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"id": 230084,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Bahari",
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"legal_name": "Abdul Bahari Ali Jillo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. At the outset, I beg to oppose this Motion for adjournment. This is because it is in the public domain that this House has not done enough as is required of it. I fully agree with that view. We need time to finish the unfinished business. This House has to give direction in so many pieces of legislation that remain uncompleted. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government of the day is responsible, to a great extent, for putting in place measures to ensure that this House performs as is required through consultation across the board, so that a lot of issues are debated on, agreed on and consensus developed before matters are brought to the Floor of the House. We have not seen this happening. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, \"democracy\" is one word that has often been misused a lot. Even dictatorships claim that they are democratic. In this country, the multiparty system is the foundation of our democracy. The Government has admitted here that parties in this country have problems. Therefore, the very basis of the foundation of this State is being threatened. It is common knowledge that the Government has a hand in the destabilisation of parties. It started with NARC, where there were attempts at the beginning to take over the leadership of that party. When this failed, people resorted to destabilising other parties. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I may speak for the arid and semi-arid areas, as much as there have been public pronouncements of what will be done for those areas, they remain the poorest areas with no infrastructure as we speak today. In the last four years of this Government, nothing of significance has been put in place. This is very sad. Even the way the issue of relief food has been handled in those areas is very unfortunate. The amount of relief food given is inadequate, and the people there are really suffering as the poverty level is very high. If I may speak about income disparity in relation to arid and semi-arid areas, at the regional level, this is of serious concern. I am happy the Minister for Finance is here. This must be the time to ensure that income disparity in this country is reduced. This is one of the countries where the income inequality is very high. This must be addressed, particularly in relation to the arid and semi- arid areas. I know there has been some token assistance passed to these areas. But it has been insufficient. We need a major move, not piecemeal measures. As hon. Members from these areas, we made our intentions known, from the word go, to none other than His Excellency the President. We spelt out the major projects whose implementation we think will make a difference in these areas. You will be surprised by the amount of infrastructure in place in countries that are generally arid and semi-arid; an example is Namibia. In that country, very remote areas have attracted tourism because of the infrastructure that has been put in place by the Government of the day. I am certain that the people in arid and semi- arid areas of this country will not be deceived by tokens that have been passed on to them. I know that they understand their rights more than even before. For example, in the area of education, I know there have been attempts in the past by the Government to put in place some measures to change the situation. But year in, year out, when you look at the results of the national examinations, you see that those areas have lagged behind. This is one way to continually marginalise the arid and semi-arid areas. It is as if we have given up on these areas and completely shown a lot of indifference. With those remarks, I beg to oppose."
}