Governors Move to Establish Constitutional Role for Traditional Rulers

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and traditional rulers have agreed to form a committee that will work on creating a clear constitutional role for traditional rulers in the country.

The decision was made on Wednesday during a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun said the purpose of the gathering was to focus was to discuss how traditional rulers could have a formal role in the constitution to help with governance, peace, and security across Nigeria.

According to him, there is already a bill in the National Assembly that touches on this, and the goal is to ensure that the right suggestions and input are added to it.

Governor Abiodun explained that the meeting resulted in the formation of a joint committee that includes both governors and traditional rulers. The committee will be led by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma. Its main task is to gather and review feedback from various groups, especially traditional rulers and the communities they represent, to make sure their needs and wishes are included in the document that will eventually go to the National Assembly.

His words, “A joint committee of governors and our traditional rulers led by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma should be set up, and that committee should seek to ensure that the various remarks and comments that were made from those that were present that reflect the desires of those that they represent, should be included to make for a robust document.

“Memorandum should also be called for and received, and all that should be synthesised so that whatever document will be presented to the National Assembly will be a very comprehensive, a very inclusive document that seeks to empower our royal majesties, royal highnesses more and seeks to involve them in governance, peace, security of our various states across the country, including the FCT.”

Abiodun said the meeting also discussed the issue of state police, gender-based violence and local government autonomy.

He said, “We spoke about the impact, or otherwise of local government autonomy on traditional rulers. The idea was to inform them of what the Supreme Court ruling means so that they have a better understanding of the impact of that ruling when implementation commences.

“We further deliberated also on the issues of peace and security, food security, and all other emerging threats. The participation of our traditional rulers was also, again, underscored,” he said.