APC will implement report on restructuring — Oyegun
The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday unveiled the report of Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led Committee on True Federalism saying it will implement the recommendations.
The report among other recommendations ceded the control of mineral resources to states, while making payment of taxes in return to the Federal Government.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who spoke during the official public presentation of the report in Abuja, said the practice of true federalism would correct Nigeria’s “bastardized federal structure”.
Oyegun said past “flamboyant conferences” on the structures of the constitution had ended up in “nothing”.
He said the report represented considered views of critical stakeholders in Nigeria, including youth and women.
He promised that the party would not only monitor details of its implementation but also ensure that the process of adjustment was intense.
Chairman of the committee, Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State, who was represented by his Special Adviser, Political, Uba Sani, said they produced clear recommendations to strengthen federalism and draft bills that incorporated the proposed amendments.
El-Rufai said the coming elections should not render the recommendations “unappealing” and assured those viewing the report with suspicion that they could still work with others to implement the recommendations.”
He said, “Thus far, we have not heard rebuttals of the recommendations. Rather, there has been a lot of hysteria triggered by seeming disbelief that a party in power at the centre is proposing true federalism. In place of a counter-narrative or alternative position on true federalism, what we hear is that the recommendations are coming too close to the elections. If something is desirable, surely the imminence of elections should not render it unappealing.”
Secretary of the committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, expressed hope that the National Assembly would give recommendations of the report required attention.