Nigeria: Jaded By The Politics Of State Creation?
Uchenna Okereke

The plethora of requests from groups agitating for new states in their domains is now seen as capable of attenuating the urgent demand for a revisit of the 1999 Nigerian constitution. There is no doubt the huge number of demands for states derives from the prevailing democratic climate in the country. States had only been created by military governments in Nigeria and many still believe it is only a military regime that can effect the exercise in contemporary Nigeria. This belief may be far from the truth given the fact that if the relevant organs of government objectively scrutinise the various demands for states taking cognisance of the need for parity of states among the zones, a few of these demands are likely to scale through the constitutional hurdles to become new states. After all, the state level of government has for long demonstrated its usefulness as the most capable of all levels of government in extending development to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. It therefore needs not be a Herculean task to bring into existence, based on merit, a few more of the structures that have long been known as fast-track agents of grass-roots development?

The appalling side of the on-going agitation for new states by groups in some areas of the country is the divisive and rancorous attitude to it by some individuals in their bid to have states created for them out of their own imaginations. Many of the demands trivialise the matter of state creation in the sense that they are not borne out of the popular choice of the people for whom they were purportedly made, but were sponsored largely by individuals for the purpose of future personal aggrandisement or to antagonise perceived foes. In some areas, some eccentric individuals draw incomprehensible artificial maps across age-old socio-cultural and political groupings and select ‘areas of comfort’ for inclusion and ‘areas of discomfort’ for exclusion in their new dream states. The sudden jump in the recent past in the number of demands for new states, according to analysts, is to some degree traceable to the unconventional demands lately propelled by these elements for motives far from genuine. The way and manner some of these state agitators storm the National Assembly to present their requests give the impression they have the erroneous belief that a few law makers would sit in a committee room and decree new states.

The many constitutional bottlenecks in the exercise of state creation - the affirmation of any group’s demand for a state by the State House or Houses of Assembly covering the area demanding for the new state; the scrutiny and approval of the demand by the National Assembly; a referendum where voters in the proposed state must give their suffrage for it; and the adoption of a resolution affirming the proposed state by a two-third of the 36 States’ House of Assembly - are not seen to be thoroughly considered by some before presenting unpopular and water-rooted demands for states.

In the end, apart from the rigorous constitutional hurdles to be surmounted by state agitation groups, the National Assembly to which President Umar Yar’adua had all along referred state agitation groups is expected to be capable of discerning and dissipating unconventional and mischievous demands for states. This is in view of the Senate President, David Mark’s constant reminders to state agitators that any demand for state can only be considered on its merit.

The Southeast appears to be much more surfeited than the other geo-political zones by the politics of state creation. This is because it is the focal point of any discussion on state creation in the constitution review exercise having long been seen to be below par with other zones in numbers of states. Law makers from the zone are rooting for three new states in the area. If there be a situation only one new state shall be created in the Southeast zone, the area most naturally favoured to get the location is that comprising parts of Anambra South and Imo West senatorial zones.

The root of the brawls over the location of the sixth state in the Southeast had long been traced by analysts to the door steps of one man - a one-time senator that represented the Orlu (Imo West) senatorial district. The maverick senator was unable to isolate his political feud with an ex-governor of his state (both hail from the Imo West senatorial district) over who would control the command post of their political party in the state. He rather chose to extend the feud far and wide. The people from Imo West senatorial district long ago teamed up with some groups in the Anambra South senatorial district and presented a demand for Njaba Sate before the National Assembly. The ex-senator widely believed to have spearheaded the demand for Njaba State in the mid 1970’s this time opted out of it and rather zigzagged the Orlu senatorial zone carving out areas of convenience for inclusion and leaving out areas of inconvenience for exclusion in his proposed Orashi State, located mostly, in the same area that earlier demanded for Njaba State. In many localities, kindred spread across local government areas were divided by the boundary lines of the proposed Orashi state; in some cases the boundary lines nearly encircled some of the local government areas excluded from his Orashi State. If Trivia is the mother of Orashi State as conceived by this ex-senator, Odium is its father. When a politician suddenly turns his politics against his people whom he had represented nearly all his adult life in the senate, the rest of society must learn to ignore his antics as they lack mass appeal.

Throughout Nigeria there are other schemers for states not rooted in mass demand. They are producing a scalding effect on the polity.

Before any demand for a state appears on the national stage, it must be seen to have been clamoured for by the masses and not a creation of a single or a few political weight lifters who rent a crowd and head to the National Assembly to demand for a new state as we see some evolving lately; otherwise the issue of state creation becomes a very big distraction and extra burden for the relevant organs of government.

Uchenna Okereke

ndukauzo@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 08.11.2008 04:54

forshow3  Villager

# 2 If you do not correct injustice then nigeria have a decide to hand over yoruba to republic of benin, where own blood brother can treat us well. Look at the following picture, the whole picture of Abia state from NASA picture. See the arrow pointing to NASA and the scales, are the same, and the three Yoruba state we want, Ibadan , Akure and Ijebu. Please compare them to Abia state, And notice abia have 17 local govt and is still less populated than this Yoruba areas. and still collect Federal allocation, Ibadan state, Ijebu state and Akure state are more populated than 1 . Abia state 2 Ebonyi state 3 Jigawa, 4 Sokoto 5 Enugu 6 Imo 7 Gombe state 8 Taraba state 9 Bayelsa Abia state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/abia445.jpg Ijebu state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ijebu_state344.jpg Ibadan State http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ibadan314.jpg Akure state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare2184.jpg http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare936.jpg http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare1592.jpg Abia state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/abia445.jpg Ijebu state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ijebu_state344.jpg Ibadan State http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ibadan314.jpg Akure state http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare2184.jpg http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare936.jpg http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08456/ikare1592.jpg Posted by forshow3| 08.11.2008 20:50