The North-West Governors’ Forum has initiated a technical session on Nigeria’s constitution review process, with a focus on advocating for meaningful reforms to address regional challenges and strengthen democratic governance. The forum, chaired by Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, emphasized the urgent need for constitutional amendments that reflect contemporary realities. Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, who represented Radda, highlighted the critical challenges confronting the region, including rampant insecurity, youth unemployment, poor infrastructure, underinvestment in agriculture, drug abuse, and the weakening of traditional institutions.
The North-West Governors’ Forum has identified several priority areas for constitutional reform, including greater fiscal federalism, stronger subnational autonomy, and restructuring Nigeria’s security architecture to accommodate state policing. Balarabe emphasized that the constitutional review process offers a rare opportunity to push for a governance framework that better serves the people of the region. She also called for a fairer revenue allocation formula, highlighting the region’s burden of hosting millions of displaced persons affected by banditry, terrorism, and farmer-herder conflicts.Balarabe stressed that the region’s states are hosts to millions of displaced persons, victims of banditry, terrorism, and farmer-herder conflicts, and that the human and economic costs of these realities cannot be ignored. She urged the forum to jointly advocate for a fairer revenue allocation formula that reflects the developmental needs and population realities of the region. This call for a fairer revenue allocation formula is aimed at addressing the region’s developmental challenges and ensuring that the region receives its fair share of national resources.
The technical session is aimed at influencing Nigeria’s constitutional evolution by addressing governance structures, resource allocation, security, social justice, and the protection of fundamental human rights. The Director-General of the North-West Governors’ Forum, Maryam Musa, emphasized the session’s significance as a unifying platform for regional constitutional advocacy. She explained that the session would synthesize the voices of the region, rigorously interrogate what unites them, and build a shared strategic position on constitutional reform.
