Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki,
yesterday assured Nigerians that the
defeated bill on devolution of powers still
has chances of being passed again as part
of the amendments to the 1999 Constitution
after both chambers of the National
Assembly resume from their annual recess,
which commenced last Friday.
Saraki gave the assurance in Ilorin, Kwara
State, while speaking with newsmen shortly
after receiving a delegation of the #
NotTooYoungToRun# group in the state
yesterday.
The delegation, which was led by the state
coordinator, Olasupo Abideen, had visited
the Senate President to express gratitude
over the passage of the Not Too Young To
Run bill and solicit his support for the
remaining parts of the proposal by the Joint
Committee on Constitution Amendment.
The Senate President told the journalists that
the defeat of the devolution of powers bill
was as a result of the current wave of hate
speeches across the country, noting that the
current mistrust among Nigerians
contributed to the failure of the bill.
He said some stakeholders had
misunderstood the intent of the proposed
amendments in the bill as a clever way of
introducing restructuring and were not
ready to back such a move without proper
consultations with their constituents.
He said the level of distrust and suspicion
among Nigerians at this point in time was
unimaginable and had created division
along regional lines in the way people voted
on the constitutional issues.
“This is expected with the level of agitations
in the country and the way opinion leaders
are helping to accentuate hate speeches and
emphasising issues that could pitch one
area against the other. The votes in the
National Assembly reflect the state of the
country today. People voted to reflect the
position of their constituents. However, the
National Assembly is still the best forum for
uniting the country and mending our fault
lines. That is why I believe there is still the
opportunity to re-examine important issues
like devolution of powers to states with a
view to changing the present position on
it,” he said.
Saraki expressed confidence that with more
consultations, Nigerians would have a bill
that devolves more powers to the states. He,
therefore, appealed for calm and
understanding of Nigerians over the current
development. He said the fact that the bill
was defeated once was no reason to
conclude the battle had been lost in the
legislative process.
He added: “As you know, we have three
senators representing each state and one
from the FCT and they all represent their
constituencies and whatever they do there,
they must engage with and get feedback
from their constituencies. I believe that if
this constitution amendment had come
maybe eight months ago, the devolution of
powers bill would have passed easily.
