Senator Oluremi Tinubu Seeks true federalism

Senator Oluremi Tinubu representing Lagos Central Senatorial
District has called for an amendment of the constitution to make
Nigeria a true federal state.

She said while the nation’s laws and constitution expressly
declare that Nigeria is a federal state, the practical application
of most of the laws effectively makes Nigeria more or less a
unitary state.

Speaking on the theme: “Governance and National Development:
Issues and Implications” at the University of Lagos 12th Annual
Research Conference and Fair on Tuesday in Lagos, Senator Tinubu
defended the current clamour for true federalism in some
quarters.

She said the different ethnic tribes were independent and
relatively politically-sophisticated before the advent of the
colonialists.

She lamented that the incursion of the military into politics in
1966 upended the near-perfect fiscal arrangements agreed to by the
founding fathers at independence in 1960 and that subsequent
constitutions have tended to perpetuate this anomaly.

“For a country as diverse and large as Nigeria, only the
practice of true and fiscal federalism can engender equitable
development of the constituent units and make effective governance
easy,” she said.

The Senator recommended that the power over some of the items
listed in the Concurrent Legislative List in Part II of the Second
Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) like prisons,
antiquities and monuments, archives and public records, university
and technology as well as some of the items in the Exclusive List
should be exclusively vested in the states of the federation.

According to her, this will bring development closer to the
people and ensure that policies formulated for the execution of
these functions are those that are informed by the local conditions
of the people.

Tinubu charged governments at all levels to endeavour to work in
the interest of the people, saying all government’s policies must
ultimately be judged by whether they deliver on the promise of the
government to the people under the ‘Social Contract’.

In attendance at the conference were the Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello, the Registrar of the
university, Dr. (Mrs) Taiwo Folashade Ipaye, and Chairman of the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, among others.

Senator Oluremi Tinubu representing Lagos Central Senatorial
District has called for an amendment of the constitution to make
Nigeria a true federal state.

She said while the nation’s laws and constitution expressly
declare that Nigeria is a federal state, the practical application
of most of the laws effectively makes Nigeria more or less a
unitary state.

Speaking on the theme: “Governance and National Development:
Issues and Implications” at the University of Lagos 12th Annual
Research Conference and Fair on Tuesday in Lagos, Senator Tinubu
defended the current clamour for true federalism in some
quarters.

She said the different ethnic tribes were independent and
relatively politically-sophisticated before the advent of the
colonialists.

She lamented that the incursion of the military into politics in
1966 upended the near-perfect fiscal arrangements agreed to by the
founding fathers at independence in 1960 and that subsequent
constitutions have tended to perpetuate this anomaly.

“For a country as diverse and large as Nigeria, only the
practice of true and fiscal federalism can engender equitable
development of the constituent units and make effective governance
easy,” she said.

The Senator recommended that the power over some of the items
listed in the Concurrent Legislative List in Part II of the Second
Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) like prisons,
antiquities and monuments, archives and public records, university
and technology as well as some of the items in the Exclusive List
should be exclusively vested in the states of the federation.

According to her, this will bring development closer to the
people and ensure that policies formulated for the execution of
these functions are those that are informed by the local conditions
of the people.

Tinubu charged governments at all levels to endeavour to work in
the interest of the people, saying all government’s policies must
ultimately be judged by whether they deliver on the promise of the
government to the people under the ‘Social Contract’.

In attendance at the conference were the Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello, the Registrar of the
university, Dr. (Mrs) Taiwo Folashade Ipaye, and Chairman of the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, among others.