WHY THE POLITICS OF STATE CREATION IN NIGERIA

State Creation reproduces emergence of new minorities and new petty or comprador bourgeoisie who manipulates social production, reproduction process to their advantage and the consequent expansion of the population of the country’s poor. However, the success recorded by new states in terms of infrastructure and human development cannot be over emphasized because state creation promotes development. Despite the above, ethnic or tribal sentiment still remains a turn in the flesh of Nigerian people. This has really affected the country both in developmental programme and mutual understanding of the people.


MEANING OF STATE CREATION

According to Eze, M.O. (2013) "State Creation is the process of carving out a homogeneous entity from a heterogeneous one. The homogeneity and heterogeneity are usually identified by the culture, religion, demography and other ethno related issue” (Myths and Realities of State Creation in Nigeria. Madonna International Journal of Research. Vol. 6, No. 1, May, pp. 108-111).


STATE CREATON IN NIGERIA

The history of state creation in Nigeria dates back to 1900 when Nigeria was divided into three distinct entities, the colony and protectorate of Lagos, the protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Each of this was administered independently by an administrator. However, what was in existence prior to the division of Nigeria was Royal Niger Company established by the British.

In 1906, however, the colony of Lagos was merged with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria under the name colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. On 1st of January 1914, Lord Lugard amalgamated the Protectorate of Southern and Northern Nigeria. Lord Lugard emerged as the first Governor-General of Nigeria.

The 1946 Richards constitution established three regional councils, one each in the North, East and West. The Northern regional council was divided into two houses, but the council of the West and the East consisted of only one house each. Essentially, the major functions of both house was to make laws for easy administration of the regions.

On September 1957, the Willink commission was set up to address the problem of the minorities. This was due to the agitation for the creation of Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers States as well as the middle belt. The commission, however, recommended for the creation of Mid-Western region which came into being as a result of the agitation from the minorities.

The independence constitution of 1960 incorporated a provision which set out conditions under which a new state may be established, conditions which were followed in the establishment of the mid-western region in 1963. It is important to note that the splitting of only the old Western region was opposed to the two other regions; East and North where roughly equal demands for separate administrative units were strongly made. This reflected the nature of the political strategy of the Action Group in trategy contrasted with those of the other two major parties the NCNC and NPC which exhibited ambivalence on the issue of state creation by supporting strongly creation of states in rival regions while frustrating as much as possible attempts to split their areas of political control. Consequently the four regional structure of the federation remained until 1967 when, in response to the political climate of the moment, the Gowon military regime divided Nigeria into 12 states; not so much on the basis of the weight of agitations, which though was still very heavy, but as an expedient political strategy to nip the impending secession of the East in the bud. The state creation strategy was used to weaken Ojukwu’s influence and authority in the Eastern region. He succeeded in gaining the support of the minority groups in Nigeria. The measures also enhanced the unity of other parts of the country behind the federal government most especially during the civil war, 1967-1970.

Despite the attempt made in 1967 to separate minority ethnic groups from the majority in the former regions, the end of the Nigerian civil war was a resurgence of all manner of demands for new states, so much so that in 1974, when the agitation reached a feverish peak, government had to express a commitment to the creation of new states as part of the programme for military dis-engagement from politics. Although the Gowon regime could not achieve this, Murtala Muhammad regime which ousted the former attempted to it as a matter of priority and immediately set up the Justice Ayo Irikefe Panel to deal with this nagging issue. Thereafter, seven additional states were created in February 1976 to bring the number of states in Nigeria to 19 (nineteen) which remained in force until the resumption of party politics in 1979.

The experience of the Second Republic left no observer in doubt that State Creation was still very prominent on the agenda of Nigerian politics. The inglorious second republic capitulated to the military men at the end of 1983 but agitations for more states were extant. Thus, during the National Debate organized by the Political Bureau in 1986/87, about ten specific demands for new states were noted. Following the report of the Political Bureau, the Babangida administration re-drew the map of Nigerian Federation by creating two additional states to bring the number to twenty one and on August 27th, 1991, he created additional nine states, making it thirty states.

The quest for State Creation persisted and on October 1st, 1991, General Sani Abacha altered the nation’s geo-political landscape once again, with the creation of six-additional sta the creation of six-additional states. This brought the total number of states in Nigeria today to thirty six.


REASONS FOR AGITATION FOR STATE CREATION

Essentially, a lot of reasons have been advanced by advocates or agitators for creation of more states. However, those in support of the creation of more states apparently appear to have superior arguments to the reasons adduced by those against it. Here are some of the reasons by the advocates of the creation of more states.

One of the absurdities of Nigerian federalism was noted in the extant literature as one of the reasons or factors responsible for her convoluting character is structural imbalance, created by the British colonial administration that handed over at independence a federation with a preponderant Northern Region, which was about a third of the entire federation both in land mass and population size. This lopsidedness undoubtedly is a negation of J.S. Mill’s law of federal stability, which posits that for a federation to be stable the component parts must be fairly equal in size.

1. The minorities’ fear of marginalization is also another reason for agitation for state creation.

2. There has been unabated clamour and agitations for the creation of more states to satisfy ethnic nationalism. While ethnic or separatist nationalism grow to the detriment of Nigerian nationalism, there has been a growing attitude of antagonisms and lack of trust among Nigerians”.

3. In a perceptive work, Aaron Gana (1987:11), observed critically from Willink Commission of 1957 to the Political Bureau of 1986, that principal reasons advanced for creation of states can be classified into four viz: (a) to promote stability; (b) to promote unity and harmony (c) to facilitate cultural authencity and (d) to promote rapid development.

4. An elder statesman – Chief Obafemi Awolowo – also opined that “ethnicity is the major factor to be considered as a reason or criterion in creating any state in a federation so that minority groups in the midst of majority groups who differ in language, culture and historical background will not feel inferior “ (Awolowo, 1947).


STATE CREATION IN A DEMOCRATIC REGIME

Democracy could be defined as “the system of government where by the people i.e. the electorates exercise governmental power either directly or indirectly”.
After the death of General Sani Abacha in 1998, General Abubakar who succeeded him instituted a transition to democratic rule which came to past on May 29, 1999 with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the democratically elected president of the Fourth Republic of Nigeria. From 1999 till date, Nigeria has not experienced any military coup thereby enjoying the fruit of democracy but still the agitation for more states by the minorities continued but to no avail.

Today, new ethnic groups have emerged to demand for new states to be created out of Nigeria’s thirty-six states. The Deputy Senate Presidents and Chairman, Senate Committee on state creation revealed that not less than forty five (45) request for new states have been made to the National Assembly so far (Ekweremadu, 2013). If all the current requests are granted, Nigeria will have a total of eighty-one states.

All the 36 states in Nigeria today were created by the military government and not by the democratic government despite all the agitations of state creation during the democratic regime. In a democratic era, pursuant to section 8 of 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, the requirement for creation of new states is a massive consensus. To create a new state requires inter alia: “The request for state creation must be supported by at least two thirds of members (representing the area demanding for the new state) in the senate, House of Representatives, the House Assembly in respect to the area and the local government council in respect of the area that the state will be created. A referendum on the new state is approved by two-thirds of the people in the area where the state is to be created” and “the result of the referendum is then approved by a simple majority of all the thirty six states supported by a simple majority of the members of the House of Assembly. The state is also approved by a resolution passed by two thirds majority of members of each of the senate and House of Representatives.

This is a long process unlike in the military regime where the supreme council or any known highest ruling organ of the military will agree and make a proclamation and states are created. Therefore, democratic regime hardly facilitates the creation of state in Nigeria.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I hereby recommend the following:

That Nigeria should become a federation of six geo-political zones with equal state creation and more accommodation of the minority group interest for their effective integration. This should be done through a balance state creation exercise and the delimitation of constituencies. On this, there is immediate need for the creation of additional state for the South East zone.

Agriculture should be revamped to make it create the much needed employment opportunity, which will make every individual or group to contribute his or her own quota to national development, it is only when people don’t have employment that they are vulnerable to manipulation by the petty or comprador bourgeoisie in the society for the purpose of destruction.

The need for competent leaders cannot be over emphasised as a possible panacea to this problem of state creation. Nigeria needs a leader with vision and insight as well as the will power to put forward and maintain equitable distribution of the national resources and healthy economic growth that is totally independent.
We also recommend a Review of Section 8 (eight) of 1999 Constitution Article iii, C and D which stipulates the approval of state creation by 2/3 majority of both the upper and lower Houses, simple majority all the thirty six states House of Assembly. This is to make State Creation possible in a democratic government.

The economy should be restructured to enable each state or region to control their resources and give a certain amount to the federal government. This will boost the development of every state in Nigeria.


Content Writing By Koxmopolitan

I am FTBS.