El-Rufai: Nigeria can’t progress without educating citizens

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, says Nigeria can never make progress without educating the citizens.

El-Rufai said this at the 2022 Distinguished Parliamentarian Lecture organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja on Monday.

He urged the lawmakers to enact a law that would ensure it made the first 12 years of education free and compulsory from primary to secondary schools, adding that reforming the local government autonomy to make each local government flexible to meet the need of the state should also be the priority of the 9th Aseembly.

“These are things that need some creative legislation by the 9th Assembly and they must ensure these are achieved before it winds up in June,” Governor El-Rufai stated.

READ ALSO: El-Rufai sets agenda for 9th Assembly

Speaking on the agenda, the governor urged the lawmakers to ensure the enactment of state and community policing law, adding that the current policing system in the country would not work.

“Nigeria is the only country with centralised policing system, the National Assembly must ensure it enact a new law to take care of the policing system in the country,” he said.

Governor El-Rufai stated that Nigeria remained the only country with a unitary judiciary, noting that the National Assembly should ensure such was addressed before the expiration of its tenure in 2023.

Commending the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Governor El-Rufai said the duo “are perhaps the most experienced legislators in the country”.

He said the lecture became necessary because the National Assembly was the most decapitated branch of government as it was usually dissolved whenever there was a coup.

“So this is why the lecture is important to continue to build capacity. There is a need to have this kind of interaction from time to time to make the legislature work better,” the governor added.

The Star