Former Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, has
advised President Muhammadu Buhari on how to go about the much publicized issue
of restructuring in the country.
Jega told the President to
restructure in order to resolve the narrative of poor governance in the country
and review the revenue allocation formula.
Jega’s view was conveyed in his
keynote address on, “Governance Reforms and Human Security in Nigeria” at the
10th Annual Forum of Laureates of the Nigerian National Order of Merit, NNOM,
and 2017 Award Winners’ Investiture on Wednesday in Abuja.
The former INEC Chairman also
called for accelerated review of the Electoral Act to boost the integrity of
the electoral system.
Jega is currently a political
science scholar at the Bayero University, Kano, BUK.
He called for a restructuring of
the present federal system before 2019 to “devolve some powers and
responsibilities, and commensurate resources, from the federal to state
governments.”
He noted that there is need for
reforms in four fundamental areas of governance, namely: “the structure, the
institutions, the agents/actors and the attitudes/behaviors, adding, “If only
Nigeria could begin the governance reform processes with the urgency, as well
as the serious commitment that it deserves, we can in a reasonably short time
de-escalate tension in the polity and begin to strengthen the foundation of
good democratic governance for human security.”
Jega while submitting for a
phased implementation of his restructuring proposal, said that ”in the short
term, that is before 2019, that there should be devolution of power and
resources from the federal to state governments.”
In the medium term, spanning 2019
to 2024, he canvassed “revised vertical and horizontal formulae for revenue
allocation and substantial increase in the derivation principle, with some
elements of resource control.”
And in the long term, he
recommended a fundamental review of the federal arrangement that would result
in “a compact, if not small federal government and a revolutionised revenue
generation and allocation system.”
Other measures that Professor
Jega proposed include institutional changes, which would involve a reform of
the Police in particular and the broader national security architecture in
general, to “pay more attention to national, i.e. people/citizen/communities’
security, more than to regime or government functionaries’ security.”
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