhood and the challenges he had encountered so far.
You are a medical doctor by profession. What made you to study Medicine?
Was it something you wanted to do or did your parents choose it for you? I was very good in science. I led my class in the science subjects. Also, there was a time I did high jump in my grammar school and broke my leg. I was taken to the hospital. I was there from 7.30 a.m. until 11 a.m. And when the doctor came, the entire hospital changed. Everybody was running around. I got so impressed that a single man came to the hospital and commanded such attention. So I made up my mind that I was going to be a doctor. That was the major thing that inspired me.
During your childhood, did you have any challenge over a particular subject and how were you able to overcome it?
The major challenge I had academically was English. Throughout my secondary school, I never passed English. Even in my WAEC I was supposed to have grade 1 but because I had F9 in English, I had grade 3. That was because there was no good English teacher in my secondary school days. When I got to Federal School of Arts and Science, that was where I actually started learning English. In Federal School I was able to make a credit and pass my A levels too. I may not have been good in arts subjects, but I was a master of science.
Now that you are a leader, can you point out any particular event in your growing up years that actually prepared you for this?
My mentor as I will call it is the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo. I look at him as a good leader, the provision of free primary education in the South-West, the provision of the best stadium and the first television station in the whole of Africa. When I looked at his children, I wanted my own kids to be in that shoe. Along the line, I noticed that it is the children of politicians that were having the best positions in the government and even employment. So I made up my mind that I will venture into politics, because I want to be great like this people. That was what actually inspired me to join politics after my educational career.
What is the working relationship between the House of Assembly and that of the executive?
It is very harmonious and cordial. In a state where you have rancour between the state assembly and the executive there won’t be any progress. When the executive creates a bill and the house sits on it, it will not see the light of the day; but if there is a harmonious relationship, everything will work fine, just like we have in Ekiti State. The government is doing wonderfully well to support the house because of this harmonious relationship.
You are a fi rst-time legislator and also lucky to be the speaker of the house at the same time. What are the challenges you have encountered?
As a medical doctor, coming to make law, I had to learn some steps. Initially it was difficult but I have come to understand the ethics of legislating. Secondly, even when you have three children of the same parents living in the same room, they will have misunderstanding, one time or the other, much less 26 of us coming from different backgrounds meeting and working together, we really needed to study ourselves and get to know each other well. That is what we have been doing in the past one year. Along the line, we have had cause to disagree but we have gotten to know one another more.
What kind of bills have you passed since you became a speaker that has helped the rural people?
Virtually all the bills we have passed are meant to have influence on the rural people. The first one was the social security bill. This is a bill that is the first in Nigeria and probably the first in West Africa. In this bill our aged are given some stipends every month for their upkeep.
How much?
We give them N5,000 per month.
What is the age range of the old people who receive this money?
It is given to those who are above 60 years.
Do you have a list of such aged people in every community and local governments?
Yes, we went to do the registration before we started and the government does not discriminate which party you must have voted for, as long as you are an elderly citizen of this state. The condition is that if you are a pensioner, you will not be allowed to take it. Also if you have children that can look after you, you will not be given. We have some among them who have never counted N5, 000 in their life before. These are the kind of people we give that money to.
Is it only given specifi cally to Ekiti State indigenes?
No! Whether you are an indigene or not, once you are resident here, you will get it. I am also expected to look after my own parents. If my father and mother are alive today, they will not be entitled to take that money. I am also expected to take care of the aged from my own ward where I come from. The number of the aged that needed such assistance from my ward came up to be 48. I am expected to take care of these ones. So these are the conditions we attached to disbursing out such money.
We have also filed the gender violence prohibition law. This is a law that prevents our male from beating their wives. We have seen cases of women losing their pregnancies because of violence. It is gender-oriented because we also have women that beat their husbands as well. We have women who are powerful enough to beat their husbands.
We have also passed the freedom of information bill. We are the first to domesticate it in Nigeria. So you are free to go to any office of the government of Ekiti State to ask for any information. This helps to bring about acceptability, accountability and transparency on the part of government. If you know that this document can go out, then you will be careful not to soil your name. In the olden days there was what is called Oath of Secrecy; there is nothing like that any longer. You are free to go to any government office and ask for any document and you will be given, without the person giving it to you being punished.
Have you had bottlenecks when trying to pass any bill from the opposition parties in the house?
We have had opposition not only from opposing parties but also from the members of our party as well. The house of assembly is made up of men and women of integrity, professionals in their own right, so they have their own minds. When a bill comes in and we don’t agree, we trash it out because everybody has a view. Like the day we were having the lottery bill, some believe it is against their doctrine, so they argued against it; we had to convince them. Like the time we were trying to do the consolidation of the three universities in Ekiti State. Since we cannot marry three universities, we felt it was better to consolidate them, but the people who had these universities in their constituency and communities believed we were playing politics. They are members of my party and they stood against it. When they saw a superior argument, we all agreed. Bottlenecks are not only from opposition alone but even from members of your own party.
You have been a medical doctor before becoming a lawmaker. What is the place of health in politics; is there a common ground?
We have a common ground. Medicine is service to humanity. Apart from being a medical doctor, I am a member of the lion’s club where we serve humanity. Politics is serving at a wider level of humanity and service to the community. All my life, that has been my goal that I want to serve my people. You find out that it is service everywhere.
Recently teachers in your state were asked to write aptitude test, and they protested. What is the house doing to resolve this issue?
You know Ekiti State is called fountain of knowledge. Our main job here is education and farming. We don’t have industries and for every community and family in the state, you must find one or two graduates there. Also, if you look at the number of professors in Nigeria today, Ekiti State has the bulk of it. When you look at that, and the level of education we have today, you feel sorry for the kids. In a state where we say we are the fountain of knowledge and we are not even within the second unit in the country, you can see the level of decay. This is what the government is trying to look into.
Some of these teachers are not even competent to teach students. What the government said is not meant as an avenue to drive away teachers or retrench any of them. We said, ‘do these tests, let us know your weakness and know which area we are going to train you’. This is what the government wants to achieve with that test. I believe a teacher that is testing students should be tested too. The person should not be afraid to be tested. They hold the future of our children and the future of this state. It is in their hands.
That is why I strongly believe that the test is very essential. Let us know your weaknesses and know where we start your training from. They were comparing the kind of test we wanted to do for them with the type we did for the principals that saw some of them going home. From that test, the governor did not retrench a single one of them, but some people decided to retire voluntarily. We realised that in the secondary schools, we had senior and junior secondarys, being headed by two principals in the same school. The governor said there should not be anything like that. He wanted to merge them, which he did. In a situation where you had two principals in a school, the junior ones had to go back as vice principals. In the test we gave them, they were asked to enumerate their five-year plan for the school they are heading and that they should mention five schools where they will like their own children to go to. Some of them did not even mention their own school. Which means their own schools are not good. At the end of the day, the first set that passed the exams were made principals and the others were made teachers. In a situation where a person who had been principal for 10 years and did not pass the exam, is asked to go and teach, they decided to retire voluntarily.
The primary school teachers are now comparing the exam they are asked to do with that of the principals, which is quite a different thing. The government has good intention. I believe they should key into it. Nobody is going to use it to retrench anybody. It is not punitive in any way but used to assess their strength and how to assist them.
When the Federal University Oye was created, there were community clashes between two areas – Ikolie and Oye. What is the state house of assembly doing to reconcile the two ruling monarchs?
I thought the issue has been solved. When the state panel came to see where the university will be sited, they went to the governor who showed them where it will be sited. The senator who came from Oye used his influence in Abuja and changed the location to Oye. The president made the pronouncement on television. This now caused a problem and some people died because of it. But the governor and the president were mature enough and they were able to resolve it and proffer a solution by dividing the university into two campuses.
The president said he had made a pronouncement and there’s no way he could go back on it. The governor said he had made a pronouncement and there’s no way he will go back on it. The solution was to divide it into two, which I think is reasonable. I think this should have settled the problem between the two paramount rulers, apparently the two of them are going to benefit from it. The campus is being developed in Ikole and in Oye. Well this is what happens in a country where influence and lobbying work. For example in my local government, the headquarters was in my town village before but by the time Professor Aluko was the special adviser to Abacha, the capital was moved from my town to his own. We protested and nothing happened. Now we are accustomed to the system. I have not had time to sit down with the two Kabiyesi. I think the governor had sat down with them and urged them to resolve their differences.
This article was first published in the National Mirror on 09 September, 2012.
Last modified: November 24, 2021
