Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila has thrown his weight behind the calls for power devolution while also sharing his thoughts on the widely discussed regulation of social media.
Gbajabiamila also pointed out that President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to honour an invite by the House last year over insecurity in the country has set a bad precedence.
He gave a hint that the bill seeking an amendment to the electoral law could secure passage from the House before July 16.
The Speaker spoke during a chat with youths monitored on Channels Television and Television Continental (TVC) which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York yesterday.
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Gbajabiamila, who noted that Nigerians had yet to determine the type of restructuring they desired, however, admitted that power devolution was important because many items on the Exclusive Legislative list could be transferred to states.
He said: ‘Most people have come to understand that the government is top-heavy with 64 items on the Exclusive list. The form of devolving power is restructuring itself. Everybody talks about restructuring, but nobody has been able to talk about what restructuring is.
‘As far as I am concerned, the outcome or end result is what is important. In devolution of power, what people are saying is to empower the states more. In doing that, you empower the local government so that people can feel government.
‘In a real federal structure, the federating units are the ones that basically come together and submit some power to the centre.
‘But in this case, it is 64 items and I have never seen a country where you has 64 items or that many items on the Exclusive list. There are so many things in the Constitution that the central government have no business getting involved in.
‘When you devolve power to the state, revenue mobilisation will give more money to the states because you will reduce the responsibility on the Federal Government. We hope that with this Constitutional amendment, we can do some significant changes that will reduce the burden on the Federal Government and send the responsibility to the states where they belong.
‘We are not just going to have cosmetic changes to the Constitution because that will not get us anywhere. The changes have to be far-reaching enough to define us as a people. We hope to reshape the constitution in such a way that states are real federating units, more independent and more autonomous to the centre.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK