Governors, Traditional Rulers Discuss Constitutional Role in Governance

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has met with the National Council of Traditional Rulers in Abuja with a view to ensuring that the royal fathers have a constitutional role to play in governance.

Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, held at the conference centre of the State House, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, revealed that a committee was set up under the leadership of Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, to look into the matter.

He said: “After we welcomed each other, the meeting went into the agenda of the day, which amongst others included the issue of the constitutional role of our traditional rulers in Nigeria, there’s a bill currently before the National Assembly and after we had a few inputs from our Royal Highnesses and royal Majesties, our royal majesty, the Etsu of Nupe graciously gave us a summary of what the proposed bill looked like.

“After a few remarks on that submission, the joint meeting of both the Governors and our royal Majesties, his eminence and Royal Highnesses agreed that the proposed bill, as presented by his royal majesty, should be circulated amongst all those that are present here today; that a joint committee of Governors and our traditional rulers should be setup, and that committee should seek to ensure that the various remarks and comments that were made from those that are here present that reflect the desires of those that they represent, should be included to make for  a robust document and memoranda should also be called for and received, and all that should be synthesized so that whatever document will be presented to the National Assembly will be a very comprehensive and 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 Federal Capital Territory.”

The Ogun State Governor also disclosed how traditional rulers can contribute meaningfully towards enhancing the security of lives and property as well as peaceful coexistence.

“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. Moreso, since they are the closest to the grassroots. And fortunately, we are blessed with many of them who are extremely experienced, extremely lettered. extremely knowledgeable, and we have our retired soldiers that indeed their contributions at that level cannot be overestimated, and a lot of reference was drawn from what obtained in the past, where we had the local constables that report to both our traditional rulers and the local governments. 

“Some remarks were made, and rightly so, that our traditional rulers, being close to the grassroots, know their communities better than those of us in government that are higher up. They know the miscreants. They know the families of everybody. They are able to better participate in community policing. They’re able to better provide us with intelligence that will also aid and help our law enforcement architecture,” he added.

Also Read: Northern Governors, Traditional Rulers Meet To Discuss Regional Challenges

Speaking on behalf of the National Council of Traditional Rulers; the Etsu Nupe, Yahaya Abubakar, appreciated the support of the Governors, as he also gave an insight into the proposed bill on the role of traditional rulers.

“We are very much glad and appreciate the effort of Nigerian Governors Forum that actually extended invitation to us members of the National Council of traditional rulers of Nigeria, under the chairmanship of his eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and co-chaired by his imperial, majesty, the Ooni of ife all the Chairmen of State Council of traditional rulers in all 36 States and Abuja.

“This meeting is the first of its kind between the Governors and the traditional institution, so we express our profound gratitude for this initiative by the able chairman of the forum His Excellency, the Governor of Kwara state. We deliberated on solving issues, most especially the aspect or the issue of constitutional role of traditional rulers in governance, in which I presented a brief of the memo or bill being sent to the National Assembly, because, as you are all aware, presently, there’s a committee in the National Assembly charged with the responsibility for reviewing the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

“So we already submitted a bill to that committee with a view to going to reach and amend the Constitution appropriately by identifying those areas, we mentioned the structure and also the function of traditional institutions all spelled out in that bill, and also made mention of the tenure and also, isolating the traditional rulers from partisan politics. 

“And also we spoke about the funding of the institution. There’s nothing that can happen without proper funding. So we believe strongly if the institution is well founded, God willing we will perform our utmost, as rightly observed by His Excellency. Our institution now is blessed with professionals, with military, technocrats, and all the fields you think about. So we serve this country 30 years, 40 years before retiring, and now we retire back to another assignment of leading our people,” the royal father stated.