The Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) Salihu Lukman, has urged the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to follow the footsteps of their counterpart in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on the need for devolution of powers in the country, otherwise known as restructuring.
Lukman said there is nothing new in the PDP’s governors’ communique issued in Ibadan, adding that the issue of restructuring is no longer a partisan matter but an issue of national imperative.
Responding to the opposition governors through a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, the APC chieftain said the progressive governors, in line with recommendations contained in the APC Committee on True Federalism, have taken a position on the matter and have since communicated it to the leadership of the National Assembly.
The PGF boss said the PDP governors should engage the leadership of the National Assembly to speed up processes of constitutional amendment, instead of playing politics on a matter that is beyond media campaign.
“Beyond issues of proposed bills in the National Assembly, it is to the credit of the APC under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari that issues of autonomy for states’ Assemblies and judiciary as provided in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended are given full effect through Executive Order 10.
What are the PDP Governors doing in their states to comply? These are issues that were completely ignored by the PDP throughout their tenure between 1999 and 2015.”
While welcoming the decisions of the PDP governors to support the need to devolve powers to states, the PGF boss said “it is important that they go beyond the cheap politics of reducing it to a campaign against the APC. If PDP Governors are to be taken seriously in terms of their commitment, it must be based on a stronger commitment to reform the PDP!”
