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The Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday spoke on vexed national issues, restating that true federalism will correct the country’s power imbalance.
“The imbalance between the roles of the federal and state governments lies at the root of our difficulties. We need to re-balance the duties of the federal and state governments. The quest to correct the imbalance is the essence of federalism that I have advocated for so many years,” he said in an address he sent to the 2017 Annual Dinner of the King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) in Lagos.
The address was presented on his behalf by one-time Lagos State Commissioner for Finance Mr. Wale Edun.
Tinubu noted: “Due to our particular political history and its military legacy, the quality of our federalism and the quality of our democracy are intertwined. The more we repair federalism, the more we improve democracy.
“In my mind, federalism denotes a division of labour between the federal and state governments that functions to maximise the benefits of governance to the people. True federalism is that brand which provides that the federal government should focus on those few but essential things only it can provide such as foreign policy, defence, and national economic policy.
“All other matters should be left to the states. If there is doubt over a particular issue, the presumption should be that the states, not the federal government, should take the lead.
“Here, I say to those so eager to dispense with federalism in favour of more rash and impractical remedies, let us first truly practice federalism before we deem it a failure. If given but a fair chance, we just might perfect federalism by making it work for the benefit of all of us.”
The former Lagos State governor said it would be better to restructure things to attain the correct balance between “our collective purpose on one hand and our separate grassroots realities on the other.”
“The imbalance between the roles of the federal and state governments lies at the root of our difficulties. We need to re-balance the duties of the federal and state governments. The quest to correct the imbalance is the essence of federalism that I have advocated for so many years,” he said in an address he sent to the 2017 Annual Dinner of the King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) in Lagos.
The address was presented on his behalf by one-time Lagos State Commissioner for Finance Mr. Wale Edun.
Tinubu noted: “Due to our particular political history and its military legacy, the quality of our federalism and the quality of our democracy are intertwined. The more we repair federalism, the more we improve democracy.
“In my mind, federalism denotes a division of labour between the federal and state governments that functions to maximise the benefits of governance to the people. True federalism is that brand which provides that the federal government should focus on those few but essential things only it can provide such as foreign policy, defence, and national economic policy.
“All other matters should be left to the states. If there is doubt over a particular issue, the presumption should be that the states, not the federal government, should take the lead.
“Here, I say to those so eager to dispense with federalism in favour of more rash and impractical remedies, let us first truly practice federalism before we deem it a failure. If given but a fair chance, we just might perfect federalism by making it work for the benefit of all of us.”
The former Lagos State governor said it would be better to restructure things to attain the correct balance between “our collective purpose on one hand and our separate grassroots realities on the other.”