ABUJA- A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Former minister of Sports and Youths Development, Engr Bala Ka’oje has said the time has come for Nigeria to change its style of governance by reviewing the Constitution and devolve more power to state governments.

Engr. Ka’oje who said this would help to address the rising security threats across the country, added that one of the ways to achieve this would be through a national conference.

Recall that the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan had in 2014 organised a National Confrence otherwise known as 2014 Confab but the resolutions and recommendations of the confab was never implemented.

In a statement in Abuja, the former Minister said, ”Today, bacause of the mistakes of the past, many things are falling apart of which solutions must be sought quickly. “

He said that Nigeria has come along way since Independence and things appeared to be falling out of place or becoming difficult to manage.

” Governance of the nation seems to be demanding for some panel beating and change”, Ka’oje stated.

Ka’oje expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari can do it and open a new chapter in refocusing the nation to prosperity and growth as well as achieving peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.

“This is achievable through the conduct of a national conference to be organised by the President.

“There should be an assemblege of egg-heads from constitutional experts, political scientists and highly experienced technocrats to come up with  the modalities.

“What is needed to be done in the exercise of re-jigging the 1999 constitution acceptable by all and ushering in a new direction in the governance of the nation  from the new leadership that will emerge in 2023 general elections., ” he explained.

According to him, a number of states are unable to sustain salary payments and other emoluments.

”This clearly shows that the time has come for us to change our governance style by seriously re-jigging our constitution through a national conference.

”Look at and review the exclusive list and other areas to devolve power in the interest of the stability of our nation. I believe we can do the required arithmetic and still have a reasonable funding going to the centre, while the Niger Delta States retain 50% resources to continue to develop their states with no statutory but discretionary funding from the centre.

”The weak states can continue to receive bailouts from the centre for at least 15 years, as they work hard to explore the resources available in their states, to build the economy towards standing on their feet and being self sufficient and self reliant states.”

Engr Kaoje, who is a renowned technocrat and politician, warned that “we should not toy with our diversity and endowments as a nation, well recognized by the whole world for what we’re.”

The APC chieftain, notes that Nigeria attained its independence since 1960, with different leaders as Head of states and Presidents, yet the country has been unable to sufficiently stimulate high level productivity and development.

Nigeria, he said is acknowledged by the world as one of the most endowed nations on surface of the earth, lamenting that successive government have not done enough to move the country forward.