The 36 State Governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have pledged support for the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution initiated by the House of Representatives, with a view to actively engage in shaping amendments that would strengthen Nigeria’s constitution.
Governor Sani Uba of Kaduna State who conveyed the Forum’s commitment during a media chat held at the end of the physical meeting in Abuja, reeled out the Forum’s commitment towards improving the nation’s educational system.
In the same vein, the Governors during the meeting with the Minister of Education, Professor Tunji Alausa deliberated on various strategies aimed at repositioning Nigeria’s education system for improved outcomes.
The Minister provided an overview of the challenges, including out-of-school children and high rates of learning poverty, particularly in the North-East and North-West regions.
According to him, key proposals discussed include strengthening collaboration between Federal and State Governments, improving the quality of girl-child education, integrating vocational training, and leveraging data and technology to enhance education management systems.
Also during the meeting, the Governors reaffirmed their commitment to collaborate with the Federal Government and Development Partners to address these challenges and align efforts towards achieving SDG4.
While responding to the Forum’s position on the ongoing tax reforms, Governor Uba explained that “consultation is still ongoing. And I have not had in mind in our next meeting that we should be able to come up with a position. But we are still discussing it.”
While responding to a question bothering on the IDF in fighting insecurity, particularly in the North West region, Governor Uba said: “This is something we have been discussing, and it is not something that is new. As you are aware, we are working closely with all the relevant security agencies. And this security issue is not only in the North West, but it is all over Nigeria.
“We all face various security challenges, but we are working closely with the relevant security agencies.
“We are very confident that it is a matter of time. All these issues will be over.”
Addressing NGF’s Press Corps after the meeting with the Governors, Deputy Speaker, Hon. Benjamin Kalu who underscored the vital role of Governors as heads of sub-national governments in the exercise, recognized the importance of updating the Governors on parliamentary progress to prepare the State Houses of Assembly for voting on significant issues in the Constitution amendment.
Kalu who fielded questions from Journalists after his presentation also disclosed that the committee has received approximately 161 areas of concern from the public for evaluation.
The Deputy Speaker said that the committee will soon embark on working visits to various States and geopolitical zones to ensure comprehensive input from the people.
He said: “The Governors are major stakeholders and without the federating units, there is no Nigeria and if you ignore them, the wheel of progress towards realising our objectives with regards to this constitutional review will be slowed down. We considered it important to come and engage with them, to bring them up to speed, taking them through our work plan, what we have achieved so far and where we are headed. And we have had a robust discussion and I must say that the governors made beautiful contributions and they are in support of the constitution review.
“We also informed them that we are going to be visiting their states and the geopolitical zones to harvest the opinions of the members of the public in their various zones with regards to the thematic areas of the constitution review.
“We informed them that we have received about 161 areas to amend in the constitution and we are going to give them the breakdown of all of them in the coming engagement. This won’t be the first and last engagement. We are going to have a couple of engagements. This is how we want to do it, differently from how it has been done.
“So, from the beginning, we want them to have an input and we have requested for them to send us an anchor person, like a liaison, the person that will engage with the committee to bring their input closer, faster to the committee than it used to be and also to take our feedback to them.
“That way, it will make it easier that by the time this constitution review gets to the states, it won’t be a difficult issue having the Houses of Assembly do what they are supposed to do with regards to the constitutional provisions and the role they need to play with the two-thirds voting for it.”
Demonstrating their commitment to national progress, Hon. Kalu said that the governors expressed openness to discussions on tax reforms and state policing.
He added that they prioritized the nation’s development over specific thematic areas, showcasing their leadership and nationalism.
“The governors spoke generally about the constitution. They were open-minded towards all areas we are trying to look at in the constitution. They were professional in the discussion. They listened and like nationalists, leaders of this nation, they are interested in what will make the nation move forward and were not fixated on any particular thematic area because we led before various thematic areas that we are considering at the moment”, Kalu said.
The Deputy Speaker emphasized the importance of collaboration between the Forum and the Committee, proposing the establishment of a “one-stop shop” framework to align state-level priorities with the constitutional review process.
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