- National Assembly has announced its intention to reduce the powers of the federal government - The lawmakers claim this is art of the restructuring Nigerians have been clamouring for - More powers would be given to the state governments The National House of Assembly has announced its intention to make big changes in the 1999 constitution which will reduce the powers of the federal government. NAIJ.com learnt that Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu made this announcement while speaking to reporters at a retreat on Saturday, July 15. Ekweremadu said more powers will be delegated to the state governments after the constitution has been reviewed. According to a report by The Nation, he said: “We have broken all the issues into specific bills. Between yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) we have looked at about 23 separate bills with separate issues. “The idea is to ensure that by the time we vote, each of them succeeds or fails on its own. When we conclude the work, we’ll send it to the house to approve. READ ALSO: Nigerians react to alleged leaked photo of Buhari “We will collate and ensure that the provisions of the constitution have been fulfilled regarding the alteration, and we will send it to the president for his assent. And the president will decide which one to assent to or not to assent to. “The implication therefore is that if he assents to some, then those one become part of the constitution. And the one he refuses to assent to, then we might decide whether to override the veto. “So, we want each of them to have a separate life of its own. And this is based on our own experience in the last exercise where everything was in one single bill and when the president withheld his assent, all of them collapsed. “This is just an improvement on what we did last time. It is something we innovated based on our experience in the last exercise.” Ekweremadu said the Constitution review committee also considered the time frame within which the president or state governor has to assent to a bill and the issue of restructuring. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 news app He said: “You know we have been talking about the restructuring of Nigeria. One of the components of restructuring is that they are saying that there is too much power in the hands of the federal government and we need to strip some of them from the federal government. “What we have done is to look at the issue. Some items will be removed from the exclusive list to the concurrent list where the federal and the states can make laws regarding some of those items. “And where there is a conflict, the laws of the National Assembly will prevail. “So, things like railways will have to be moved to the concurrent list. The idea is that states can build railways within their territory and then a couple of states can even decide to build railways across their states. “The federal government can also build railways across the country and make policy around it.” There will continue to be a minimum wage applicable to the public and private sectors. “There should be minimum wage for both the public sector and private sector, that is to say, that if it is N5000 don’t pay any person less than N5000 but can be increased “If Lagos has more money, it can pay beyond the minimum wage. All those who don’t have money cannot pay below the minimum way no matter how poor they are. “So, in that way we have a minimum standard for workers in Nigeria. READ ALSO: Former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke says she is ready to go to jail “The challenge there has been how do you take care of the issue of teachers’ salaries because it is from the joint local governments/state account that primary school teachers’ salaries are paid,” he said. “So, we want to be sure that if we remove the joint local government- state account we will not jeopardize the payment of teacher salaries. “That is a very contentious issue, so we said we have to do further consultations with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and other stakeholders before we can take a decision on that to be sure that we don’t create more problems when we are trying to solve and existing problem. “So, that is not part of what we are going to present to the National Assembly when we get back. “We believe we have done sufficient work. This is an incremental approach that we have adopted in the amendment of the constitution. So, what we are saying that after we have finished with this, if we still have more time before election, otherwise maybe the next assembly will decide what to do.” Meanwhile, a United Nation Universal Periodic Review (UPR) group has called for the ban of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and nine other senators from entering the United States of America over abuse of rule of law and rights of democratic representation in the Senate. The UPR in a letter written to the Congressional Black Caucus of the United States of America Congress said the Nigerian Senate's disregard for rule of law is appalling. The letter signed by the chairman board of trustees of the UPR, Ifot Nathaniel, said the Senate and its leadership is currently operating a double standard and abuse of rule of law which is capable of truncating the country's democracy.

I see

ekensi01:
https://www.naij.com/1115268-national-assembly-set-reduce-federal-governments-powers.html

Reduce NASS spending first

Odi egwu

ayourbamie:
Reduce NASS spending first

Am not one of them bro.

So they can have more power to squeeze Nigeria's ass. God is watching all of you

OK, let me ask the people..

To agree with NASS to reduce FG's power, Click *Like..

*Share to Disagree with NASS..

Please break into paragraphs.

More powers would be given to the state governments The National House of Assembly has announced its intention to make big changes in the 1999 constitution which will reduce the powers of the federal government. 

Cool with me. You guys obviously suck at service delivery but statea are hardly better.

So, things like railways will have to be moved to the concurrent list. The idea is that states can build railways within their territory and then a couple of states can even decide to build railways across their states. “The federal government can also build railways across the country and make policy around it.” 

Smart move.

. “So, we want to be sure that if we remove the joint local government- state account we will not jeopardize the payment of teacher salaries. “That is a very contentious issue, so we said we have to do further consultations with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and other stakeholders before we can take a decision on that to be sure that we don’t create more problems when we are trying to solve and existing problem.

Do it anyway. The local government need to learn to stand on their own. The chaos will reveal wheat from chaff.

...

The Federal Government should focus only on
1) Foreign Mission
2) Currency
3) Constitution

Let the states be in charge of other things

ekensi01:
Am not one of them bro.

I meant instead of reducing the president's power, they should reduce their expenditure first

ayourbamie:

I meant instead of reducing the president's power, they should reduce their expenditure first

Wrong

Reduce the Exclusive legislative list in the hands of the FG

Warship:



Wrong

Reduce the Exclusive legislative list in the hands of the FG

Don't be surprised people like bending over for big government. It's odd really.