Malam Nasir El-rufai, governor of Kaduna state, says the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) agenda for restructuring the country failed because of a lack of political will.
El-rufai said political leadership matters in Nigeria’s development if is to move forward.
He spoke on a panel “How Nigeria can build a post-oil economic future” organised by Agora Policy and the Africa Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said APC’s restructuring agenda was to return to Nigeria to the political sentiment of 1954 which the founding fathers agreed on in London.
According to him, the sentiment then gave to power and more resources to the states while the federal only focused on a few things.
“Then, states handled major responsibilities of government while the federal only focused on few things it can do well”, El-rufai said.
“The regions competed very well during the era and we achieved growth and development.
“It was destroyed by military take-over and during the civil war. The country operated as a unitary system during those periods.
“In APC, we believed our restructuring agenda would return Nigeria to that sentiment but lack of political will is the reason why we failed to implement it since 2015
El-rufai added that the country must be returned to an era where the states get 80% of the country’s revenue.
Also speaking, the immediate past governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi, said the Buhari-led administration disowned the agenda a few weeks into government.
“The spokesperson of the administration rose up to disown the restructuring agenda of the APC.
“The spokesperson described the document as a mere part of a shopping list”, Fayemi said.
