Northern committee on restructuring begins sitting in Kaduna We’re committed to Nigeria’s unity – Tambuwal, Sanusi

The Northern Governors Forum/Northern Traditional Rulers Council Committee on Restructuring yesterday began sitting in Kaduna.

The meeting, presided over by the governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal who is the chairman of the committee, said the committee would consult widely and aggregate the views in a document.

The committee, he said, would also take advantage of the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution by the National Assembly and see how best it could key in by presenting a common ground as it affects the North within the Nigerian federation.

Those in attendance included the governors of Nasarawa, Kaduna and Gombe states who are members of the committee and the deputy governor of Plateau state who is the secretary of the committee.

Others included the Emirs of Kano and Zazzau, Etsu Nupe, Gbong Gwom Jos and Emirs of Fika and Gumel.

The Chairman of the Northern Committee on Restructuring, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, reaffirmed the position of the North on burning national issues on restructuring, saying the region remained committed to the unity of the country.

Tambuwal appealed to agitators across the country to be calm, saying even if the country goes into war, people still have to come back to discuss their issues, hence the need to stop beating war drums.

Speaking more on the work of the committee after its inaugural meeting, he said, “We agreed that a technical committee be set up to work on the previous documents, conferences and position papers and then come back to us within three weeks. Thereafter, every state will conduct public hearing and we will be meeting on 24th October 2017 by the grace of God to review all that.”

In a remark, Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, also lent his voice to unity of the country as discussed in that meeting.

“I believe in the conversation. We have just looked into three main items that stood out clearly. The first is that we have heard our commitment to the unity of the country and we are going to have a regional conversation to express the pressing issues that have been raised,” he said.