Ex-Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, on Saturday, disagreed with the idea of restructuring, stating that it will make state governors too powerful.
Noting that he is a victim of abuse of power by a state Governor, he said restructuring meant different things to different people.
Recall that among issues the Forum of Southern Governors canvassed at their Asaba meeting is the restructuring of the country and devolution of powers.
Shittu, who is among nine aspirants seeking APC’s ticket to vie for Oyo State governor in 2023, disagrees with the idea of governors getting more powers than they currently exercise, wondering what would have happened to him if his adversary then had police power.
He questioned the motives behind the question for more powers by the State chief executives if they had resented and presently resent the presidential order to enhance financial autonomy for local governments and the judiciary.
Speaking on the ongoing constitutional amendment debate, the former governorship aspirant in Oyo said there was need to tinker with the constitution, given the agitations that has trailed the current document.
“The fact that there has been agitations there is need to tinker with the constitution. In a country where a lot of people are raising eyebrows, we have to make concessions.
“For me there’s nothing wrong to tinker with the constitution, of course no constitution is ever perfect, so if we agree that our constitution is not perfect, whenever there is agitations , we try to look at the agitations.”
He added that “One specific area, if I have my way, is to look at the issue of local government administration. Because of the greed of many of our governors, they have virtually paralyzed governance at that level.
“As far back as 1980 when I was in the House of Assembly, I published a book, called Oyo state yearbook and Who is Who, one of the major articles there was ‘Making Local government not only local but government‘. I argured then and it still holds today, that our local governments in Nigeria, as of today, are neither local nor government.
“They are not local because the local people do not have any inpute in selecting people who manage local government, and they are not governments because they are mere apron strings to the state executive, the governor is the one that nominates every one that contests election in the platform of his political party,” Shittu lamented.
