By Jeremiah Urowayino

The Member representing the Warri Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. Daniel Reyenieju, has frowned at the recent rejection of the principle of ‘devolution of power’ by the National House of Assembly in the ongoing ‘Constitutional Amendment exercise, noting that it was a collective mistake by members of the House , which will continue to constitute a fundamental ‘albatross’ to the peace and development of the Nigerian state, if not revisited and remedied.

The lawmaker made this disclosure in a chat with Vanguard yesterday.

Reyenieju expressed utter disgust on why the National Assembly as a collective would opt for an unnecessarily over bloated federal government at the expense of the federating units, and consequently undermining the universal principal of federal arrangement which we claim we are.

Daniel Reyenieju

He lamented the untold hardship that his constituency suffers as a result of the present lopsided federal arrangement.

The lawmaker also noted that his constituency suffers grave alienation in the oil industry, despite the fact that the Warri Federal Constituency remain the highest  oil bearing and producing in the country, the two sea ports of Koko and Warri have been left to waste with the Nigerian Ports Authorities turning blind eyes, despite all entreaties.

“ As long as this current arrangement which borders on unitary political structure persists, the country will remain vulnerable to crises of different dimensions in the form of  disunity, political instability, underdevelopment, separatist agitations among others; such that it will continue to threaten Nigeria’s survival as a united Country”.

“If the National Assembly has voted for Nigeria’s devolution of power, a less-burdened federal government will emerge and it will bring about component units that will be dynamic, entrepreneurial, innovative and ambitious; as against the present of over-burdened federal government, with component units that are inherently beggarly, and thus dis-empowered to be innovative and creative”

However Reyenieju is optimistic that the National Assembly will revisit the issue given the bitterness and instability that the action of the National Assembly is generating