Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

The Chairman, Progressive Governors Forum and governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu, has assured that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will soon implement the recommendations of Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led committee on true Federalism in the country.

Bagudu spoke in Akure, the Ondo State capital at a public lecture to mark the third year anniversary of the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s administration in the state.

He said members of the Progressive Governors Forum made up of governors elected on the platform of the APC were committed to implementing the report.

Governor Bagudu also commended Governor Akeredolu for his giant strides, infrastructural developments in the state, saying: “Oluwarotimi Akeredolu will not give excuses but will make do with the little to transform his state. So I wasn’t surprised when Mr President commended his investment stride.

“Ondo State is lucky to have him as a governor. We are proud of him. On behalf of the Progressive Governors Forum, I say to Ondo State that you have a forthright person who speaks his mind at all times.”

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana who delivered the lecture entitled “The Nigerian Federalism Imbroglio: A Pragmatic Approach,” identified privatisation of government industries as the bane of Nigeria’s development.

He said: “We have invested so much in the energy sector, but today we are suffering. Where are we today? Our government has sold generated companies and a minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration said we sold them to our friends and thereafter we started having problems.”

Related News

Falana also challenged Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum to be prepared to fight a legal battle against over the concentration of monthly allocation in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

According to him, some governors go to Abuja every month just to share the allocation without using the money to develop their states.

However, Falana said Governor Akeredolu had made positive impacts in Ondo State through his people-oriented programmes which have direct impacts on the lives of the masses.

Falana who commended the giant strides of Governor Akeredolu in the past three years appealed to the people of the state to support him to win a second term to enable his administration to continue with the giant strides.

Falana who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) noted that one of the reasons for the people to support Akeredolu’s second term was because he had done well in the areas of physical development like construction of roads, payment of accumulated salary and pension arrears among others.

He said: “When Governor Akeredolu came on board, Ondo State was indebted to the tune of N4billion. The state could not access fund for UBEC. When the governor came on board, that was one of the things I reminded him about. I am happy today that he has cleared everything.”

Falana also declared as illegal the setting up of an Interim Management Committee for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that such interim committee was unknown to the NDDC Act.