The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf, has said the real reason the green chamber of the National Assembly rejected the idea of proposed restructuring of the country was because the public did not show enough interest on the issue of devolution of power.
He, however, said the House of Reps will revisit the issue of devolution of power when plenary resumes later this month.
Lasun said this in an interview with journalists in Ilobu his home town in Osun State during the weekend.
He stated that those who voted for devolution of power would have won if simple majority vote had been adopted to determine the approval or rejection, saying 220 Reps voted for its approval.
He said the 240 votes needed to approve the proposal fell short by 20 votes, adding that the amendment also failed by the same narrow margin at the Senate.
He explained that the majority of the lawmakers were in support of devolution of power, blaming the lack of interest of the members of the public for the failure of the amendment.
He argued that the lawmakers, who voted against the provision, did so because their constituents did not instruct them to support it during the public hearings.
Lasun said: “Devolution of power failed because members of the public did not show interest in what we were doing. If they did, they would have discouraged those lawmakers, who voted against it, from doing that.
“But the good news is that we will revisit it when we resume. We are going back to it when we resume.
“Those who don’t want devolution of power are in the minority.
“We would have won if it was by simple majority. Someone asked me why I am supporting devolution of power when I know that I am contesting to be governor in my state and I told him that I am not contesting to sit over the local government money.
“States will be relieved of burden once the local governments have more power.”
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