The House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendment has been advised to shoot down the proposals for state creation, as they do not create a solution to Nigeria’s problems.
Recently, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu announced that none of the 31 requests for state creation met the constitutional requirements for consideration. He, however, said that the committee extended the deadline for submissions to 5 March 2025, allowing those clamouring for the creation of new states to revise and resubmit their proposals.
During a radio programme, Public Conscience, produced by the Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG), on Wednesday in Abuja, Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Barrister Eze Onyekpere described the agitation for state creation as a cruel and crude joke, admonishing the lawmakers to quit wasting time entertaining such memos and instead channel their energy on proposals that will improve primary healthcare, child and maternal mortality, amongst other pro-people issues.
He insisted Nigeria’s economy cannot support the creation of new states, adding that the country does not need new states to bring development to communities but must strive to stop thieving elites from further depleting the national resources.
Onyekpere further said: ‘For equity, only one state needs to be created in the Southeast region of the country for the sake of equity and balancing.
‘The lawmakers shouldn’t waste their time on state creation; instead, they should take on memos on the right to health that have been submitted, like the right to primary healthcare, maternal and child health; they should ensure these rights become justiciable and moved from chapter two to chapter four of the Constitution – meaning that the state will be obliged to make provision for them in the budget so that every woman can deliver free of charge, children under five years treated free – these are the kind of discussions I want to hear and not about state creation.
‘The issue is that we don’t need new states to bring development closer to the people; all we need is to ensure that the thieving elites stop stealing or even steal more commensurately.
‘If you look at today’s Nigeria, there may be no need to create new states like every group of politicians wants a state because the resources have been made available to the states; there is no evidence that they have been used to better the lot of the people.
‘A good chunk of our resources is going into recurrent expenditure, maintaining the bureaucracy, buying new cars, building new structures as offices and accommodation for public officers.
‘The last thing we need with the present level of economy and impoverishment is to create new states, to duplicate bureaucracy because once you create a new state, you get a new governor, speaker, chief judge, permanent secretary, and the first thing each of them would do is to order the big brand new Sports Utility Vehicles, SUVs’.
Onyekpere faulted President Bola Tinubu’s large cabinet size, urging him to reduce the number by half as part of measures to address the high cost of governance.
He also advised citizens to fight for good governance and hold leaders accountable rather than leaving the quest for a better nation to the media, civil society groups, and activists.
Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio programme, which PRIMORG uses to draw the government’s and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.
It runs in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation.
