In a statement that shows support for devolution of power, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha has blamed Nigeria’s stunted growth on the concentration of powers and resources at the centre.
“A perusal of the various constitutions of Nigeria since 1960 shows that the Exclusive List had constantly been increasing mainly as a result of military involvement in governance,” said Ihedioha.
“Resources are concentrated at the centre, such that the Central Government takes more than 50 percent of allocation from the federation account.
“This state of affairs has created challenges of development at the constituent units where there are noticeable paucity of resources,” the Deputy Speaker, who is the chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 constitution added.
Ihedioha stressed the need to give more powers to the States, nothing that imbalances noted in the 1999 Constitution necessitated the amendment.
“Certain items have been moved from the Exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list such as Railways, Stamp duties, Pension, Road Safety, Youth, Environment, Arbitration, whereas certain matters that are residual in nature like Health and Housing have been moved to the concurrent list. The idea is to devolve more power to the constituent units of the Federation,” he said.
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