Efio-Ita Nyok|30 August 2016
…No, no, no. I was in that meeting. I was opportune to be there when France, the French Embassy came in response to the kidnap of those foreigners… His Excellency responded…They responded also and what they are going to provide is internet services, kind of, there will be a hub, you are given the satellite footages, you can track criminal activities. I mean…we know definitely, the world is a global village, we need such information gathering…. Where presently you cannot pick from the super computers hanging in space, but here is where you can pick from —the hub, such services which you and I know that we don't even control, as a state, it's been controlled elsewhere
On Thursday 24 August 2016, Negroidhaven.org (Negroid Haven) met with Rt. Hon. Eteng Williams, the Honourable Member representing Yakurr II State Constituency at the 8th Cross River State House of Assembly in his Assembly complex office for a 20 minutes interview.
The essence of the interview was for Rt. Hon. Eteng who incidentally doubles as the Adviser to the Speaker of the 8th Cross River State House of Assembly and Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, to shed more light on some grey areas that surrounded the CRS Homeland Safety and Security Law 2016 recently accented to by HE the Executive Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade.
Amongst other things the Rt. Honourable reacted to some salient issues including his perspective on the the number of laws he has sponsored, 2016 Appropriation Law, Supplementary Budget for 2016, Green Police, the controversial Homeland Safety and Security Law 2016, communal crisis in Yakurr LGA, and a flurry of other concerns etc. What follows is an excerpt of his responses:
NH: May we meet you Sir?
EW: My name is Rt. Hon. Eteng Williams. I represent Yakurr II. I am the Adviser to the Speaker and also Chairman, Finance & Appropriation Committee of the House.
NH: Can you give us a summary of the bills you have sponsored in this 8th state House of Assembly?
EW: I am a second term member like you said; and also the Cross Riverian that has gone through a lot of elections more than any other Cross Riverian. Within this last one year I have done four elections and won all. And within this period I have missed out more than six months in the Assembly; more than eight months preparing and doing elections after every other persons has done his/hers. After that I have been able to sponsor a number of bills.
The very first bill in this House was sponsored by me, the Cross River State Infrastructure Fund Bill 2015 which as at then anticipates to warehouse the funds that accrues from the activities of the governor seeking for investors both locally and internationally for a handful of projects. It was my thinking that without this fund been adequately prepared for we would lose out. So, there was a bill that allows him to warehouse the accrued funds.
I also sponsored the Greater Calabar City Development Authority Bill. The state capital city is being chocked in a particular location. Calabar needs to expand and there should be a conscious effort to expand infrastructure. We don't even have layouts presently we call industrial layout like every other city in the developed world. So, Greater Calabar extends beyond Calabar; it embraces the entire southern senatorial district. We anticipate a deep-sea port in Bakassi, we should have infrastructural development from Calabar to that area, so that it will absorb it. We should have layouts like I said, the town should develop to be ready for investors that we are seeking and make adequate preparation for them. That is what gave the inspiration to do that.
There's also the Cross River State Tax Exemption Law, the low income earners you heard about which takes care of the vulnerable and those with disability and the rest. There must be a conscious effort and state policy, but most importantly a policy backed up by law that exempts certain persons from tax. The idea came from the Governor's pronouncement: There was a day the governor made this pronouncement and I went into research to back it up and I came up with the idea that if we say that between 0 – 6 grades level should be exempted we are doing disservice to the state, even to the people, the Constitution does not allow that and we cannot do what conflicts with the Constitution. And even if we do that, we are just being ambiguous. 0 – 3, we don't have them in this state, it's between 3 – 6, so if we say 0 – 6, it will look somehow to some persons… You might be in level 08, a person in level 06 in particular step earns more than you, and you might be in level 12 but you have certain problems that needs attention, so you need that window. Thus, we came up with this law that at every given budget year, at the beginning, before the Governor lay the Appropriation bill at the floor of the House, he should also come up with the list of every persons to be exempted in that year from taxation.
I also came up with another bill, Cross River State Revenue Administration Amendment Bill, that was just an amendment bill to give verve to internal revenue services, because we find ourselves in an area and situation where we don't have funds and we must…the agency that we've created is to address that, we must give it live and that gave room to the amendment.
I have also sponsored the Cross River State Port side Development Agency Bill. The Governor has not signed that into law yet, but it has to do with our port side. We have seen Tank Farms all over, we've also seen the trucks along the streets. There must be conscious effort to take them out. But we must make provisions for them and it should be backed by law. As a state, we have a responsibility to government. You cannot just come and put up a tank farm without going through the agency that is saddled with that responsibility.
Another one which I sponsored is the CRS Local Government Harmonised Fees, Levies and Charges Bill. You discover that we have double taxation. I represent a people and I feel their plights, I listen to their complain and one of the major complain in the state is double taxation. I have responded by going into it and making a research. We must harmonise, so that whatsoever the state is charging, the LG don't charge, if the FG is charging, then the state and LG don't charge. Again, we need a provisio that allows the Commissioner of Finance to fix prices to these charges, he cannot just fix them arbitrarily, he must lay it before the House of Assembly for approval. For us to deliberate on and you know we must consult with our constituents before approval. So, I came up with that.
Then I also came out with the most talked about one, which is the Cross River State Homeland Security and Safety Bill. I responded to an impulse which was the situation before now that Calabar was not safe, I come from Yakurr II where for the past 6 months we've been experiencing wars, how do I respond to my people's plight? I should be able to respond. As a legislator, I should be able to respond with a legislation that would be permanent. We are seeking peace, how do we seek peace? You must come up with something that is permanent. As for me, this bill is for the people. The responsibility of a government, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as Amended in Section 14, 2B is purely safety and welfare.
So, for security we must respond, if you don't respond to the yearnings of your people, then why are we here? As for this homeland security, I had to respond to the people because it goes down to the grassroot, not only Calabar. It is all encompassing; security is the responsibility of every individual, security is our own responsibility. There is a code name, also tagged there Operation KBR: you should know your Neighbour, Brother, Relation everybody around you. Its like a neighbourhood watch; and two, we are a kind of doing Community Policing. That is why when people ask me, is this not conflicting with the traditional police, I say no. This is information gathering. Purely information gathering. We gather information from them but we need to follow it up. Members of this corp can arrest, you know even you, there is a law backing you which we even went through yesterday in this House. So, that you have the right to arrest somebody and hand them over to the Police. We've just done the preliminary amendment, that is the one we domesticated yesterday so that you can arrest somebody…most times you are at the scene of the event you see somebody committing a crime, you can only call the police —arrest and hand the person over to the police. We don't conflict with the police because they will take it up from there; you don't have to prosecute crime because that is not your responsibility.
The Governor himself is so happy about the law that I got a golden handshake from him and an award. Besides, it's very very important because the people will benefit.
Take for instance State Housing, there will be two vehicles with phone numbers to call them, so every household will have the number, and people to be recruited to mount it are people from the neighbourhood. You, you that lives in that area, and you know when you live in an area, you know the people there. If a crime is committed, you know who did it within that area, every streets knows miscreants in that street, we know. That is why we are making Calabar a safe haven. Even in our houses, our wards, the chiefs, Paramount Ruler, clan heads are going to be part of it. The youth leaders, all the community leaders are involved… if you must be on the hub, then we have to conduct a background check on you before you are employed. In other words, when you see that almost everybody is involved, then crime will run away from us, especially the incessant killings, maiming, kidnapping and the rest. Because as you watch your neighbour, your neighbour is watching you. Any suspicious thing one does will definitely elicit a reaction and you will be reported to the police.
NH: Will France be performing reconnaissance for the Government of Cross State nay Federal Government of Nigeria via the Homeland Safety and Security Corp?
EW: No, no, no. I was in that meeting. I was opportune to be there when France, the French Embassy came in response to the kidnap of those foreigners… His Excellency responded…They responded also and what they are going to provide is internet services, kind of, there will be a hub, you are given the satellite footages, you can track criminal activities. I mean…we know definitely, the world is a global village, we need such information gathering.
That does not take away the beauty that this information are in our localities. Where presently you cannot pick from the super computers hanging in space, but here is where you can pick from —the hub, such services which you and I know that we don't even control, as a state, it's been controlled elsewhere, that is the satellite.
If they are giving us that support, fine! Making it easy for us. They are not going to mount it for us, we are the people to mount it because they don't need it. The only thing we need from them is the facilities, the support and which they have accepted to offer…so, we are looking at it from the support base (interviewer interjects: because we are looking at it from the controversial angle). It's the support base,… Because the vehicles are going to be have Internet services and facilities that can track criminal activities. I don't think any of us have invented anything (Rt. Hon. Williams talks smiling).
NH: Will the Homeland Safety and Security Corps end up like the Green Police whose officers we last saw at the U. J. Esuene Stadium on 1st October Independence Day celebration?
EW: Thank you very much. For the House we do our oversight functions from the law which is also our responsibility. And what I will tell you is, our responsibility is to make the law, we also oversight them and use the Appropriation Bill to monitor what they do. Because the Green Police came in at the period after the 2016 budget. And from the Appropriation, I am the Chairman, Finance and Appropriation Committee of the House, I even wrote to them and questioned it, from the Appropriation there is no provision there but they can also do that using a Supplementary budget which in the next few weeks you will see. So, we can excuse them; but here, we are going to provide it in the Appropriation bill and it's going to be there. So, there must be provision from the House. The House monitors this through the provision. We made a provision in the Appropriation bill. They are to obey the provision in the Appropriation bill and if they don't utilise it because there is no money, is a different game. Or, they utilise… whatever you do that is not in the Appropriation law, is criminal and you will be held responsible. Except you will explain where that money comes from. If the money comes from the Budget Office or from the Governor's Security votes, then it will be accepted. But, for me, I will advise that they do with the number they can take, maybe taking from the security vote from the Governor while waiting for the supplementary appropriation. But, in their wisdom, may be they want to have everybody captured.
NH: It was a pleasure meeting you Rt. Hon. Williams.
EW: The pleasure was rather mine. You guys are doing well. In CRS, the social media have been very critical to our good governance because they take you from the blind side.
