The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Leo Ogor (PDP-Delta), said section 44 (3) of 1999 Constitution must be expunged for the country to be restructured.
Ogor, in an interview on Friday in Abuja, said that removal the section from the Constitution would ensure that challenges Nigeria was currently grappling with were addressed.
He said that the section erroneously placed the control of all resources in the hands of the Federal Government, adding that the position adversely affected economic diversification and exploration of numerous mineral resources in the country.
“I draw you to the provision of section 44 (3) of the Constitution where the resources of the whole country was placed in the hands of the Federal Government, and that is an abnormality.
“The only reason why it was so is because of the sole dependence on oil, but that has been the major setback we have today as a nation,’’ he said.
Leo Ogor further said that the situation had negatively affected the exploration and exploitation of numerous mineral resources as well as encouraged illegal mining in different parts of the country.
“Some foreigners have decided to do their own business taking away billions of naira that can come into the hands of state governments.
They created a scenario under section 162 of the Constitution where state governors come at the end of the month to share money from the Federation Account in Abuja,’’ Ogor said.
He expressed worry that the section created a distributable pool account that distributed money on monthly basis to the tiers of government.
He said “Today, there is a drop in price of crude oil, and so they can’t pay salaries, and the gold is sitting there idle; other people are stealing it.
“But, if not for that section in the Constitution, by today you would have imagined the level of specialization that would have happened.
“Nigeria would have been competing with countries like Malaysia, Singapore and host of other countries.
“Those that are not ready to work will be forced to work because they will be forced to look inward, he said.
“Back in the days we have the great groundnut pyramid, remember the cocoa era, the palm oil era; everything has gone all because we mistakenly placed all the resources in the hands of the Federal Government.
“This is something that is quite alien in a federalism,’’ he explained.
http://www.phoenixnewsonline.com/2016/06/24/expunge-section-443-of-constitution-to-restructure-nigeria/

Speak up Naija.

It's long overdue, I hope they listen. Power belong to the people (Especially at the grassroot)

They can NEVER accept it because they do not want to work. Nigerians are so lazy. We want to compare ourselves with China, Signapore, India and Malaysia but forget that these people are very industrious.

You can imagine a nation with over 20 million able bodied men selling gworo, gala, doing Agbero work, militancy, omonile etc or even Almajiris. The ones that studied Agriculture for instance want to work as bank tellers, while Engineering graduates are looking for salesmanship work. It is only in Nigeria that everybody with a degree is a teacher or operating mushroom study centres or Pastors. We all envy developed and fast developing nations but fold our hands and expect goodies to fall from heaven. Unfortunately, our politicians are even worse.

Nigeria has a long way to go!!

Validated:
They can NEVER accept it because they do not want to work. Nigerians are so lazy. We want to compare ourselves with China, Signapore, India and Malaysia but forget that these people are very industrious.

You can imagine a nation with over 20 million able bodied men selling gworo, gala, doing Agbero work, militancy, omonile etc or even Almajiris. The ones that studied Agriculture for instance want to work as bank tellers, while Engineering graduates are looking for salesmanship work. It is only in Nigeria that everybody with a degree is a teacher or operating mushroom study centres or Pastors. We all envy developed and fast developing nations but fold our hands and expect goodies to fall from heaven. Unfortunately, our politicians are even worse.

Nigeria has a long way to go!!

your fada has produced a worthy successor. You have not shamed him.may you live long and hopefully become one of our leaders. See you at the top or middle, wherever we see space to show by example that we can be better