The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has called for specific constitutional roles for deputy governors in order to keep them busy.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ganduje made the call on Tuesday while speaking at the annual conference of the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria.
The conference with the theme “Partnering in the shared vision for good governance and sustainable development” took place in Abuja.
Ganduje, represented by the APC Deputy National Chairman, South, Emma Eneukwu, said assigning constitutional roles would prevent unnecessary clashes between governors and their deputies.
“I am happy that you, the deputy governors, have decided to come together and form yourself into a forum and embark on this advocacy.
“As you create awareness, as you meet people and talk to leaders of our country, there is a need to constitutionally give roles to the deputy governors”, he said.
Also, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, appealed to the governors to find it expedient to delegate some relevant and key roles to their deputies.
Akume, represented by a Director in the SGF office, Mr Simon Tyungu, said such would give them a sense of belonging.
“Nigeria is presently facing a lot of very demanding challenges and this is because the effect of governance is not being felt by the majority of Nigerians as should be.
“To this end, I want to use this platform to advocate for a shared national vision among the federal state and local governments to be implemented within four years.
“This will be in the form of the three tiers agreeing on very critical projects, that is the food and development centre”, he said.
The Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, urged all serving and former governors and their deputies to continue to work together for nation-building.
“Your experiences and institutional memories and knowledge must not be allowed to go to waste.
“I urge us all to work together, governors, deputy governors, former deputy governors, to work together in nation building.
“The NGF looks forward to a greater and robust collaboration and engagement with this forum”, AbdulRazaq said.
A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), advised political leaders to be guided by patriotism in all their endeavours.
Contrary to the opinion of many legal luminaries, Agabi said nothing was wrong with the 1999 Constitution, except that its provisions were not being adequately enforced.
“There are some of us who feel that the constitution is an invalid document, it is illegitimate, it is a product of the military. (But) even if it is a broken-down vehicle it is the vehicle.
“It is a good constitution; there is nothing wrong with it. But however good a constitution is, it is not a self-executing document, it doesn’t enforce itself. It requires good people to enforce it.
“Of course, it is not intended to be a perfect document, but this nation must begin to respect the constitution.
“We must begin to respect the nation’s history and not go on describing it as an artificial creation, as we hear so many people doing. There is no nation that is not artificial. All nations are artificial”, Agabi said.
Agabi, who was the chairman of the occasion, appealed to the Federal Government to make the nation self-reliant, tackle corruption and release dissidents in prison to allow them to contribute their quota to national development.
“I appeal to the federal government to release all those dissidents who are in detention so that they can come out to unite the state and move it forward.
“I am not afraid of those dissidents, bring them over, release them, let them recognise that we can teach them unity and peace.
“For ever since we became an independent nation, we have been living in peace”, he said.
The Chairman of the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria, Mr Chris Akomas, pledged the forum’s commitment to continue to strive hard in the quest for nation-building and in the bid to deepen Nigeria’s democratic process.
Akomas, a former Abia deputy governor, said the objective of the summit was to proffer workable solutions and better understanding to eliminate the incessant rifts between Governors and their deputies.
“We have evolved over the years and have come up to the stage where we need to play critical roles to advance the cause of building on our democratic structures”, he said.
