Many Nigerians are inured to the razzmatazz. They are enamoured with sheer roistering in a manner that roils. This predilection manifests in various ways, one of which is the current rumbustious agitation for the creation of more states, as the National Assembly pushes ahead with the move to review the 1999 Constitution.
We believe that the idea of creating more states now is a mischance. To the discernible, it is glaringly uncongenial. It is the least of the nation’s priorities now. For one, like the respected statesman, Buba Galadima, has rightly posited, “state creation has often been more about political or ethnic appeasement than genuine development.”
Indeed, the whole idea verges more on Nigerians’ proclivity for sheer inanities. Indeed, the constant push to redress primeval fissures, perceived ethnic marginalization, regional disparities and wrangles over resource distribution as well as pander to narrow political interests rather than the overriding developmental imperatives have often dictated the interminable agitations for state creation.
The Senate is currently considering the requests for a total of 31 new states and 18 additional local governments, while the House of Representatives is handling requests for 46 new states and 117 fresh local governments.
The Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution said it received five state creation requests each from the South West , South South and North Central zones; seven from the North East; six from the North West; and three from the South East.
The red chamber already held a two-day public hearing on the proposals for the 31 fresh states, among other issues. According to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Barau Jibrin, who is also the Deputy President of Senate, the two-day zonal public hearing held simultaneously in the six geo-political zones last Friday and Saturday.
Of the 46 requests for new states submitted to the House of Representatives Committee for the Review of the 1999 Constitution, the North Central is leading the pack for the proposals with 12 requests, followed by the South West with eight requests. The North West and South South have seven requests each, while the North East and South East have six requests each.
The House has scheduled the first phase of its public hearing on the constitutional amendment proposals to hold between this Friday, July 11 and Sunday. July 13. It will take place in Kaduna and Sokoto for the North West; Minna and Lafia for the North Central as well as Gombe and Borno for the North East.
The second phase, scheduled for July 18 to 20, will take place in Lagos and Akure for the South West; Yenagoa and Calabar for the South South as well as Enugu and Owerri for the South East. The national public hearing will hold on Monday, July 21, 2025 in Abuja.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review and Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu, said these “hearings are designed to provide an open platform for citizens, civil society organisations, professional bodies, traditional institutions, and other interest groups to express their views and contribute meaningfully to the constitutional reform process.”
Curiously, the existing states were all created by successive military governments. The nation currently has a 36-state structure. The country was initially divided into four regions from 1960 to 1966: Northern, Western, Eastern, and Mid-Western. The transformation began in 1967 under General Yakubu Gowon, who established 12 states out of the four regions.
In 1976, almost as a decade later, General Olusegun Obasanjo created seven additional states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, from Niger State. This raised the total number of states to 19.
In 1987, under General Ibrahim Babangida, two more states—Akwa Ibom and Katsina—were added, bringing the total to 21. The number increased again in 1991 when nine states were created, making a total of 30 states. Then, on October 1, 1996, General Sani Abacha established six more states based on the recommendations from the National Constitutional Conference, bringing the total of states to the current 36. The newly created states included Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Gombe, and Ekiti.
As rapturous as the current agitation for new states appears to be, proponents may not achieve their desires on a gold platter because the process of state creation is quite cumbersome. This may explain why no civilian administration has been able to create any state.
The Nigerian Constitution outlines a multi-step process for the creation of new states in Section 8(1), which provides as follows: “An act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new state shall only be passed if:
“(a) a request, supported by at least two-thirds majority of members (representing the area demanding the creation of the new state) in each of the following, namely:
“(i) the Senate and the House of Representatives,
“(ii) the House of Assembly in respect of the area, and
“(iii) the local government councils in respect of the areas received by the National Assembly;
“(b) a proposal for the creation of the state is thereafter approved in a referendum by at least two-thirds majority of the people of the area where the demand for creation of the state originated;
“(c) the result of the referendum is then approved by a simple majority of all the states of the Federation, supported by a simple majority of members of the Houses of Assembly; and
“(d) the proposal is approved by a resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of members of each House of the National Assembly.”
Like we posited earlier, it is inauspicious to talk about creating new states now with the negative economic headwinds the nation is grappling with. The economy continues to teeter, still too unsteady to carry the added baggage of new states at this time.
Besides, it is incredulous that viability, which is supposed to be the first yerstick for demanding the creation of new states,has often been the least consideration, as various interest groups have been bombarding the constitutional review committees of both chambers of the National Assembly with the avalanche of requests for new states.
How many of the existing 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are viable in the real sense of the word? Only Lagos State can be adjudged to be, because it is the only state that can survive without the regular “handouts” from the centre. Virtually all the rest 35 states remain leeches on the nation’s resources.
They all go cap in hand to Abuja every month for the allocation sharing rituals without which they can hardly survive meaningful. Very little efforts are being made by our governors to think outside the box to harness opportunities within their domains and boost their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) that will make them depend less on the centre.
A peep into the IGR profiles of the states is highly revelatory. For example, according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), the 36 states and the FCT generated a total of N2.43 trillion as IGR in 2023, indicating a growth rate of 26.03 percent from N1.93 trillion recorded in 2022.
Only three states and FCT actually hit over N100 billion IGR mark — Lagos, Rivers, Delta and FCT in 2023. Lagos recorded the highest IGR of N815.86 billion, followed by FCT, which generated N211.10 billion. Rivers recorded N195.41 billion and Delta, N114.09 billion. However, Taraba, Yobe and Kebbi states reported the least revenues with N10.87 billion, N11.19 billion and N11.74 billion respectively. It is the same pattern from 2020 to 2023 covered by the NBS’s report.
Besides, the manner most of the successive state governors run the second tier of government riles to the bones. Only very few of them embrace fiscal discipline and prioritize issues of development. Many of them are rather haughty, carrying themselves like imperial lords in their states.
Particularly, as a result of the massive savings accruing from the withdrawal of fuel subsidy, the three tiers of government now share the monthly revenue allocations in trillions. But the humongous funds do not reflect in developments and the standards of living of the people.
In these austere times that demand frugality and sobriety, the governors, most especially, are still dissipating resources into ostentation and outright profligacy. They are making outlandish appointments and expanding bureaucracy, appointing a ludicrous retinue of aides they visibly do not need, while their people are still seething in the cauldron of misery all around them.
We admonish the National Assembly to jettison the comical state creation exercise forthwith. The jamboree is bound to be counterproductive as usual. It will rather worsen the tailspin and deeply hurt our economy that is still tottering. We can ill-afford to foist that burden on the nation now.
However, our federal lawmakers should carry on with the other aspects of the constitution amendment exercise because reviewing the heavily flawed 1999 Constitution is desirable. Let all the identified anomalies in the military-foisted document be removed.
In the words of Chief Mike Ozekhome, a popular legal buff and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), we need a brand-new Constitution that is “legitimate, people-driven, credible, and referendum-compliant, to correct deep fault lines and a lopsided federation where some states are mere consumers of federal allocation without knowing how to internally generate revenue.”
Indeed, we need judicial and electoral reforms to make votes count and strengthen the judicial system. We need to decentralize policing system through state and community policing. We need true federalism that will devolve power to federating units of the country.
Independent candidacy, strengthening of institutions, fiscal reforms, fundamental human rights and local government reforms are among other proposals that are before the constitution amendment committees.
Let our federal legislators do a good job and give us a real people-oriented constitution but state creation is out of it.
