By Yemi Itodo
Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson, has lauded the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for setting up the Governor Nasir El-Rufia led committee on restructuring.
The El-Rufai-led committee on True Federalism had submitted its report to the National Working Committee of the APC, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, while addressing Journalists in Abuja Friday, Governor Dickson said the APC had taken a first good step which surprisingly, was coming from “an unexpected quarters”.
He said Governor El-Rufai and his committee members must be applauded for doing a good job.
He said the recommendations of El-Rufia committee had further strengthened the agitations for true federalism and resource control in the Niger Delta.
However, the Governor called on the leadership of the APC to ensure implementation of the recommendations of its committee on restructuring before the conduct of the 2019 General elections.
According to him, implementing the report before 2019 general elections was the true test of the sincerity of the APC on the issue of the recommendations.
He said, “This development came from an unexpected quarter on a matter that is dear to us; the subject matter of restructuring to address the inequalities in our country.
“Yesterday, El Rufai, who chaired the APC committee submitted the report; While it is true that we are dealing with a proposal, this is coming from unexpected quarters, and in the light of the opposition to restructuring from some leaders, I thought that what the APC did was unexpected.
“Let me start by commending the committee and the leadership of that party for making what I will call the most fundamental proposal dealing with the issue of restructuring. This is very refreshing, and for me, when I see what is right, I commend it; when I see what is in the best interest of our country, I commend it because my politics is driven by conviction, not convenience.
“With the kind of proposals that they have done, I thought I should appreciate their patriotism and commitment to building an equitable and prosperous Nigeria.”
Dickson, however, called for the establishment of a multiparty committee to work out the final details through wider consultations with the people of various political parties.
When this is done, Dickson believed the executive arm could collectively sponsor Bills to the National Assembly and also lobby its passage, which would eventually lead to the amendment of constitution of Nigeria with the view to having the much clamoured restructuring in the country.
He stressed that there was need to mobilize national consensus to engage the National Assembly in order to ensure the implementation of the core issues raised in the report before 2019 general elections.
“I want to say that at this time, if we are all sincere about the injustices, and inequities, then I call for a multiparty committee to deal with the final details of the issues, the issue of the police, the judiciary, the control of land. We need a multi party committee to discuss and agree and work on draft legislation bills that will be jointly sponsored at the NASS.
“All of us need to mobilize national consensus to engage the National Assembly so that we can drive all these issues, before the next election. That is the test of sincerity.”
On the reconciliation of aggrieved members of his party, the PDP, the Governor said his committee on reconciliation met with aspirants for various offices for over 7 hours yesterday and appreciable progress was made.
He said his committee was at the verge of meeting Prof Adedoja, one of the aggrieved chairmanship aspirants who instituted a lawsuit, saying, with response recieved from him so far, “there were reasonable assurances”.
