National Assembly snubs southern govs, excludes state police from 68 amendments
The clamour for resource control and State Police by the Southern Governors’ Forum SGF seems to have suffered a setback going by the details of the 68 amendments proposed by the Joint Senate and House of Representatives’ Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
Also, the gains brought by the Federal High Court judgment giving powers to the States to collect Value Added Tax VAT now risk being reversed, as the National Assembly will vote on whether VAT should remain on the concurrent legislative list or be moved to the exclusive list.
Members of the National Assembly are billed to vote on the recommendations on Tuesday and Wednesday after which the proposal would be sent to the states for concurrence. At least 24 Houses of Assembly must concur for any provision to scale through.
However both state police and restructuring are not included in the 68 proposals,
There were demands for restructuring and return to the regional system of government, with some Nigerians specifically seeking conversion of the six geopolitical zones or states to federating units.
The National Assembly is only considering devolution of powers from the Federal Government to the state and local governments by moving some items from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.
