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Lagos State Governor sets agenda for National Assembly
Abdul Semiu Babalola, Lagos
The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola has advised the National Assembly not to dissipate energy on the issue of a six-year-single-tenure for the President and Governors but focus attention on making laws that will improve the living conditions of Nigerians.
Governor Fashola stated this in Lagos when the participants of the 2011 Senior Executive Course 33 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru Jos, in Plateau State, Northern Nigeria, paid him a courtesy visit.
Prioritising good governance
He pointed out that creation of states should not be part of the proposed amendment of the constitution by the lawmakers as the issue was not what the country needed at this critical time.
The Governor said: “I am hearing that there is going to be a constitutional amendment to create more states, when in fact some of the existing 36 states are not viable. I do not think we need to create states now”.
Fashola said the debate about whether the President and the Governors should spend a single term of six years instead of the normal two terms of four years as currently being applied, should not arise. He said the change might not result in good governance.
The governor charged the NIPSS course participants to pre-occupy themselves with formulating policies that would promote good governance in the country, apart from their normal mandate.
He noted that good governance was essential to the development of any nation, saying; “Nigerians have for years been yearning for good governance.”
NIPSS focus
Fashola urged the institute to develop policies that would enhance the federal status of the country and its prosperity, describing the NIPSS as second to none in Africa in terms of leadership training.
Earlier, Professor Olu Obafemi, who led the NIPSS delegation to the governor’s office, said the participants were on tour of the state to understudy how the state had been able to manage its socio-cultural, political and religious diversities.
Professor Obafemi noted that Lagos State had been able to exploit its huge diverse population for development. He said the course participants would compile and document its findings in the State for presentation to the Federal Government as a policy tool to promote Pluralism.
The Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) is one of the highest level manpower training institutes in the country. It admits top bureaucrats from the Public and Private sectors as well as officers of the Armed Forces.
Participants are equally drawn from sister African countries.
Williams
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