Nigeria Newspapers Online

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and traditional rulers on Wednesday set up a joint committee to study and aggregate inputs on assigning a constitutional role for traditional rulers.

Addressing journalists after their meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, said the agenda included discussions on defining and enhancing the constitutional role of traditional rulers in Nigeria.

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He said there’s a bill currently before the National Assembly and the import of the meeting was to make the right input into what has been submitted.

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He said the meeting agreed that “A joint committee of governors and our traditional rulers led by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma should be set up, and that committee should seek to ensure that the various remarks and comments that were made from those that were present that reflect the desires of those that they represent, should be included to make for a robust document.

“Memorandum should also be called for and received, and all that should be synthesised so that whatever document will be presented to the National Assembly will be a very comprehensive, a very inclusive document that seeks to empower our royal majesties, royal highnesses more and seeks to involve them in governance, peace, security of our various states across the country, including the FCT.”

Abiodun said the meeting also discussed the issue of state police, gender-based violence and local government autonomy.

He said, “We spoke about the impact, or otherwise of local government autonomy on traditional rulers. The idea was to inform them of what the Supreme Court ruling means so that they have a better understanding of the impact of that ruling when implementation commences.

“We further deliberated also on the issues of peace and security, food security, and all other emerging threats. The participation of our traditional rulers was also, again, underscored,” he said.

The governor said the committee was given between five to six weeks to do their work.