Politics
As Reps mull 31 new states amid burgeoning debts by existing ones
Just when experts and informed observers are beginning to be worried over the poor state of affairs in many states in the country due to poor internally generated revenues, over dependence on handouts from the federation account and other challenges which make some of these states unworkable, the House of Representatives Constitution Review Committee has proposed 31 additional ones to push the states in the country to 67.
The committee made this known in a letter to the House of Representatives, which was read during plenary by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the session in Abuja yesterday.
Going by the current Constitution review by the National Assembly and the Local Government autonomy vigorously pushed by the Presidency, there are strong indications that there may also be some additions to the already 774 LGAs in the country.
Checks by this medium revealed a very grim financial health of many of these states. As of June 30, 2024, these states are indebted to the tune of N11.47 trillion notwithstanding humongous allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Not too long ago, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) noted that no fewer than nine states have agreed to payment of the N70,000 minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government.
Observers are worried that in spite of debilitating financial challenges preventing the effectiveness of the existing states, lawmakers are proposing an additional six new states in the North Central, four in the North East, five in the North West, five in the South-South, four in the South East and seven in the South West.
If the proposal scales through and is assented to by the President, Northwest with its existing seven states will now have 12, Southwest with six will become 13, states in North Central will rise from six to 12, Northeast states will increase to 10 from the existing six, while states from the Southeast will increase from five to nine as the committee recommended four new states for the region. The South-South is also looking up to four more states to become 10.
The states being considered include Okun State, Okura State, and Confluence State from Kogi; Benue Ala and Apa States from Benue; FCT State; Amana State from Adamawa; Katagum from Bauchi State; Savannah State from Borno; and Muri State from Taraba.
The states also include New Kaduna State and Gujarat State from Kaduna State; Tiga and Ari from Kano; Kainji from Kebbi State; Etiti and Orashi as the 6th state in the Southeast; Adada from Enugu; and Orlu and Aba from the Southeast.
Others are Ogoja from Cross River, Warri from Delta, Ori and Obolo from Rivers, Torumbe from Ondo, Ibadan from Oyo, Lagoon from Lagos, and Ogun, Ijebu from Ogun, and Oke Ogun/Ijesha from Oyo/Ogun/Osun states.
The letter reads, “As amended, this section outlines specific requirements that must be fulfilled to initiate the process of state creation, which include the following: New state and boundaries. 1. An act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new state shall only be passed if it requires support by at least the third majority of members.
“The House of Representatives, the House of Assembly in respect of the area, and the Local Government Council in respect of the area are received by the National Assembly. Local government advocates for the creation of additional local government areas are only reminded that Section 8 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, applies to this process.
“Specifically, in accordance with Section 8.3 of the Constitution, the outcome of the votes of the State Houses of Assembly in the referendum must be forwarded to the National Assembly for fulfilment of state demands.
“Proposals shall be resubmitted in strict adherence to the stipulations. Submit three hard copies of the full proposal of the memoranda to the Secretariat of the Committee in Room H331, House of Representatives, White House, Nation