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Tag: power devolution

  • State police, power devolution, others back on front burner

    State police, power devolution, others back on front burner

    • Reps hold public hearing on Constitution review today

    The House of Representatives will today hold a  public hearing on the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution.  

    The hearing, originally scheduled earlier this month but postponed following the national mourning for former President Muhammadu Buhari, marks a major step in the ongoing efforts to amend the constitution.

    Issues on the front burner are state police, power devolution, state police, special legislative seats for women, electoral and judicial reforms among others.

    Deputy Speaker of the House  Benjamin Kalu, who also chairs the Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Constitution Review, is expected to preside over the event at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

    House Spokesman  Akin Rotimi said in a statement that the hearing is designed to consolidate inputs  by  Nigerians during consultations in July across the six geopolitical zones.

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    The consultations featured public hearings at 12 designated centres nationwide.

    Rotimi   described the national hearing as “a vital platform for Nigerians and stakeholders to shape constitutional reforms directly.”

    He encouraged Nigerians to study the Compendium of 86 Constitution Review Bills, available online( https://bit.ly/HCCRCompendium), to better understand the issues under consideration and make informed contributions.

    “This national forum will consolidate citizens’ contributions ahead of legislative voting on the Constitution Review Bills. It demonstrates the House’s commitment to inclusive and participatory governance,” Rotimi said.

    Kalu also underscored the people-driven nature of the exercise, insisting that any amendment must reflect the aspirations of Nigerians.

    “This Constitution belongs to all Nigerians, and its review must reflect the aspirations of our people. I urge citizens and stakeholders to participate fully in the National Public Hearing and make their voices count, because only through your contributions can we achieve a truly participatory and people-driven constitutional review,” he stated.

    The House reaffirmed its commitment to a transparent and credible process, pledging that the outcome would reflect the collective will of Nigerians.

  • Southwest speakers demand state police, power devolution

    Southwest speakers demand state police, power devolution

    The Southwest conference of speakers has advocated the immediate creation of state police and devolution of powers to address the hydra-headed insecurity and other socio-economic challenges facing the country.

    The speakers, in a communique signed and made available to journalists at their meeting held in Ikogosi-Ekiti, said more power should be given to the sub-nationals to further enable them to deliver dividends of democracy to the people.

    The communique was co-signed by the conference chairman and Ekiti state speaker, Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye, Adebo Ogundoyin, Olamide Oladiji, and Adewale Egbedun, the speakers of Oyo, Ondo, and Osun respectively.

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    The speakers stressed the dire need for holistic collaborative measures among the southwest governors to address the prevailing security challenges facing the region.

    They also called for increased regional integration efforts to enhance economic growth and development across the six Southwestern states.

    The communique reads: “The speakers endorse the devolution of power to states, especially in the realm of security, and emphasise the importance of state policing as a means to enhance security and law enforcement at the local level.

    “The Conference calls on the federal government to urgently address the rising economic concerns, particularly the shortage of food, and urges citizens to support government efforts in finding lasting solutions to these challenges.

    “The conference agrees to host a legislative summit to address critical issues affecting the Southwest region and to foster collaboration and cooperation among the legislative assemblies of the Southwest states.

    “We hereby affirm our commitment to these resolutions and pledge to work collectively towards the advancement and prosperity of the Southwest region.”

  • Jibril: Nigeria needs power devolution

    Former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof Munzali Jibril has called for the devolution of powers, responsibilities and resources from the centre to the federating units.

    He kicked against the demand for full retructuring of the country, adding that “restructuring Nigeria into six or more geo-political region will only take us fifty years back.”

    He spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital while delivering the 8th convocation lecture of Al-Hikmah University.

    The lecture was entitled: ‘To restructure or not to restruture Nigeria: That is the question.’

    He said that as “a corollary to the envisaged refom, we must restore accountability and good governance to the system.”

    Jibril said: “Accountability is very low in Nigeria today considering the impunity with which political office holders, especially governors, convert public assets to their own. Two of them have been jailed recently but there are many more who are not being investigated.

    “Surprisingly, the Nigerian elite seem less concerned about more critical issues such as accountability and good governance that they are with restructuring. We may return to all the lofty ideals of the first republic, such as fiscal federalism ahnd the derivation principle but without restoring accountability and good governance we would be enriching a few individuals and impoversihing our communities.

    “When the military dabbled into politics, it regarded its mission as an extention of military duties and so gradually but systematically and relentlessly it embarked on the centralisation of administrative authority at the federal and thereby weakened the regions and then the states.

    He added: “The argument that states are not viable is a lame excuse. The proper thing to do is for us to retrace our steps and devolve power, responsibility and resources back to the states.

    “A critical examination of the sxi geopolitical zones would reveal that only two of them, the South-West and South-East, are truly homogenuous in terms of ethnic composition. All others, including the North-West, have substantial ethnic and cultural minorities within them ore are artificial assortment of communities that share no common historical or other affinities.”

     

  • Former Reps Whip Wale Oshun faults Southwest APC on power devolution

    Former Reps Whip Wale Oshun faults Southwest APC on power devolution

    A former House of Representatives Chief Whip, Olawale Oshun, yesterday picked holes in the recent decision of  selected leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to back devolution of power to the states as  against wholesome restructuring of the system.

    Oshun, in a statement in Lagos, said the position taken at the Ibadan meeting which was chaired by Chief Adebisi Akande was at variance with the stand of APC followers at two meetings last month, the first at University of Ibadan and the other four days later in Akure.

    He said “the clarion call emanating from the two conferences of the Party in the zone was for a wholesome restructuring of the system and structure of our politics and governance.”

    He added: “that decision certainly transcends the call for mere devolution as it raises the fundamental need for a change in structure of government in order to make even the issue of devolution a sustainable process.”

    He said the Ibadan decision has now put the Yoruba at a crossroad.

    “How the leaders of our Party in our zone whose followers spoke in definitive language can back away from such a decision is totally unacceptable and even in the realm of spirit, not to talk of physical realm, the tail can never wag the dog. And they are the ones we expect would negotiate on our behalf!” he said.

    “It is necessary to clarify that a federation which Nigeria purports to be should comprise of a central government and federating units that are in parity and are mutually agreed as to which powers each should exercise.

    “It is therefore in a federation that you speak of restructuring which is that there is a demand for change in the way things are done.

    “When you speak strictly as was the Ibadan outcome you are asking the almighty central government in a unitary system to allow other levels of government exercise some powers and at its pleasure. The crisis in Nigeria today can only be resolved when all Nigerians have a say in which powers to allow one another.

    “For the avoidance of doubt restructuring entails much more than devolution and it includes the Constitutional reform that will enable the sustainability of the power sharing agreed to.

    “ For instance the Yoruba people at all conferences held to date, including those that led to the production of Yoruba Agenda, the Summit and the All Progressives Congress conferences on restructuring (respectively held in Ibadan and Akure,) agreed that there is need to return to regions as federating units, and that each federating unit would have its own Constitution that would guide how all its internal governance is enabled, particularly other levels of government lower than the federating unit level.

    “Nigerians would agree on what percentage of resources generated by federating units are paid as tax to the federal government and the Yoruba people have indicated that for a virile Central government, taxes paid to the Central government by the federating units should be not more than thirty five percent of all accruals.

    “Only Constitutional reform or restructuring can facilitate this, mere devolution of power cannot. And who is devolving the power by the way.

    “It should be a great tragedy if elected and appointed Yoruba office holders cannot and will not stand up for and in Yoruba interest, the same interest they espoused to catapult themselves into office. What then defined the NADECO struggle which claimed lives and liberty, if not the need for the restructuring of Nigeria?”

     

  • Falana, Ananaba back power devolution

    Falana, Ananaba back power devolution

    HUMAN rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) and Dr. Paul Ananaba (SAN) have backed the call for restructuring for true federalism and justiciability of Chapter 2 of the constitution.

    They spoke in Lagos last Friday at the 2017 National Conference of the Public Administration and Management Development Institute (PAMDI).

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was the guest of honour at the event, themed “Re-engineering the Nigeria state: Challenges and prospects”.

    Falana, who was represented by a rights activist, Stanley Imhanruor, said: “It is difficult to talk about restructuring without talking about true federalism.”

    He noted that he was “100 per cent in support of restructuring provided that the issue of justiciability of Chapter 2 of the Constitution and the issue of redistribution of national resources is revisited.

    “We must restructure Nigeria economically so that the country’s wealth is fairly distributed.”

    Falana, who delivered the keynote address, warned Nigerians to be wary of political jobbers who might try to hijack the clamour for restructuring.

    Ananaba, who shared similar sentiments, condemned any attempt to balkanise the country.

    He said: “Nobody should be preaching the balkanisation of Nigeria; that is wrong. But we should be looking at reducing the size of government. This bogus government style will not help us.”

    The Chairman, Governing Council of PAMDI, Prof. Uche Jack-Osimiri said re-engineering, rather than restructuring, was the way to solve the mounting agitations across the country.

    He urged Nigerians to be their brother’s keepers.

    “We cannot afford to leave one section of the country behind. Yes there is poverty in the Northeast, but the rest of the country must not leave them behind to die. We must help them to grow, just like West Germany helped East Germany after the fall of communism,” Jack-Osimiri said.

    He noted that the country’s problems were complex, but that the problems had nothing to do with “tribe, federal or unity government. The problem is re-engineering of the Nigerian state.”

    A former Secretary to the Taraba State Government, Senator Abdullahi Bala Adamu dismissed the idea that northerners are being unduly favoured by the Federal Government because President Muhammadu Buhari is from the region.

    He lamented that despite their university degrees, five of his children are out of work.

    Adamu said the country’s economic challenges affected all Nigerians, irrespective of their region of origin or religion.

    Adamu, who represented his state at the 2014 national conference, noted that the calls for restructuring were resounding across the country.

    He urged Nigerians to unite and forge a consensus on how to make the country better.

    Falana and Ananaba were conferred with Distinguished Professional Service Award and Fellowship Award.

     

  • Constitution review seeks power devolution to states, says Ekweremadu

    Constitution review seeks power devolution to states, says Ekweremadu

    The National Assembly has agreed to review some of the contentious issues in the 1999 Constitution, including ensuring the Federal Government shed some powers to  states to enhance growth.

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu spoke yesterday on what to expect in the constitution alteration when he addressed reporters at a joint retreat in Lagos for the Senate and House of Representatives Committee  on Review of the 1999 Constitution.

    He said as part of the review, the country would be restructured. According to  him, railways would no longer be in the Exclusive List.

    Ekweremadu said within two days, the committee looked at 23 separate bills with separate issues.

    He said: “The idea is to ensure that by the time we vote, each of them succeed or fail on its own when we conclude the work and send it to the House for approval.

    “We will collate and ensure that the provisions of the constitution have been fulfilled regarding the alteration and we will send it to the President for his assent. And the President will decide which one to assent or not to assent.

    “The implication, therefore, is that if he assent some, then those one becomes an alter part of the constitution. And the one he refused to assent, then we might decide whether to override the veto.

    “So, we want each of them to have a separate life on its own. And this is based on our own experience in the last exercise, where everything was in one single bill and when the President withheld his assent, all of them collapsed.

    “This is just an improvement on what we did last time. It is something we innovated base on our experience in the last exercise.

    “Now, we have gone through some specific issues like the time timeframe within which a governor or president will be able to assent to a bill. If you look at our constitution, I think Section 58, if you pass a bill, you need to send it to the President for his assent and he has to assent it within 30 days. “

    Ekweremadu explained that it was imperative for the Federal Government to shed some of its powers.

    “We also tried to withdraw some power from the Executive List to the Concurrent List. You know we have been talking about the restructuring of Nigeria. One of the components of restructuring is that they are saying that there are too much power in the hands of the Federal Government and we need to strip some of them.

    “What we have done is to look at the nitty-gritty issue where some of the item, which they actually need will be remove from the Executive List to the Concurrent List, where the federal and the states can make laws regarding some of those items.

    “And where there is conflict, the laws of the National Assembly will prevail. So, things like railways will have to be moved to the Concurrent List.

    “The idea is that state can build railways within their states and then a couple of states can even  decides to build railways across their states. The Federal Government can also be building railways across the country and make policy around it.”

    He noted that the country would continue to have minimum standards for wages in both the public and private sectors.

    “There should be minimum wage for both the public sector and private sector; that is to say that if it is N5000, don’t pay any person less than N5000 but  it can be increased. That is to say if Lagos has more money, they can pay beyond the minimum wage.

    “All those who don’t have money cannot pay below the minimum way; no matter how poor they are. So, in that way, we have a minimum standards for workers in Nigeria.

    “We also looked at the removal of the joint local government account. The challenge there has been how do you take care of the issues of teachers’ salaries because it is from that joint local account that primary school teachers’ salaries are paid. So, we wanted to be sure that if we remove the joint local government- state account, we will not jeopardise the payment of teacher salaries.”