The South South Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for drastic and further devolution of functions and fiscal powers from the centre to the federating units towards the direction of the 1963 Republic Constitution to make the states more effective engines of growth and development.
Besides, the caucus called for an urgent review of the federal revenue allocation formula to enable the federating units in the country drive development and achieve horizontal and vertical equity.
The caucus which made this call on Sunday night at the end of a closed-door meeting at Government House, Asaba, however, commended the commitment of the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and urged all stakeholders especially the National Assembly to support the Bill.
According to them, “When passed into law, it would launch Nigeria into the next level of sustainable development of our hydrocarbon resources in a manner that takes into account the needs of the present generation of Nigerians without mortgaging our future”.
The chairman of the South South Governors Forum and Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, who read the 12-point communiqué to the media, said that the caucus called on the Federal and state governments to work with the National and state Assemblies to strengthen the local government system as prescribed in the 1999 constitution without compromising the place of the local government councils in the federation as being under the state government.
