We must reach compromise on restructuring — El-Rufai

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has urged all key stakeholders in the Nigeria project to reach a compromise amidst open disagreements on how the future of the country should look like.

El-Rufai spoke yesterday, in Abuja, while welcoming the participants to the civil society organization and youths’ public hearing, organized by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism.

The governor said since all the stakeholders had agreed that something was wrong with Nigeria’s political structure, political system or political architecture, the major challenge of laying a solid foundation for the younger generation required an honest conversation.

“Let’s use this opportunity to air out our views, to disagree definitely and openly, but finally come to some compromise on what our country should look like in the future for it to work for everyone. This is why we are here; we are messengers. We collect and collate your views and hand them over to the party and the government for action.

“This is the first time in the history of Nigeria, and I’m slightly older than Nigeria itself, that there is an honest conversation about the structure of our federation. And this is the only time that we provide an equal opportunity platform for every Nigerian to contribute his views about what the future Nigeria should look like,” he said.

Various speakers at the public hearing expressed divergent views on the concepts of derivation principle, resource control, fiscal federalism and revenue allocation, land tenure system, form of government, states creation, as well as power sharing and rotation.