The Ongoing Constitutional Amendment By NASS Is Tokenism — Adegboruwa, SAN

A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has described the ongoing constitutional amendment by the National Assembly as “tokenism” and scratching of the surface of the face of the issues plaguing the country.

Adegboruwa, in an interview with the NIGERIAN TRIBUNE said what Nigeria needs is devolution of powers not the current unitary system of government in practice.

He said, “What the National Assembly has done is mere tokenism. It is just scratching the surface of the real issues plaguing our country. We are not running a federation. It is unitary system of government that we have currently. It is not correct to just be handing over bits and pieces to the states, regions and local government councils, as if there is no equality of status.

Power should go down to the owners, that is, the states, local government and the regions. The Federal Government has no business holding on to all the issues and items that bring money to the federation. The Federal Government should just be an administrative centre. So, all the things they voted upon have no relevance to our demand for true federalism.

“The APC, when it was canvassing for votes in 2015, promised devolution of powers and what we understood by that is that there will be resource control first. The regions that have the natural resources within their domains will be allowed considerable freedom.

Osun and Zamfara states should be able to mine their gold; Ondo should be able to mine its oil and Oyo State should be allowed to take care of its cocoa, gold and everything that is there. The same thing should apply to the North where the northerners should be allowed the control of their natural resources and they pay royalty to the centre. None of these things has been tackled at all by the National Assembly. All this window-dressing of reforms does not make any impact on our demand for true federalism.

“Our lawmakers should summon the courage to address the yearnings of Nigerians so that the country can move forward. There reason there is corruption is that there is too much money at the federal level for which nothing is being done, no projects are being executed. Give the money to the owners so that people can take their destinies into their own hands and move the country forward. What the National Assembly is doing is not acceptable at all. Why can’t we have state police? Who is scared? Look at the success of Amotekun in the South-West. Who is scared?”

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria so advocated for resource control by states instead of the Federal Government. According to him, the practice of federal government dictating on education is wrong adding that each state ought to determine its admission process instead of the common examination called UTME which is frustrating students everyday.

Adegboruwa also advocated for each to have its Law School just as is obtained in the United States of America.

“That is why I called it tokenism. VAT is a value added tax, a product of certain events in terms of sales, commerce and consumption. Those are just paltry things. The main resource of the country is what each region has as an advantage. There is no reason for the Federal Government to be sitting on that. That is the core issue behind the clamour for devolution of power, resource control and independence for the states.

What is the Federal Government  doing by legislating central admission to schools and education of children when our youths are suffering, no universities to admit them. Lawyers graduate from universities and can’t go to law school because there is a central system of controlling those who get admission into law school. For God’s sake, in 21 century? Why can’t Rivers State build its own law school and all its citizens who graduate from its own university  can go there and be trained? Why can’t Lagos, Kano and other states have their own law schools? That is what is happening in the United States, United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.

“Why will children be writing a common examination called UTME in order to secure admission to universities and they are frustrating them every day. They said some states are educationally disadvantaged and somebody who passes on merit is asked to be on the waiting line for somebody who did not pass. In what sane society do you see such a thing?” the human rights lawyer said