Forget it

Editorial 

The vexed question of state creation was revved up penultimate week by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege. The deputy chairman of the National Assembly, who was hosting a delegation from Bauchi State in Abuja, said the creation of new states was still possible if the proponents lobbied stakeholders from all the country’s geo-political zones.

The delegation had visited Omo-Agege to lobby for the creation of Katagum State from the present Bauchi State, which the promoters claimed had been on the card since the 1980s. Led by the former Head of Service and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, the visit was a calculated strategy because the Deputy Senate President is chairman of  the Ad-hoc Committee of the Senate on the Review of the 1999 Constitution. The recommendation of possible creation of new states is within the purview of the committee and state creation agitators are already submitting memoranda.

Omo-Agege told the delegation after receiving a memorandum on the issue from them, that the National Assembly is empowered only to amend the Constitution and not to rewrite it. “Irrespective of my personal views and the views of members of this committee,” he admonished, “you will need to do a lot of lobbying.”

He added: “No matter what we think as members of this committee about the appropriateness and justness of your cause, I want to plead with you to reach out to our colleagues from all zones because no one state or geo-political zone can give you a state. But it is about lobbying. If you do this, there is no reason why you should not pull this through.”

The idea of state creation has for years been an emotive affair. And it is understandable. States have become the yardstick for distributing national resources, including the revenue allocation, and a political tool for corralling other fiscal advantages.

Without doubt, state creation has not been equitable. The exercise has often been skewed in favour of some sections of the country. The old Northern Region has, for example, been more favoured in the distribution of states than other old geo-political zones that birthed the present state structure.

Specifically, while the defunct Northern Region now has 19 states; the old Western Region has six; the defunct Mid-West, carved out of the Western Region, two; and the old Eastern Region (which includes the present Southeast zone), nine. The seeming injustice has tended to create disenchantment, which has made the agitation for more states interminable.

This, however, is not the kernel of this editorial. We are more concerned about the fragility and survival of the present state structure. The demand for new states is ordinarily the right of every Nigerian and section of the country. It is an essential political ideal, but it is not realistic now.

Simply put, it serves no useful end to create more states when most of the existing ones are not viable. Of all the 36 states, only Lagos can survive wholly on its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), independent of the centre. Other states that are marginally viable include Kano, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and, perhaps, Ogun. Most of the others are in dire straits. What they rake in as IGR to supplement their share of revenue allocation is so negligible that they can hardly pay workers’ salaries as and when due and meet other obligations, even with the monthly “handouts” from Abuja.

It is, indeed, a tragic irony that, even though the country is so naturally endowed that virtually every local government area is blessed with at least one mineral resource or the other, this has not been exploited to advantage. This is due largely to the over-reliance on oil wealth and statutory provisions vesting the right to harness these resources in the central government.

On the other hand, even most of the states that are benefitting from political advantage are themselves still not viable. In this context, calling for more states is hardly the solution to our problem now. It is unnecessary and ill-timed. We have not created the right value system as well as a stable and equitable political culture that could necessitate creating more states.

Again, asking some of the existing states to merge, as it has been mooted in some quarters, is also not the way out because it will engender dissonance; with the consequential political fissure worsening the situation.

What should concern us now is how to make the existing states viable. We should consolidate rather than dissipate energy on another needless state creation jamboree.