Legislator Advocates More Powers For States

The Leader of Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Chidiebere Nwoke, has called for the devolution of more powers to the federating states in the country in line with the principle of true federalism.

Speaking in an interview in Umuahia Monday, Nwoke noted that there were too much powers at the centre.

He said that power sharing between the centre and states was lopsided in favour of the former.

“Some of the issues such as power generation, Police, among others should be devolved to the federating states,” he said.

He added that true federalism would engender healthy competition among the states, pointing out that “the present federal structure has made Nigerians to be lazy”.

Nwoke, who spoke on the nation’s 13 years of unbroken democratic rule, said that “Nigeria has done well”.  “The only regret is that we are yet to practice true federalism”, he said.

He further said that some sections of the country which were popular with agrultural products had lost their trade marks, citing the disappearance of the groundnut pyramid, cocoa, among others.

He noted that states now depended more on oil revnue, “our oil is drilled and the proceeds taken to Abuja and at the end of the month the proceeds are shared to the states”.

He called for Sovereign National Conference, where Nigerians would sit down and discuss issues that were fundamental to the continued existence of Nigeria as a corporate entity.

He noted that the current constitutional review by the National Assembly would not entrench true federalism in the country.

Speaking on the activities of Abia assembly, Nwoke said the house had passed the Public Procurement Law and the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

He explained that the laws would have positive impact on the people, adding that they were designed to tackle fraud and corruption in government.

The legislator, who is representing Umuahia East Constituency stressed the need for financial autonomy for the legislature.

He said that such autonomy would also foster the independence of the legislature and help to reduce unnecessary friction between the legislature and executive.