Chairman, Northern Joint Committee on Restructuring and Governor of Sokoto state, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, yesterday re-affi rmed the North’s commitment to the country’s unity, a position re-echoed by the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi (II).
Addressing the North’s position on restructuring, the governor, who spoke shortly after the inaugural meeting of the joint committee of Northern Governors and Northern Emirs and Chiefs in Kaduna, appealed to agitators to calm down.
He said, “even if the country goes into war, people still have to come back to discuss their issues, hence the need to stop beating war drums.
” “We agreed that a technical committee be set up to work on the previous documents, conferences and position papers and then come back to us within three weeks.
Th ereafter, every state will conduct public hearing and we will be meeting on October 24, 2017, by the grace of God to review all that.
So, by the end of October, Godwilling, we shall be able to get back to the larger body of the Northern Governors Forum and Northern Traditional Leaders and Council.
“All the issues that are going to be brought up by a technical committee that has been constituted by this body will be critically looked into so that we can subject them to a very robust database debate across the North and the outcome of that will be presented to Northern Governors and traditional rulers,” he said.
Tambuwal, while urging agitators to calm down and await conclusion of processes initiated by the federal government said, “there is a process going on in the country for engagement and I am sure the federal government is willing to listen to all these agitations at the end of the day.
And don’t forget that, even if you embark on a war at this stage, you don’t get result through war; you will always come back to the round table and discuss the issues.
So, I want to call on all Nigerians to give peace a chance.
” In His remark, Emir Sanusi said, “dialogue remains the best way of resolving issues at all levels. I believe in the conversation.
We have just looked into three main items that stood out clearly.
Th e fi rst is that we have heard our commitment to the unity of the country and we are going to have a regional conversation to express the pressing issues that have been raised.
“Th e second point is that we have to look into constitutional reform of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Th is is important because it will help us to answer questions like what exactly is the devolution of power of state, what exactly should be the role of local government and whether there should be an opportunity for diff erent states to discuss issues around fi scal responsibility, sharing revenue and all that can be discussed.
“Not just sharing of revenue, but whether entire revenue of the government should be used for payment of salaries, constitution amendment on issue of national minimum wage and so on.
