The Senate on Monday kept quiet on the growing calls for restructuring following ethnic agitations for secession in the southern part of Nigeria.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, said he would not make any comment on the issue when contacted by a The Vent Republic reporter in Abuja.

He simply responded, “I do not have any comment.”

The Committee on True Federalism set up by the ruling All Progressives Congress, had submitted its report to the party in 2018.

The report which is currently being studied by the National Assembly, recommended among others, stressed the need to dispense with the current pseudo-federal structure, which many Nigerians believe was an impediment to national cohesion and economic progress.

The panel led by Governor Nasir el-Rufai, specifically made 12 sweeping recommendations to save the fragile polity through true federalism.

Essentially, the APC Committee on True Federalism proposed the devolution of powers to the federating units and a measure of resource control.

In line with this, it recommended state police, which is to operate “alongside the federal police” and each force with its own defined areas of authority.

The committee views the current Exclusive Legislative List, which has 68 items, as a bastardisation of federalism.

Therefore, it recommended that some of the items therein, including prisons, labour matters and registration of business names, should be entrenched in the Concurrent List.