In what looks like recanting its earlier hard posturing on restructuring, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism on Thursday threw its weight behind calls for State Police and the scrapping of local government as third tier of government.
Similarly, the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led Committee also endorsed amendment of Land Use Act as well as the merger of some states in the country for their viability.
Submitting their report to the APC National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja, Governor el-Rufai said the Committee also proposed the amendment of Petroleum Act that will allow states to control their mineral resources “except when it affects offshore oil”.
He described discussions on local government autonomy as quite robust, adding; “Local government autonomy is a very interesting subject in which we were surprised at the outcome; there were divergent opinions on this issue.
“We recommend that the current system of local government administration provided for by the Constitution should be amended. States should be allowed to develop and enact laws to have local government administration system that is peculiar to them.”
According to the Committee’s chairman, they are therefore proposing “amendments to Sections 7, 8, and162, part one and the First Schedule of the Constitution to give effect to our recommendations”, stressing that; “The section that lists the local governments and their headquarters should be removed so that local governments are no longer named in the Constitution.”
Governor el-Rufai explained that states should be empowered to create their local governments and determine the structure, noting that in a federal system, only two tiers of government would be appropriate for the system.
The Kaduna State Governor stated that the Committee considers having three tiers of government an aberration, even as it proposed that mining, minerals and oil should be left for states’ control after certain constitutional amendments have been carried out.
He explained that the arrangement is expected to take care of resource control agitation as the power to explore minerals would henceforth be vested in states except with regard to offshore minerals.
The Committee also recommended that there should be a constitutional amendment for a referendum to be conducted on burning national or state issues before decisions were taken.
Acknowledging that the present Constitution makes no room for referendum except in the creation of states, the Committee also recommended that Independent candidates must not be members of any registered political party six months prior to the general elections.
