Barely a day after former President Olusegun Obasanjo released a letter accusing the Buhari administration of failure; the All Progressives Congress (APC) has released a report of its committee on restructuring.
The party, which had campaigned for the 2015 general elections with a promise to restructure the country, made a U-turn not long after it grabbed power and criticized Nigerians who insisted they fulfil the promise.
But undeterred, Nigerians carried on the agitation until the party constituted a panel in August 2017 led by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to look into the issue.
With initial 10 members, the party leadership later expanded the membership of the committee to 23.
Among its mandates was to work out the true intent and definition of true federalism as promised by the party during the 2015 election campaign, as well as study the report of the various national conferences, especially that of 2014; and come up with relevant recommendations.
Against the party’s position, President Muhammadu Buhari had on a nation-wide broadcast on the New Year Day, kicked against restructuring, saying the country’s problems had more to do with process than structure.
“When all the aggregates of nationwide opinions are considered, my firm view is that our problems are more to do with process than structure,” Mr. Buhari had said.
But all that changed as soon as Mr. Obasanjo pointedly accused the administration of nepotism, failure to understand political dynamics and poor management of the economy, among others.
Apparently, to afraid of the wider implications of Mr. Obasanjo’s criticism, the APC hurriedly came up with the report of its restructuring panel with recommendations that betray their earlier stands.
In a report presented to the party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, the El-Rufai-led panel backed resource control, the creation of state police, fiscal federalism, among other national concerns it earlier opposed.
Other key recommendations include making local government a responsibility of states, a constitutional amendment to allow the merger of states, the creation of state court of appeal and independent candidacy.
Submitting the report at the party’s secretariat, Mr. El-Rufai said 8,014 people were engaged in the process of their research and that Nigerians indicated interest in 24 issues.
Mr. El-Rufai said his panel received a total of 409 memoranda and interfaced with 8004 groups spread across 14 cities in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In a shocking departure from its obstinate position against resource control which pitched succeeding governments against the Niger Delta region, the panel agreed for states to have control on solid and oil minerals in their domains, subject to the approval of the National Assembly.
It also advocated for the removal of policing from the concurrent list to enable states to establish police formations to run alongside the federal outfit with clearly defined jurisdictions.
On revenue sharing, the panel recommended for the reduction of the federal share of revenues while states get more.
“After four months of rigorous research, we are pleased to inform the chairman we have completed our assignment and are here to present our report. Our report is in four volumes,” Mr. El-Rufai said.
“The report is in four volumes with Volume One containing background information about the research and recommendations; Volume Two, Action plans from the research to implement its resolution and draft of bills; Volume 3, Media reports and the result of the online survey of the issue; and Volume Four, the appendix- summary of all memoranda received.
“I’ll like to highlight some principal recommendation by the committee. We articulated 14 issues re-occurring in previous conferences.
“At the end of our rigorous research, debates and deliberations, we came up with 24 items that Nigerians have indicated interest views that balance our federation.
“These items are; creation of states, merger of states, delegation principle, fiscal federalism, devolution of power and resources between state, federal and local governments, federating units, form of government, independent candidacy, land tenure system, local government autonomy ,power sharing and rotation, resource control, types of legislature, demand for affirmation for vulnerable groups;people with disabilities, women and youth, ministerial appointment, citizenship, state constitution, community participation, minimum wage, governance, judiciary, state re-alignment and border adjustment, circular status of the federation; and referendum.
“We articulated only 13 issues from the various opinions expressed by Nigerians in our engagement, identified these 24 issues for which the committee deliberated and has made recommendations in the report.
“We went ahead to look at these recommendations to convert them into concrete actions that the party, government and the national assembly can take to re-balance our federation.
Mr. El-Rufai who has always kicked against true federalism said a majority of Nigerians preferred states should get more revenue while the Federal Government gets less.
Continuing, he said, “All minerals including oil and gas that are onshore will be vested in the states of the Federation. However, all offshore oil should remain absolutely vested in the government of the federation.
“Offshore oil, which is also policed by the Nigerian Navy, belongs to the Federation. But minerals, oil, anything in the land, belong to those that own the land, which is the state governments. We think the time has come to make this bold step and move away from over-centralisation of mineral resources.
“Then there would be certain constitutional amendment. The Petroleum Act needs to be amended so that states can issue oil-mining licenses. The Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act needs to be amended, to give states the power to do this. The Land Use Act will also need to be amended, to recognise the provisions of the Minerals and Mining Act. The Petroleum Profit Act 2007 will need to be amended. And we have drafted all the bills to give effect to this.”
The panel also recommended that the constitution be amended to keep narcotics and psychotropic substances on the exclusive legislative list, while foods, drugs and poisons move to the concurrent so that states could legislate on them.
The committee recommended that fingerprinting and identification of criminal records, currently on the exclusive list, be moved to the concurrent, allowing federal and state governments to share information; that minimum wage be moved to the concurrent list, to allow states determine the wages of their workers; and that control and establishment of prisons be moved from the exclusive list, as was the case in the First Republic.
The panel called for a constitutional amendment to transfer the 12 items from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list to make room for state and federal government to make laws on them.
Based on its survey, the committee said only 36 percent of Nigerians wanted more states created, while the majority were opposed the creation of more states.
The committee also called for the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act to be amended to vest in the commission the power and responsibility to review the derivation formula, to put forward a proposal to the president, who shall table it before the National Assembly for legislation.
Accordingly, Mr. El-Rufai said the committee has drafted a bill that will expand Section 6 (1) of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act, to so empower the commission.
The committee further recommended the widening the political space and making existing political parties more democratic and providing for independent candidacy; allowing states to enact laws peculiar to them and determine number, structure and ways local councils should be governed; amendment of the Federal Character Act to recognise domicile as qualifying a person to be an indigene in a state or local government; allowing the president to appoint ministers from any part of the country subject to confirmation by the National Assembly; the establishment of states’ judicial councils and courts of appeal; and holding of a referendum on burning national issues.
Receiving the report, Mr. Odigie-Oyegun thanked the committee for its work, adding that those who thought the party was against true federalism and restructuring have been put to shame.
“Now, everybody has an idea of what APC meant by true federalism and restructuring. I am happy the report provided the mechanism for implementation. The report is going to get expeditious consideration by the party,” Mr. Onyegun, who had in the past questioned the meaning of restructuring said.
“Before the middle of February, it would have been considered by the party and presented for appropriate implementation.
The NEC and the Caucus of the party and whatever is thereafter will be presented to the authorities as the considered view and decision of the APC for appropriate implementation,” he said.
