Home/News:Nothing is wrong with constitution review, says Akpabio

Nothing is wrong with constitution review, says Akpabio

 

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has added his voice to the controversy trailing the constitution review conducted by the House of Representatives.

 

Akpabio, while fielding questions from reporters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at the weekend said there was nothing wrong in reviewing the country’s constitution from time to time to meet the yearnings of the people.

 

He however said he was not in support of creation of more states stressing that, “We need to look at the viability of states, so that we don’t end up creating states on ethnicity or tribal sentiment”.

 

His words, “The constitution review even with the current legislature, we must continue to fine tune until we get or have acceptable peoples constitution. You know the history of Nigeria. You know how we got there. It came through various committees and various structures of the military, so we have to actually bring out the peoples constitution and it is not going to be a day business. I always say that democracy outside Nigeria has thrived for over 200 years in some countries but in Nigeria, we are learning and it is a learning process”.

 

“ The current and future reviews will only succeed in fine tuning in ensuring that democracy deepens in the country and there is no doubt that after this, we will still do another one because there would still be a lot of agitations. But the only I know we cannot succeed in the immediate is the issue of state creation. Not that I don’t support creation but when we are talking about state creation we also need to look at the viability of states, so that we don’t end up creating states on ethnicity or tribal sentiment”.

 

“ We must look at how we can manage what we have today to have holistic development of all the states of the federation instead of partitioning the country into ethnic or tribal groups, at the end of the day, we can end up with over 300 states’, he added.

 

Also, the governor called on the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation to show interest and commitment to the Akwa Ibom’s multi billion naira aircraft Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) hangar.

 

Airline operators spend huge sums to ferry their equipment abroad for engine maintenance; a situation that has caused huge capital flight out of the country.

 

 He disclosed that his government was still looking for partners for the facility, stressing that the project is bigger than what the state government can handle

 

According to him, “You know aviation is international business. Even if you have a big hangar, no matter how many planes you can carry, if you don’t have the skilled manpower, you can’t do much. No state can manage a hangar that will be of international repute that is why I said the Ministry of Aviation must take interest in the Akwa Ibom maintenance hangar”.

 

He maintained that the project was conceptualised from day one to be a national hangar going by the approval that was given by former President Olusegun Obasanjo but regretted the lack of interest by the Aviation Ministry.

 

Major airline operational hubs in the world have well developed airports; they have well developed maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities and the technical expertise to carry out major checks on aircraft. In fact, MRO facility is a sine qua non to having a successful operational hub.