Nigeria needs strong institutions –Hon Amadi

Honourable  Bethel Amadi is a  member of the House of Representatives and the incumbent President of Pan-African Parliament which has its headquarters in South Africa.

In this interview, the lawmaker spoke on a number of  pressing national issues.
At 54,  the country is still beset with a lot of problems. Would you attribute it to  the leadership or followership? What do we need to move the country forward?
Your question about leadership or followership, I think it’s a combination of both. I’m convinced that what we need to do in this country, is to build strong institutions. It’s not an issue of having one or two good leaders, or one or two people who are doing the right things. But more importantly, we need to begin to strengthen the institutions that will ensure the growth of democracy within our country.
We need to make sure that the various arms of government are properly empowered to play their role in the governance structure. Be they the executive arm, the legislature or the judiciary. Also, other arms of  government that are law making bodies or law implementing bodies, the Police, the security agencies, all need to be strengthened to be able to do their work to ensure transparency, accountability in the process of management of resources. And to ensure that the civil society, journalists, media are also strengthened  to play their oversight roles and together we can build a better Nigeria.
It is believed that one of the reasons you are visible, recognized and honoured is your role in the Pan- African Parliament . What would you say has been your achievements,  since you became the president of that Forum in 2012?
The Pan- African Parliament, an organ of the African Union, established as a platform to provide for the African People and their vast organizations, platform to air their views to be part of decision making process in finding solutions to the many problems facing our continent. And based on that, we started under the initial protocol which gave only more or less consultative and advisory powers to the parliament.
And one of the first issues we had to deal with when I became president was to ensure that we were able to transform the parliament to give it legislative powers in clearly defined areas. We believe that in pan African parliament, the institution requires additional legislative powers to enable it impact on the lives of African people.
As you know, the process of integration in the continent cannot happen unless we are able to provide a legal and legislative framework within which the integration process can grow. We look at the clear, easiest and fastest way of integrating our continent and ensuring economic growth and development . These are through intra- African trade, issues like free movement of citizens from various African countries, free movement of goods and services across the continent to be able to grow the economies of our member states. And we believe that intra- African trade between members states would help enhance the economy and retain a lot of resources within the continent for development.
You find that the biggest trading partners of most African countries are either Europe, Asia or America, and there  is very little trade going on between African countries. In fact, it was estimated that there is only about 12 percent of intra- African trade within the continent. And so, we are convinced that a pan- African Parliament with legislative functions in clearly defined areas, can help lay the legislative framework for the improvement of trade, free movement of people, goods and services across our continent, for ensuring the growth and development of democracies and democratic parties and to ensure the peace and security across the continent.
So, over the last two and a half years I have  been President, we have had the protocol transformation process achieved in this July summit, where the Heads-of- state in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea adopted a new protocol for the Pan- African Parliament. That’s our first landmark achievement.
Today, the Pan- African Parliament is now recognised as the legislative organ of the African Union, with powers to draft model laws in clearly defined areas as may be approved by the Heads- of- State. For example, we are working currently on a draft model law on pharmaceutical manufacturing across the continent, to make sure we have similar standards. When that model law is adopted, member states will implement it and domesticate it. You know that there is an epidemic in one country and the pharmaceutical product being used to fight that epidemic- say for example Cholera,  are of different standards;  when the epidemic spreads to the next border, you begin to have a situation where some drug- resistant strain of that epidemic would grow in that other country. That’s why we’re insisting that there should be common standards.
Look at today, we have Ebola and we are shutting down our borders, we are trying to restrict movement. If we had the right vaccine or medication and we apply in  both Sierra- Leone, Liberia and Guinea, we will be able to contain that epidemic. Presently, that is not the case. And that’s why we believe that  standardizing  things like the manufacturing of drugs, trade tariffs and Customs regulations would help to begin to improve intra- African trade. It will also help to ensure development within our continent, create jobs opportunities for millions of young Africans who are currently unemployed and risking life and limb trying to cross the Sahara to Europe hoping that there are greener pastures. Many have died in the Mediterranean, many have ended up in prison in Europe, many are in the hands of drug cartels and prostitute gangs. And we believe that  if our governments are able to provide adequate opportunities within the continent for our young people, that would reduce the urge for many young people to want to leave the continent.
You were one of the recipients  of the national honours. How do you feel about the recognition and  what is your message to Nigerians?
Thank you very much for congratulating me for the National Honours Award I received. It isn’t  an award for me but for the people of my federal constituency that I represent and the member of the Pan- African Parliament.
I believe that for us at the PAP, the recognition of their President by his own country for the role he has played in the PAP over the years is something that is a landmark event for us. And so, we are grateful to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we are grateful to the people of Nigeria. And as they say in my place, when you get an honour, you are being asked to do more. That’s more work for you. And that’s why we will continue to work to ensure peace and security within the continent.
Terrorism is probably the most important challenge the continent has at the moment ; how has the PAP been able to encourage  a country-to-country cooperation to curb the problem?
On the issue of terrorism, I believe that’s a major problem. There can be no development without peace. It’s only in an atmosphere of peace that you find any serious development going on. If you look at  North- Eastern Nigeria today, nobody can be talking about achieving
Millennium Development Goals because the schools are closed, there is no education going on for young people, there is no medical services available. The medical facilities are all under one attack or the other. There are human rights abuses in terms of people being killed by the Boko Haram, there are no economic activities going on. So, it is only in an atmosphere of peace and security  that you can actually begin to talk about development. And that’s why it is critical that we all work together to stamp out terrorism within our continent.
When the terrorists took over part of Mali, the PAP was the first African- based institution to send a fact- finding mission to Mali.
And today, peace has been restored to Mali and its national integrity and sovereignty has been restored. A new president has been elected in Mali under a free and fair electoral process. And incidentally, the new president was a member of PAP until his election.
So, we’re convinced that the process of restoring peace and security to African countries is a top priority and it should be the focus of whatever efforts are being made on the continent. And as a parliament, in our contributions, we have always as much as possible asked that we should look at the root causes of some of these crises and address them before they become difficult to manage. We are convinced that the AU Peace and Security Commission needs to improve on their early warning system, so that we can well in advance anticipate some of those causes and be able to nip them in the bud and manage them early, instead of waiting for them to become full blown political cases before we begin to react.