Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State and Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC) Restructuring committee, has revealed that the draft bill produced and submitted by his committee in January 2018 was stepped down for fear of politicization ahead of 2019 general elections.
El-Rufai, spoke on Tuesday while fielding questions at a panel discussion at the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES#26) in Abuja.
He revealed that some interested members of the ruling party were making frantic efforts to get the draft bill presented to the National Assembly for consideration before the end of the tenure of the present administration.
He explained that the Committee made bold recommendations at the time and made a draft bill available for onward transmission to the National Assembly, which every lawmaker could take up and sponsor as a private bill.
According to him, we do not need Executive Bill to start action on the draft bill submitted by the Committee.
He insisted that it is the position of the Party and the President to see the draft bill passed into law but assured that consideration of the bill would soon take off.
For him, the consideration could be done piecemeal as we do not require an omnibus amendment of the constitution to restructure the country.
This is even as the Governor took a swipe at his fellow northerners who are opposed to restructuring, saying that they are doing so for selfish purposes.
The governor argued that there are over 100 million northerners whose interests are at stake and maintained that whatever advantages that an individual is getting for himself does not apply directly to the entire north.
“We have the highest number of out-of-school children. We have the highest poverty rate.
“We have the lowest JAMB cut-off rate. So, what are the advantages in the North in the current situation?
“As the Governor of Kaduna State, I have had to look at these issues and try to see how I can get the people of my state up on the ladder.
“I think you need to differentiate the knowledge from a few and the voice of the silent majority,” he said.
El-Rufai, however, regretted that certain people present restructuring in a derogatory way in a manner that portrays all the northerners as backward people.
“The way some people present restructuring is so insulting and derogatory.
“We don’t have anything to benefit from making derogatory remarks against a particular group of people because of restructuring.
“If there are northern leaders today by virtue of the fact that I am a governor, I must be there.
“So, who are these northerners against restructuring? Who are they? Who are they speaking for?
On insecurity in Southern Kaduna, the governor posited that the violence in northern Kaduna is more devastating than the insecurity in Southern Kaduna as perceived by the public.
He, however, declined to speak in detail about the real causes of the violence, promising that he would make himself available only if a separate session would be arranged to discuss the issue.
“Though, the violence in Southern Kaduna has been over-reported, the insecurity in Northern Kaduna—- Birnin Gwari, is more than the ones in Southern Kaduna.
“But the newspapers based in Lagos and Abuja choose to focus on Southern Kaduna rather than what is really happening,” he said.
He added that the crisis is over 200 years old and cannot be tackled in a minute.
On population, El-Rufai argued that population can only be controlled cand through the education of the girl-child.
