Restructuring: Amendment Bill Is Ready, Says Atiku

Former vice president and PDP presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar declared on Wednesday that a draft amendment law for the restructuring of Nigeria is finished and will be presented to the National Assembly as an executive bill on the opening day of the 10th Assembly’s session, next year.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar added that Nigerians should feel secure knowing that discussions on issues like resource control, which is still a hot topic in the restructuring debate, as well as devolution and state police, are in the works, despite his decision to postpone the document for the time being.

In his Wednesday address to members of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, at the Marriot Hotel in Lagos, the PDP presidential candidate explained that both the amendment bill and his five-point agenda, which he dubbed “My Covenant With Nigerians,” are the outcomes of in-depth consultation and professional advice.

He asserted to have assembled a team of experts with whom he met in a series of sessions to generate concepts for Nigeria’s return to greatness.

Atiku said, “In preparing the draft restructuring amendment bill, what I did was to assemble a team of lawyers who are some of the best in the country.

“I picked lawyers from each of the six geo-political zones so that each zone would have representation and a sense of belonging in what we were packaging for Nigerians and also to take into account the interests of each component part of the country.

“What they have come up with after series of sessions is a draft bill that is ready as I speak to you.

“The bill is ready and it would be presented to the National Assembly on the first day of their sitting after inauguration.

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“Mind you, the process of amending the constitution involves the Executive, the National Assembly and the state houses of assembly. So, on the first day of sitting, I will present the bill.”

Regarding the specific topics the bill will address, the PDP candidate disclosed that resource control is one of the main concerns Nigerians have whenever restructuring is brought up.

“The bill will cut across all spheres of restructuring, and resource control is accommodated in it.”

In response to a query about security, Abubakar stated that more ground forces were required.

He believed that increasing the number of police officers in the nation by about 200,000 to about 700,000 would help with the difficulty of policing while also lowering unemployment.