{"id":6606,"date":"2018-01-25T22:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T05:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/?p=6606"},"modified":"2018-01-25T22:12:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T05:12:25","slug":"real-structural-change-towards-true-federalism-apc-panel-okays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/real-structural-change-towards-true-federalism-apc-panel-okays\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Real Structural Changes Towards True Federalism: APC panel okays devolution of power, resource control, state police"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"The All Progressives Congress Committee on True Federalism has made 10 far-reaching recommendations for the devolution of powers to states in order to restructure Nigeria.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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The panel, among other things,\u00a0 proposed that greater autonomy should be granted to states by moving certain items from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chairman of the committee, who is also the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, presented the report to the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led APC National Working Committee, at a ceremony in Abuja, on Thursday.<\/div>\n

According to El-Rufai, the committee is of the opinion that narcotics and psychotropic substances should be left on the exclusive list while food, drugs and poison be moved to the concurrent list so that states can also legislate on these items.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third item recommended for movement to the concurrent list are labour minimum wages issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking on this item, El-Rufai said, \u201cWe\u2019ve also recommended that labour matters should be moved to the concurrent list so that the Federal Government and the states can legislate on these matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour including trade unions, industrial relations, conditions, safety and welfare, disputes and prescribing minimum wage and industrial arbitration should be on the concurrent list.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat way, every state can determine its minimum wage.<\/strong> This is a major recommendation that we got feedback from Nigerians and we\u2019ve recommended as such, we\u2019ve drafted this to reflect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fifth item<\/strong> recommended for movement to the concurrent list are the issues of mines and minerals, oilfields and mining, geological surveys and natural gas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

El-Rufai said, \u201cIf this amendment that we are proposing is passed, it means that all minerals including oil and gas that are onshore will be vested in the states of the federation. However, all off shore oil shall remain absolutely vested in the government of the federation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the feedback we got from Nigerians because offshore oil is federation asset, everything in the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone which is also policed by the Nigerian Navy belongs to the federation but minerals oil, everything in the land belong to those that own the land which is the state governments but we think the time has come that we take this bold step and move away from over centralisation of this.\u201d<\/div>\n

The panel also recommended that the issue of the police should also move to the concurrent list<\/strong>. This, the committee said, would open up the space for states to operate their own police alongside the federal police force with each given their jurisdiction and the manner of crime to control.<\/p>\n

It made a similar recommendation for the Prison Service.<\/p>\n