The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said the functions of the Federal Government as currently constituted are too much and should be adjusted.
He stated this during chat with journalists in Abuja on Monday.
Ekweremadu said the federal government as currently constituted was too large and difficult to operate.
According to him, the states have little roles to perform whereas the federal government is over burdened with responsibilities.
He said: “We believe that the federal government as presently constituted is too big and we need to adjust it.
“In a situation where you have in the concurrent list only about 16 items, most of the other things are in the exclusive list.
“It doesn’t make sense, so we need to find a way of trimming the federal government to the benefit of the component states.
“So that some of these issues don’t become federal issues and that is the idea of federalism.
“We are looking at that, things like arbitration, agriculture, environment and such issues. Some of these things should go to the concurrent list and even the police.”
The deputy president of the senate noted that the solution to Nigeria’s security challenges was the decentralisation of the police and allowing state governments to have their police.
He pointed out that each state varied in the kind of security challenges and the kind of policing required.
On the fear that state governments could hijack the force in their states, he said there should be a commission to oversee the state police just like the National Judicial Council (NJC) oversees the judiciary.
“We cannot decentralise the police now because some people are still opposed to it,” Ekweremadu added.
THE NATION
