You must restructure Nigeria, El-Rufai tells Buhari

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai says it is time to restructure Nigeria in order to ensure equitable distribution of resources.

El-Rufai’s comments went against that of President Muhammadu Buhari who accused those in favour of restructuring of being “unpatriotic”, and despite the fact that Buhari promised to restructure Nigeria while running for office.

Speaking at a public lecture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arewa House, held in Kaduna on Saturday, the governor maintained that restructuring the country is in the best interest of ensuring sustainable development.

El-Rufai, who cited the 2018 recommendations of the APC committee on restructuring, noted that there was a need to reorganise the country’s constitutional framework in order to give states more control over certain resources.

The focus of the APC committee, which was set up in 2017 and chaired by el-Rufai, was to establish the party’s position on restructuring in line with ensuring that all Nigerians benefit from true federalism.

Under the proposed restructured framework, el-Rufai explained that states would have more control over the police, oil and gas resources, minerals, correctional facilities, stamp duties, registration of business names, among others.

“I am not aware of any significant constituency that is against the idea that states should exercise consequential powers, assume more responsibilities and control resources to enable them deliver better outcomes for those they govern. This will empower state governments to cease passing the buck to the president and the federal government when most of the problems our citizens face daily as a nation are, and can be solved by improved and focused governance at the states’ levels,” he said.

“It is time to make this sort of well-defined restructuring work, for the benefit of the peoples of this country.

“The report of our APC true federalism committee puts in one place the recommendations, and the legislative amendments to give life to a restructured polity. I therefore call on our federal legislators and the national assembly ad hoc committee on constitutional review to take advantage of our report and initiate the constitutional and legislative amendments in either a piece-meal or comprehensive manner without further delay.

“We, therefore, have no excuse not to seize this moment and do the heavy lifting for our country and our people. It is in our hands to make the structures, laws and constitutional arrangements in our country conducive to modern governance that will ensure our nation thrives in the 21st century.”