Northern Govs Embark on Town Hall Meetings on Restructuring

With the growing clamour for the restructuring of the country and rising tensions in the South-east and South-south arising from violent clashes between the military and members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a high powered committee set up by governors and traditional rulers from Northern Nigeria to collate the views of their constituents on the country’s restructuring, among other burning national issues, will hold town hall meeting across the 19 states of the region.

The 12-man committee comprising six governors, a deputy governor and five

traditional rulers was set up in July by the Northern Governors’ Forum and Northern Traditional Rulers Council to aggregate the views of Northerners on the restructuring debate.

Speaking after the inaugural meeting of the committee held in Sokoto yesterday, chairman of the committee and governor of Sokoto State Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said the North was committed to the unity of the country.

Tambuwal urged all agitators and those beating the drumbeats of war across the country to be calm, stressing that even if Nigeria goes to war, people would still have to come back to discuss the issues important to them, hence the need to stop the divisive actions and speeches.

He said the committee would take advantage of the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly and see how best it can key in by presenting a common front as it affects the North in the Nigerian federation.

He explained that the committee had set up the modalities for collating the views of Northerners on the state of the nation, especially on the agitations for the restructuring the country.

“We have agreed to set up a technical committee to work on the previous documents, conferences and position papers sent back to us within three weeks.

“Thereafter, every Northern state will conduct public hearings and we will meet on October 24, 2017, by the grace of God, to review all that.

“So by the end of October, God willing, we shall be able to get back to the larger body of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Northern Traditional Leaders and Council,” he said.

According to him, all the issues that will be brought up by a technical committee constituted by his committee would be critically looked into, “so that we can subject them to a very robust debate across the North and the outcome of that will be presented to Northern governors and traditional rulers”.

He added that those who are agitating for restructuring should know that “there is process going on in the country for engagement and I am sure the federal government is willing to listen to all these agitations at the end of the day”.

Also in his remarks, a member of the committee and Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, stressed the need for a united and peaceful Nigeria.

“I believe in the conversation. We have just looked into three main items that stood out clearly... we are going to have a regional conversation to express the pressing issues that have been raised.

“We have to look into constitutional reforms of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This is important because it will help us to answer questions like what exactly is the devolution of power, what exactly should be the role of local governments and whether there should be an opportunity for different states to discuss issues around fiscal responsibility, sharing revenue and all that can be discussed,” he said.

Members of the committee who attended the meeting included the Governors Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa, Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe and the deputy governor of Plateau State, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, who is the secretary of the committee.

Others included the Emirs of Zazzau, Fika and Gumel as well as the Etsu Nupe and the Gbong Gwon Jos.