By Bartholomew Madukwe
THE Majority  Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the House would revisit the principle of devolution of powers shot down by the National Assembly before it went on recess.

Femi-Gbajabiamila

According to him, this will be considered when the House resumes from recess in September.

Gbajabiamila, who disclosed this in a statement, explained that there were mechanisms which allowed for a consideration of a decision when appropriate or when ‘new unknown facts emerged.

He said:  “For me, it was a mistake or oversight to have lumped all items for devolution under one umbrella or subhead titled devolution of powers.

“There were about nine items, including Railways, Pensions, Arbitration, Stamp Duties, Parks and others, under the subhead and members should have voted on each rather than vote in one fell swoop.’’

He described the decision of his party’s senators as a lost opportunity to honour one of the party’s election promises to bring about change by shifting power closer to the people in the remotest regions of our country.

“This blockage of the Bill by an APC-led Senate majority is a betrayal of our Party’s pre-election promises.

“It was an important vote and I’m shocked by some so-called progressives’ visceral and cynical opposition to restructuring,” Gbajabiamila said.

The bill which sought to alter the Second Schedule, Part I & II to move certain items to the Concurrent Legislative List to give more legislative powers to states, suffered a major setback at the both chambers of the National Assembly as it didn’t get 2/3 of the votes in both chambers.

Many Nigerians have condemned the killing of the bill which was seen as an easy way to achieve the prevailing clamour for the restructuring of the country.

Notable among them is the former Vice President and All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, Atiku Abubakar, who accused members of the party in the Senate of betrayal, following the decision.