Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai says it fills him with regret that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has yet to implement the recommendations of the party’s committee on true federalism two years after the committee’s report was submitted.
The APC chieftain spoke on, “Restructuring is a unique nation-building opportunity” at the public lecture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arewa House, held in Kaduna on Saturday.
“It is a matter for regret that for some reasons the consequential action by the APC leadership to adopt and implement the report has not happened since it was submitted in January 2018,” el-Rufai said.
He stated that the urgency of Nigeria’s challenges dictates the nation moves fast with a sense of purpose to remove the bottlenecks that hobble its progress.
“The APC Committee on Federalism recommended that the federation be balanced with more powers and responsibilities devolved to the states. The committee also clarified that the federation is a relationship solely between the states and the Federal Government, and that each state should be allowed to operate the system of local government that suits its circumstances, culture and diversity,” he said.
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His submission came amidst the #EndSARS protests against police brutality which analysts say has ending bad governance as an undercurrent.
El-Rufai said the APC Committee which he led recommended that many items be transferred from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List.
He identified some of these items as police, oil and gas, mines and minerals, railways and minimum wage.
The Kaduna Governor appealed to the Senator Ovie Omo-Agege-led ad-hoc committee on Constitution Review to take advantage of “our report and initiate the constitutional and legislative amendments in either a piece-meal or comprehensive manner without further delay”.
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