Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano state declared on Sunday that the North must flex all the political muscle to stop the survival of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), insisting that its implication on the economic future of the region remains colossal.
Kwankwaso who spoke during the commissioning of Serbian Consulate in Kano gave the impression that he was speaking the mind of northern governors.
According to him, the governors of the nineteen northern states have studied the bill and appreciate its negative impact on the socio-political cum economic development of the region.
He gave the signal that the northern governors have started rallying stake holders, opinion leaders and members of National Assembly from the region to work against the bill.
Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal also spoke on the Constitution Review exercise, during the occasion which emerged Alhaji Faruk Adamu Aliyu as the Honorary Consulate of Serbian Republic.
Tambuwal assured Nigerians that the Constitutional Review Committee will do everything within its power to ensure that a well deserved, articulate and acceptable constitution is arrived at by both chambers of the National Assembly.
According to him, in the history of Nigeria, there has never been a time when people were given the opportunity to voice out their feelings with regards to their country’s constitutional Amendment.
He said he was highly pleased that Nigerians hugely contributed reasonably to the whole exercise as witnessed during the public hearing.
“In view of the commitments, coupled with the trust bestowed on us by the Nigerian public, that is why we are determined to do it and we can do it better, God willing, we will not fail them because we will do what they want us to do and what they desire to be incorporated in the new constitution, no matter what
“What we did was bringing 360 federal constituents to sit under one shed without any political bickering to discourse what affects them and largely it came out to be a huge success, which has never been experienced in this country, this is why it became imperative for us to justify the confidence of the Nigerian citizenry because if we fail them, history will judge us,”
he stated.
He pledged to do all he could to improve the lives of the Nigerian citizenry through making the nation’s security apparatus more proactive, more so that many countries, like Serbian Republic has clearly demonstrated confidence in the country no matter what.
“From day one that we were elected as Speaker and the rest of the principal officers of the house, we put it as a duty to align with Nigerians on what they want, not what anybody no matter his position wants, so if today the same Nigerians are happy with what we did by giving them the opportunity to air their views, we are not surprised because we are on the same path,” he noted.
Kwankwaso, who spoke passionately on the place of the North in the PIB, noted that as a former member of NDDC, a former member of National Assembly and a former minister and indeed Governor, he has explicit knowledge of what is being shared to all the states, specifically the Niger Delta region.
Kwankwaso maintained that many other states from the South-South are today ahead of northern states in terms of income from the federation account, “and this in earnest means that some are getting richer while others are getting poorer by the day with the people wallowing in devastating poverty.
“With regard to PIB, we in the North we are keenly watching and we will not allow our region to be plunged into yet another uncertain future. We will do all we can to make sure that there is equity and sense of belonging to every citizenry,” he stated.