Enugu Communique by the Southern Governors on Political and Fiscal restructuring.
The communiqué:
"Having met and deliberated on the various issues, it considered for
improving the corporate health of Nigeria as a sovereignty, the second
summit of the Conference of Southern Governors resolved as follows:
l That the summit adopted in its entirety the welcome address of the host
Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani;
l .That Nigeria's federal status as presently constituted be restructured
along a legal framework that would grant a reasonable measure of autonomy to
the states and component parts of the federation;
l That resource control and derivation should henceforth be accepted as the
basis for revenue generation and allocation;
l .That in the face of the current security situation in the country and
desirous to improve security in Nigeria as a basis for making the country
attractive to foreign investors, the summit resolved that a constitutional
amendment empowering states to establish state police be pursued;
l . The summit discussed the introduction of the Sharia legal system in some
parts of Nigeria and appealed to the states that have introduced the system
to ensure it is applicable to Muslims only;
l .In accordance with the provisions of Section 162 of the constitution, the
governors resolved that all funds, revenues and incomes collected by the
Federal Government on behalf of the federation should be paid into the
distributable pool account known as the "Federation Account;"
l .That receipts from the Education Tax Fund, proceeds of privatization and
excess crude oil are funds belonging to the federation at large and should
therefore be shared through the federation account on the agreed sharing
formula;
l .That the National Assembly is not authorized by law to withhold or
restrain the Federal Government of Nigeria from distributing funds credited
or due to the federation account as defined by Section 162 of the
constitution;
2 That the National Assembly can only deliberate on the consolidated revenue
funds of the Federal Government of Nigeria as represented by the estimates
of revenue and expenditure relating to the Federal Government of Nigeria in
accordance with Section 80-81 of the constitution;
3 That in accordance with Section 3 Sub-section 5 of Decree Number 36 of
1982, the Federal Government does not have the right to roll-over balances
in the federation account or in any other special accounts derived from the
federation account to another fiscal year. Such funds should revert to the
federation account at the end of the year and be distributed in accordance
with approved distribution ratio;
4 That the US1.3 billion rolled-over last month must be distributed at the
January meeting of the Federation Account and Allocation Committee;
5 That an equitable revenue allocation formula be put in place by the
Federal Government and urgently processed to the National Assembly;
6 The Southern governors are totally opposed to surreptitious attempts
currently being made to tamper with the constitution in respect of state
electoral commissions. Since we are running a federal constitution, we are
determined to preserve all state rights as provided in the constitution;
7 The summit resolved that member states will reactivate the state/local
joint account, and request the Federal Government to pay all accounts due to
the local governments into the accounts as contained in Section 162 (5-7) of
the 1999 Constitution;
8 The summit noted that the National Primary Education Commission (NPEC) and
State Primary Education Boards (SPEB) as presently run are unconstitutional
and resolved that (NPEC) be scrapped while the (SPEB) should come under the
control of the state governments."
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