Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai said on Tuesday that there was an urgency of now  to restructure Nigeria.

He said this was because the current political and social structure of Nigeria was not working and would not work as long as the structure as presently constituted was retained.

According to him, the federal government was bogged down by too many responsibilities in the exclusive lists, which were affecting  its effectiveness in delivering on its constitutional mandated and operations.

He said some of the responsibilities should be moved through constitutional amendment to the concurrent list.

el-Rufai spoke as a panelist at the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#26) in Abuja on the topic “Rethinking sub-national competitiveness”.

He said, “Our political and national structure do not support emergence of competent political leaders.

“FCT only has 8,000 square kilometers of land and the 36 states take the rest, which means that a majority of our problems are solved by states.

“Our federal republic is only by name as so much concentration is on the federal level which makes it  ineffective in doing many things.

“Governors are only called chief security officers by names but don’t control the security architecture in the country, as police and military architecture receive orders from the federal level, thereby making it difficult for governors to take control.

Proferring solutions to Nigeria’s problems, el-Rufai stated that there was need for a complete overhaul of some laws to enable many states to function effectively.

He said “We may have to go through legislation to reduce the cost of governance by declaring that states should not spend more than their IGR in governance.

“For instance, Lagos State has the revenue to appoint 25 Commissioners and advisers or even more because of their revenue  but Ekiti and other states with smaller revenues may not be able, and as such, laws should be in place to checkmate high cost of spending,”

He said that he was very passionate about restructuring and until that was done, Nigeria would continue to promote mediocrity at the expense of merit in its retrogressive policy of distribution instead of encouraging production.

He slammed the policy of federal character, saying it had not even helped his Northern part of the country to develop contrary to expectations.

He pointed out that the idea of cut-off marks for admissions into Unity Colleges and other institutions with a view to assisting the North to catch up with the South educationally had not worked, asking, “has the North caught up?”

He said what he believed in was the creation of equal opportunities for the best and those who were ready to take take advantage of them to do so, adding that those who failed to take advantage of them would pay for it.

el-Rufai further stated that Presjdent Muhammadu Buhari was excited about the report of the APC Committee on Restructuring Agenda under his chairmanship.

He said the report of the Committee was submitted to the President early 2018 and the president was ready to proceed with its implementation but for the former National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun who advised that action should be stayed as the 2019 general election was approaching lest the exercise was given political colouration.

He said some so-called Northern elders who announced their opposition to restructuring were noise makers, stressing that the desire of the discerning Northerns who were in the majority were for the country to be restructured for it to work for all.

He agreed with another panelist and former Secretary of the 2014 National Conference, Mrs Valerie Azinge (SAN) that the recommendations of the conference and the APC Committee on Restructuring were in pari materia and if thoroughly and fully harmonised would bring about a restructured Nigeria.

In her further submissions,  Mrs Azinge stated that Nigeria must have a rethink especially in its judicial processes.

She called for the decongestion of the appellate courts by allowing cases to be treated at states level.

“We need to decongest our courts for the judicial system to function well.

“For example, a land matter in Anambra state should not reach the supreme court in Abuja, states should deal with their cases.”

“As such I advocate for judges in the states to deal with cases as well as the need to form state police to steer affairs of security,” she further stated.