The Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio has said traditional rulers are reservoir of information highly required at the grassroots.
This comes as the leadership of Senate assured Traditional Rulers of constitutional role in governance, but could only be effected through Constitution amendment.
Akpabio spoke on Monday when he played host to royal fathers across the 36 States of the federation and the federal capital territory.
“You traditional fathers are reservoirs of information highly needed at the grassroots. Your journey to us today on the request, would surely not be in vain”, he said.
Akpabio who gave the assurance in response to request made to that effect by the traditional rulers said roles of the royal fathers in governance, particularly on security matters, are very important.
“Your request for constitutional role in governance is not strange to us and in particular, to me based on my background.
“My late grandfather was a traditional ruler and infact, one of the warrant officers used by the colonial masters for effective implementation of indirect rule.
Meanwhile, Chairman of National Traditional Council of Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, said the constitutional role of traditional rulers was expunged by framers of the 1979 Constitution.
The sultan, represented by the Etsu of Nupe, Dr Yahaya Abubakar beamoaned that all efforts made by traditional rulers across the country under the aegis of National Council of Traditional Rulers, to get back the role, had not yielded any fruit.
“The most recent of such efforts, was the one made during the 9th National Assembly which didn’t scale through as a result of failure to get the required votes in the Senate for the demand despite, succeeding in the House of Representatives”, he lamented.
