The Lagos state government dissatisfied with the current structure of the government has described the current status quo as ‘skewed and military in nature’
The Lagos state government, therefore, called for restructuring that harkens back to the days of the first republic where each federating unit had a fixed percentage of its revenue remitted to the Federal Government stating that it is the only way for Nigeria to grow socio-economically.
It also slammed the recent proposal by the National Assembly that the power “to conduct local government elections be taken away from the states and added to the functions of the national electoral body controlled by the government at the center.”
Speaking at the ongoing Nigeria Bar Association conference last Sunday, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode picked holes in the 1999 Constitution challenging lawyers to “to support the demand for devolution of power to states and fiscal federalism, especially the review of the current revenue sharing formula.”
In addition to this, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Tunji Bello, yesterday spoke on the need for restructuring and imbibing the principles of True Federalism to the nation.
This he said meant that each region/state should be entitled to its resources and only be required to contribute a certain percentage to the Federal Government while the rest should go to the areas of need within said region/state.
“If we say the reason is because the ruling party in the state tends to win all seats in council polls, what is the guaranty that it will also not become the turn of the party that controls the government at the centre to make a clean sweep of all the council seats as well?” He said.
Continuing with his argument he said; “The practice of the current skewed federalism or what I call military federalism being camouflaged as genuine federalism must stop as most of the states are currently hemorrhaging socio-economically. As such, they cannot be counted in the effort at genuine institution-building.
“We need to do away with this and imbibe the principles of true federalism as being practiced in Canada, Australia, India, Germany, United States among others. For genuine institution-building, legal practitioners should join forces with the Lagos State Government.”
Bello pointed to the American system citing that between 1993 and 2003, the US Supreme Court advanced the cause for true federalism through granting of rights due to states against the US federal government in several landmark judgments.
He argued that it was noteworthy that a country so advanced could still evolve in this way and that Nigeria should look to do the same.
He stated his belief that Lagos “has the capacity and potential of becoming the African version of Hong Kong. But the challenge before us is first to overcome the obstacles posed by the present federalist structure.
He posed a question “Let me give you a clear poser. Would Apapa port and the Lagos International Airport remain so derelict and obsolete if they were allowed to be managed by proper private investors under the local authorities as they do in most advanced economies?”