PGF DG urges PDP to engage NASS on constitutional amendment on devolution of power
The Director-General, Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Lukman has urged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to engage the National Assembly, towards speeding up the processes of the current Constitutional amendment.
Lukman said this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, adding that the forum had taken a position on the matter and had since communicated same to the National Assembly.
He said that there was so much hype about the resolutions contained in the communique of the PDP Governors Forum meeting of May 16 in Ibadan, even when there was nothing significantly new about it.
According to Lukman, the meeting only re-enforced the current national consensus about the need for devolution of powers in the country, otherwise known as restructuring.
This, the PGF DG said was no longer a partisan matter, but an issue of national imperative.
“Already, Progressive Governors in line with recommendations contained in the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism, have taken a position on this matter and have since communicated it to the leadership of the National Assembly.
“Therefore, instead of playing politics on a matter that is beyond media campaign, PDP governors should follow the footsteps of Progressive Governors by engaging the leadership of the National Assembly to speed up processes of constitutional amendment,”he said.
Lukman said that the major outstanding political issue, was the inability of opposition parties, including the PDP, to categorically declare their position, especially in terms of implementation.
He added that having misused opportunities to initiate the recommendations being proposed by the PDP Governors between 1999 and 2015, the party had no moral standing to demand for any executive bill.
Lukman stressed that if the issue was as simple as getting the President to transmit executive bill, the PDP should have initiated it while in power for 16 years.
“He, however appealed to PDP governors to work towards reforming the party and their states before advising on reforms in the country.
“If PDP governors want Nigerians to take them seriously, it must be based on a very honest disposition of acknowledging challenges faced by all our political parties.
“Nigerians want to be able to have choices in terms of what political parties represent beyond the claims of politicians, as things are, PDP is a dissolute representation of an alternative for Nigerians,”he said.
He added that with all the smear campaign going on, APC government had been able to do a lot in terms of facilitating devolution of powers from the federal to state governments.
Lukman said that in line with recommendations of the APC Committee on True Federalism, many APC representatives at the National Assembly had sponsored bills for relevant amendments to our laws.
He advised that the PDP governors, in the spirit of the resolutions adopted in their Ibadan meeting should therefore call on their representatives to support the passage of the bills.
He said that state Houses of Assembly autonomy and judiciary as provided in the amended 1999 Constitution were given full effect through Executive Order 10 under the President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC led administration.
Lukman said the issues were completely ignored by the PDP throughout its 16 years in power, while welcoming the decisions of the governors to support the need to devolve powers to states.
“It is important that they go beyond the cheap politics of reducing it to a campaign against the APC.
“If PDP governors are to be taken seriously in terms of their commitment, it must be based on a stronger commitment to reform the PDP,”he said
