Business
NGF Reviews Stance On Constitution Amendment, Today
The Nigeria Governors‘ Forum (NGF)
will meet today to review its stance on the ongoing constitution amendment
process and its peer review exercise.
This is
contained in the agenda of the NGF made available to newsmen.
The governors
are also expected to review the polio eradication initiative of the forum.
Our
correspondent gathered that the 36 governors who form the forum‘s membership
are expected to review the country‘s security challenges with a view to
proffering solutions.
They are also
expected to formulate an agenda that would guide the forum‘s activities in
2013.
Other
priority issues that would engage the governor’s attention at the meeting, our
correspondent gathered included funding implications, budget and the forum‘s
litigation against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court.
It is
presently challenging the Federal Government’s deductions from the Excess Crude
Account to offset fuel subsidy.
The forum is
asking the court to compel the Federal Government to adhere to the provisions
of the constitution with regards to deduction from the account.
It criticised
the continued deduction of oil subsidy from the excess crude accounts, saying
that the deduction negated the principle of federalism and budgetary provision.
The NGF at
its meeting of October 18, 2012, had also constituted a seven-man committee to
engage and collaborate with the National Assembly on the on-going constitution
review process.
The decision,
according to Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State and the forum‘s
chairman, is taken after the forum met with the Senate Committee on the 1999
Constitution Review.
Members of the committee included governors of Rivers,
Jigawa, Bauchi, Lagos, Niger, Anambra and Akwa-Ibom states.
The forum at that meeting also set up a committee on peer
review and good governance, which had governors of Kano, Sokoto, Kwara,
Adamawa, Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Enugu Zamfara and Osun states as members.
The creation of state police and the inclusion of the six
geo-political zones in the constitution were major issues that had engaged the
interest of the governors since the issue of constitution review began.
The governors are also demanding for the abrogation of the
offshore/onshore dichotomy and the derivation principle, which allows
oil-producing states to retain 13 per cent of the total revenue derived from
exploration of mineral resources.
The NGF is an umbrella association of the 36 elected
governors of the federation irrespective of party affiliation.