Igoniko Oduma Yenagoa
Cascadeed by Wilson Macaulay
WARRI
Fred Agbedi, the member representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State in the National Assembly, has hinted that devolution of power and resource control will be among issues that will dominate legislative business in the forthcoming 10th NASS.
He stated this while speaking as a guest on Channels TV programme, 'Politics Today', on Friday.
Agbedi won re-election at the February 25 National Assembly polls to return as a ranking member of the Green Chamber for a fourth term, and had received his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to him, these issues and others that border on the restructuring of Nigeria will be raised on the floor of the NASS because they are concerns that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the APC, had advocated when he was the Governor of Lagos State.
The legislator contended that devolution of power and resource ownership would "solve a lot of problems."
He said while responding to a question, "But one thing that I can tell you is that the issues of devolution of power and resource control are going to take the centre stage in the 10th National Assembly. The reason being that the President-elect is a man who has also canvassed those aspects of restructuring in this country when he was the Governor of Lagos State, and even had altercations with the government at the centre when Olusegun Obasanjo was Mr President.
"Now, if he (Tinubu) is sworn in as president, I know the issues of devolution of power and resource control will take the centre stage and that is going to solve a lot of problems. Once those issues are dealt with properly, it will reduce all these issues of insecurity and economic crises that we are having. That is going to be a major plank that all parties will look at."
Agbedi opined that a restructured Nigeria would discourage the current practice of the federating states depending on the Federal Government for resources to run their affairs and administer their jurisdictions.
He said that minority lawmakers would go to the 10th National Assembly armed with the issues of devolution of power and resource control to present for deliberations as they were the panacea to the insecurity and economic challenges facing the country.
"For us as minority parties, we are going to the 10th National Assembly with devolution of power and resource control. That will solve other issues", he stated.
Agbedi expressed confidence that the forthcoming national parliament, like the previous ones, would support the executive arm of government on issues of national interest, particularly security, stressing that no legislature would not crave for a secured nation.
He pointed out that once the issues of national interest were tabled before parliamentarians, it was only proper that all political parties represented in the National Assembly did the needful in the overall interest of the country.
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