Outcome of the Senate Leadership and Traditional Rulers Meeting (Photos)

On Monday, the Senate’s senior officials met with prominent traditional leaders in the nation.

The National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria’s leadership paid a courtesy visit to the National Assembly in Abuja, News About Nigeria gathered

In response to the requests of the traditional rulers, the Senate leadership announced that it will consider the traditional rulers’ constitutional roles for the upcoming constitutional amendment.

In response to a request made by the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, this was done.

The monarchs, led by the Etsu Nupe, His Royal Highness Yahaya Abubakar, claimed that despite the essential roles that traditional rulers performed in preserving the country’s unity and stabilizing society, the 1999 Constitution fails to provide them with explicit roles.

They claimed they had made numerous attempts to fix the issue, but nothing had changed.

“The most recent of such efforts was the one made during the 9th National Assembly, which didn’t scale through as a result of failure to get the required votes in the Senate in spite of its success in the House of Representatives,” he added.

Godswill Akpabio, the president of the Senate, responded by saying that the Senate was aware of the significance of traditional rulers in the development of a nation.

In the next constitutional change, he promised, the Senate would take their desire into account.

According to Akpabio, traditional chieftains play crucial roles in governance, particularly when it comes to protecting the safety of people and their property.

He added that all the security problems the nation currently has would be resolved if traditional leaders were constitutionally involved in local administration.

The Senate President said: “Your request for a constitutional role in governance is not strange to us, and in particular to me based on my background.

“My late grandfather was a traditional ruler and, in fact, one of the warrant officers used by the colonial masters for effective implementation of indirect rule.

“During the period, traditional rulers effectively tackled issues of safety and security in their various domains.

“It is my belief and that of the entire Senate leadership here that if traditional rulers are constitutionally engaged in governance at the grassroots, the myriad of security challenges facing the country would be a thing of the past“.