Summary of APC Committee Recommendations – Fiscal Federalism, State police, etc

The All Progressives Congress committee on restructuring has submitted its report to the National Chairman of the party, Mr. John Odigie-Oyegun.  The committee which was headed by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El- Rufai, was set up in August 2017 to architect the position of the party on true federalism. Find below a summary of the report on key issues:

• Merger of states: So, the first recommendation for which we have proposed a draft bill for constitution amendment is the merger of states. Though there was no consensus from stakeholders on the merger of states, we felt that we  should propose a bill that allows state to merge and it is up to the party, the National Assembly and the people of Nigeria to decide on that. But we drafted a bill that is there for the party and the government to move on with.
• The police: We are recommending that police should be both federal and state.
• Fiscal Federalism: This again is what we got as feedback from majority of Nigerians that the state should get more revenue and the federal government should slim down a little.
• Independent candidacy: … the committee still recommends that the party should support the demand for widening the political space by allowing for  independent candidates. We believe that this will make the political party more honest.
• Local government: We recommend that the current system of local government administration as provided by the Constitution to be amended and the state be allowed to enact laws to local government that is peculiar to each of them.
• Revenue allocation: We have also proposed amending Section One of the Allocation of Revenue Federation Act to reflect this reality.  We have also proposed amendment to section 40 to the Value Added Tax Act. They are in Volume Two. There is the question of what people call resource control. The committee noted the growing agitation by states to exercise control over natural resources within their respective territories and pay taxes and royalties to the federal government. If this recommendation is taken, then there will consequential amendment.

PRTimes has a detailed breakdown.

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