August 20, 2014
My people:
According to pp 279-281 of the approved National Conference report:
you will read:
QUOTE
3. STATE CREATION
The subject of State creation has remained a huge political issue
in Nigeria. Conference examined the Reports of the 2005 National
Political Reform Conference and the Report of the Presidential
Committee On Review of Outstanding Issues from Recent
Constitutional Conferences 2012 (the Belgore Report) and after wide
consultations and extensive deliberations and in the interest of equity,
justice and fairness.
In addition, Conference therefore resolved as follows:
(i) In the spirit of reconciliation, equity, fair play and justice, there
shall be created an additional State for the South East Zone; and
(ii) That all other requests for State creation should be considered on
merit.
Conference approved the criteria for the creation of new States as
follows:
(1) Any new State sought to be created must be viable. In considering
viability, the following should be taken into consideration:
(a) Any new State should be economically viable;
(b) It should have human, natural and material resources;
(c) It should have a minimum land mass/water mass; and
(d) The viability of the existing State(s) should be taken into
consideration as well, so as not to create a situation where
new State(s) would leave the existing State(s) unviable.
(2) That State creation should be on the basis of parity between the
geo-political zones to ensure equality of Zones;
(3) Additional States should be created in each of the six (6) geopolitical
zones to bring the number of States in each zone to
nine (9);
(4) That eighteen (18) more States be created as follows:
a.
1. Apa State from the present Benue State;
2. Edu State from Niger State;
3. Kainji State from the present Kebbi State;
4. Katagun State from the present Bauchi State;
5. Savannah State from the present Borno State;
6. Amana State from the present Adamawa State;
7. Gurara State from the present Kaduna State;
8. Ghari State from the present Kano State;
9. Etiti State from the present South East Zone;
10. Aba State from the present Abia State;
11. Adada State from the present Enugu State;
12. Njaba-Anim State from the present Anambra and Imo States;
13. Anioma State from the present Delta State;
14. Ogoja State from the present Cross River State;
15. Ijebu State from the present Ogun State;
16. New Oyo State from the present Oyo State;
b. That the third State to be created in the South –South Zone
will be named later, along with its State Capital;
c. That the third State to be created in the South-West Zone will
be named later, along with its State Capital; and
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
shall be amended to allow for less onerous process for
creation of States.
UNQUOTE
Figure 1 below shows the current 36-FCT state structure of NIgeria:
Now, "Information reaching us" - as Nigerian parlance goes - is that the following table is what is being proposed:
S/N | GEO-ZONE | CURRENT STATES (36) | ADD MORE STATES (18) | Total (54) |
1 | South-West | Six (6): Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo | Three (3): Ijebu, New Oyo, Ose* | Nine (9) |
2 | South-East | Five (5):Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo | Four (4): Aba, Adada, Etiti, Njaba | -ditto- |
3 | South-South | Six (6): Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-River, Delta, Edo, Rivers | Three (3): Anioma, Ogoja, Oil River* | -ditto- |
4 | North-West | Seven (7): Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara | Two (2): Ghari, Gurara | -ditto- |
5 | North-East | Six (6): Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe | Three(3): Amana, Katagum, Savannah | -ditto- |
6 | North-Central | Six (6): Benue, Kwara, Kogi, Nassarawa, Niger, Plateau | Three (3): Apa, Edu, Kainji (from Kebbi) | -ditto- |
| Total | Thirty-Six (36) | Eighteen (18) | Fifty-four (54) |
* newly-named
If/when these additional eighteen new states as proposed by the erstwhile National Conference are created, this is how the Nigerian map will look;
So what state are you from, may I ask?
As for myself, I am STILL from Ekiti State (after Western Region, South-West State and Ondo changes), while some people in the prospective Anioma State would have changed from Western Region, to Midwest, to Bendel, to Delta, and now Anioma. Some of our South-Eastern brothers (and not a few sisters) may have bounced from Eastern Region to South-East State, to Biafra, to Imo, to Abia, to Ebonyi - and now to Njaba!
Lord have mercy....
Furthermore, what is the basis of an equality of states in zones as stated in the Report, when a FORMAL geo-zone based federalism was rejected in preference for states as "federating units"??
QUOTE
2. REGIONALISM
At independence in 1960, Nigeria had three regions and by 1964
had added a fourth region. All four were autonomous but subordinated
only to the Federal Constitution. Then came the military in 1966 when
aspects of the Federal Constitution were suspended leading to the
creation of 12 states, (six in the north and six in the south) in answer to
political exigencies including the protection of minority rights;
More states were created to satisfy the yearnings of various
ethnic nationalities which fear domination by some others. Nigeria now
has 36 States plus the Federal Capital Territory. In spite of this
subsisting arrangement, there continues to be demands for the creation
of more States.
After extensive consideration of Regionalism/Zones, Conference
decided as follows:
(i) The States shall be the federating units; and
(ii) Any group of States may create a self-funding Zonal Commission
to promote economic development, good governance, equity,
peace and security in accordance with the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
UNQUOTE
Consequently, a bold re-structuring of the country is yet to be proposed - or done.
And there you have it:
Bolaji Aluko
Shaking his head
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