Buhari Supports State Police, True Federalism, El-Rufai Claims

The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is not opposed to state police and true federalism, but completely agrees with those propagating the options as the way forward for Nigeria.
El-Rufai, who was the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism, which submitted its report in 2018, said Buhari was not opposed to restructuring.
The governor said that it was the National Assembly that has failed to act on the recommendations to make the enabling laws.
“Nigeria is the only country in the world that is a federation that has only one police force. We have made the argument that states should be allowed to have their own police, and that even local governments should be allowed their own police,” el-Rufai said.
“The President agrees with the content, main crux of the report, and we drafted bills that will enable the amendment of the Constitution as well as statutory amendments that will give effect to our recommendations.
“I call on members of our National Assembly to take our report, look at the bills we have drafted, and work on them, try to give us state police, state judiciary, vest control of oil and minerals in the states, offshore in the government of the federation while states pay royalty and tax,” el-Rufai added.
It would be recalled that many individuals and groups have sustained the call for Nigeria to be restructured with the latest call coming from the Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa.
Okowa noted that the country’s Constitution was a major problem, adding that politicians must stop playing politics with the issue of restructuring.
In the same vein, a former Chief Security Officer to late military ruler, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, at the weekend, advised Nigerians not to allow politicians to decide how to restructure the country.
He said such would be dangerous and will break the country.