The All Progressives Congress (APC) committee on restructuring headed by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State in 2018 submitted its report to the party with recommendations that were believed to be capable of rebalancing Nigeria’s federalism and mitigating the mounting crisis the country grapples with on many fronts.
However, the el-Rufai committee report was snubbed by the government of President Muhammdu Buhari.
Here are the 10 recommendations ignored by the outgoing administration.
State Police
One of the key components of the committee’s report is the recommendation for the adoption of state police.
Critical stakeholders have always made a case for state policing as a form of support base for the federal-control police authorities and a panacea to troubling security challenges but those who oppose the policy have always argued that some elements especially the governors could abuse it by using the armed men to haunt their opponents.
However, the APC committee insisted that the police at the state and federal levels would serve the interest of Nigerians better and the item should be moved from the exclusive list to the concurrent.
Sadly, despite growing desirability and intense call for the policy given the level of insecurity his administration grappled with, Buhari’s government never took any step that will lead to the creation of state police.
It is pertinent to note that the necessity of such security arrangement led to the formation of quasi-military by some states especially in the South-west. Although there was initial opposition to the formation of Amotekun by governors of the South-west states, it is now an approach being considered by states from other regions.
Although the opposition against state police was stronger in the north, by 2022, the 19 Governors and leaders of the Northern states rose from a meeting calling for a constitutional amendment that would birth the acceptance of state police.
Nonetheless, as the Buhari administration winds down, it is on record that it is one area he never considered exploring.
State Judicial Council
The APC restructuring committee had proposed that there should be a state judicial council to appoint and discipline judges in a state.
El-Rufai, during the presentation of the recommendation, said the National Judicial Council would only focus on federal judges.
“We have proposed an amendment to create the State Judicial Council that will appoint and discipline judges within a state while the National Judicial Council will exercise control over the appointment, and discipline of judges of the federal government only,” he said.
However, the creation of a state judicial council is another key policy change ignored by Buhari.
Although his government carried out some reforms in the judiciary especially the signing of Bill No 6 to Provide for the Financial Independence of State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary and Related Matters, the creation of a judicial council for states would have deepened the revolution in Nigeria’s justice system.
State Appeal Court
Another key judicial reform proposed by the committee was the creation of state court of appeal.
“We have proposed the creation of the state court of appeal so that from the high court, you can appeal to the state court of appeal before it goes to the supreme court,” el-Rufai said.
However, Buhari has kept the current arrangement where cases adjudicated by the state high court still have to go to the federal appellate court.
Fiscal Federalism
According to the El-Rufai committee, based on public feedback, it recommended fiscal federalism and amending the federation account statute to increase state income.
“We have a recommendation on fiscal federalism and revenue allocation in which we propose amending section 162 and sub-section two of the Constitution; as well as amend the revenue allocation of revenue Federation Account Act to give more revenue to the states and reduce the federal government’s share of revenue,” the committee had said.
Meanwhile, Buhari’s government guarded jealously the 52.6 percent the federal government draws from the national pulse. Under the current formula, the 36 states share 26.7 percent, while the 774 local government areas in the country share 20.6 percent every month.
The intervention by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) which drafted a new formula has yet to see the light of the day as the government refused to give it the legal backing through constitutional alterations.
Although RMAFC’s proposal is considered far from the recommendation by the APC reform committee as it sought only a 3.33 per cent reduction in the current federal government allocation and on the other hand an increase of 3.07 per cent and 0.44 per cent for the states and local governments, Buhari government will be leaving without given that intervention a filip.
Legislating on Stamp Duties by States
Buhari’s government engaged in judicial battles with states over stamp duties but the ugly development would have been prevented had his administration adopted the recommendation of the APC committee which proposed that stamp duties should be moved to the concurrent list.
The committee recommended that the state would only be able to legislate on stamp duties for transactions involving individuals but not limited liability companies.
“We are recommending that legislation on Stamp Duties should be moved to the concurrent list but the state will only legislate on stamp duties only for transactions involving individuals and businesses but not limited liability companies that were incorporated by the government of the federation,” he said.
However, as we speak, the federal government is still administering the collection of all stamp duties.
Mining of Minerals by States
Another key recommendation that could vest more economic powers on states is the one that stipulated that mining, solid minerals and even oil should be put under the control of the states except the ones located offshore.
El-Rufai said the petroleum act would be amended to provide for states to issue mining licenses.
“We have proposed that mining, minerals, oil should go to the states. Then there will be certain constitutional amendments. The Petroleum Act will be amended to show that states can now issue oil mining licences; the Land Use Act, Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act, the Petroleum Profit Tax Act 2007 would all need to be amended,” he said.
“So, we have proposed an amendment that will ensure that minerals, mining and oil are vested in the states except for offshore minerals.”
However, despite Buhari’s government advocacy for more participation of states and relevant stakeholders in the sector, Section 44 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, which vested the Federal Government with the ownership and control of all minerals, oils and natural gas in Nigeria, has made it difficult for the stimulation of the desired growth in the sector.
State Creation of Local Government
The el-Rufai committee also recommended that states should be allowed to create local government as they deem fit, insisting that three tiers of government as captured in the Nigerian constitution is an aberration.
The committee said states should be able to create and determine the size of their local governments.
“We proposed amendments to Sections 7, 8, 162, the first schedule, part one and the first schedule of the constitution to give effect to our recommendations. The section that list the local governments and their headquarters should be removed, so local governments are no longer named in the constitution,” the proposal read.
“States can create their local governments and determine the structure of their local governments. We are by this, recognizing that in a federal system, you cannot have more than two tiers of government. Having three tiers of government is an aberration.”
Instead of acting on the proposal that would give states more powers over local governments, Buhari attempted to carry out reforms that could further empower the local governments, especially Executive Order 10 which sought financial autonomy for LGAs. It will be recalled that the Supreme Court ruled that Buhari acted beyond his powers by signing the EO10.
However, the constitutional amendment to effect that change is with the National Assembly. The Bill seeks to establish Local Government Councils as a substantive tier of government in the Constitution and guarantee their democratic existence and tenure by entrenching the fundamental governance structure of the Local Government Councils in the Constitution. It also contains express constitutional provisions prohibiting the exercise of legislative, executive and administrative powers of the council powers by any entity other than democratically elected council members.
Independent Candidacy
One of the other critical recommendations of the committee is the adoption of independent candidacy.
It said Nigerians seeking elective positions should be able to run without belonging to any political parties as it is done in many developed democracies.
“We believe widening the political space is consistent with APC’s and the President’s commitment and we have made recommendations but with stringent conditions. We have included in the bill to allow for an independent candidacy that no one wanting to run as an independent candidate should not be a political party member six months to the election,” the proposal read.
However, a considerable level of effort has been channelled in that regard through the passing of the bill by the National Assembly but President Buhari is yet to assent to it and it remains to be seen if he is going to do that before he exits power on May 29.
State of Residence
The committee proposed that the “state of origin” should be replaced with “state of residence to avoid discrimination.
“On citizenship, the issue of local government or state of origin is discriminatory and should be replaced with state of residence,” he said.
“It is around this that we have proposed an amendment to the Federal Character Commission Act to allow people domiciled in a place to be considered as indigenes.”
Buhari’s government had carried out some alterations to the constitution and has largely snubbed this recommendation which could solve some of the problems that have fueled intractable tension between ethnic groups across the country
Referendum
El-Rufai said the committee recommended an amendment of the constitution to provide a referendum to be conducted on “national or state issues”.
“We also propose a constitutional amendment to allow for a referendum to be conducted on burning national or state issues before decisions are taken,” he said.
“Right now, the constitution has no room for a referendum, but only in the creation of states.”
This is another recommendation that was never acted upon by Buhari’s administration.
