The National Assembly is quite ludicrously considering proposals for creating 31 additional states. The proposals should be rejected out of hand. If approved, then the Federal Republic of Nigeria would metamorphosis from four constitutional regions to 67 mostly unconstitutional states!
Back in the day, every region was self-sustaining, but these days, states are mostly financially unviable relying on federal allocations to survive!
The military engaged in state creation to assuage the aspirations of minorities, it cannot be a continuous process. The reason Nigeria consistently fails to experience development commensurate with its mineral and intellectual resources isn’t the nation’s administrative structure, it’s the proclivity for corruption and deficit of patriotism prevalent amongst our political class.
In nations where education, healthcare and infrastructure are all substandard, and unemployment is increasingly widespread, it beggars belief that anyone would regard state creation as a national priority.
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Honourable Usman Bugaje, a former National Assembly member, quite correctly asserted that too many “honourable” NASS members have neither the education, nor the comprehension of political philosophy, to have inculcated the traits of good governance. It makes no sense for any nation which routinely borrows to finance national budgets, to even consider increasing the costs of governance. Nigeria cannot be an exception!
It stands logic on its head for any government which cannot maintain existing road and rail infrastructure, cannot construct new hospitals, cannot operate social services, and cannot invest in urban public transport to even contemplate borrowing money to bear the costs of new State Governments. These costs will include 31 new Government House Complexes (each costing more than a standard fully equipped hospital), and 93 luxury accommodations for new governors, their deputies and state speakers.
Also, in true Nigerian fashion, these additional “Excellencies” will require an inordinate fleet of brand-new luxury vehicles to service their egos. Added to their state salaries and pensions will be the salaries of over 600 new House of Assembly members nationwide, more than 300 commissioners, and well over 5,000 personal assistants and advisers none of whom adds any economic value to society.
The federal government will add the salaries of 31 new ministers, 91 new senators, and 310 new House of Reps members! The reason why no state has been created since 1999 has less to do with the complexity of state creation, and more to do with the fact that it is completely unnecessary!
The existing states from 12 to 36 were created unconstitutionally under military decree and not by consensus. Throughout the world, the prevailing economic sense is the call for cheaper governance and more allocation of resources to alleviate the sufferings of the citizenry.
The argument that state creation brings governance “closer” to the people is fallacious. Professor Attahiru Jega, the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has quite correctly pointed out that the primary challenge in Nigeria is not the number of states, but the distribution of power and resources within the federal system.
The real problem is the failure of the political class to successfully address critical national issues plaguing the nation in terms of prevalent hunger, squalor and dilapidated infrastructure, coupled with rising crime rates, economic collapse, widespread insecurity and massive corruption.
Those agitating for the creation of new states have failed to prove how it would resolve any of these pressing matters. Resolution can be better achieved through completely overhauling the educational system, ending massive corruption, improving resource management and entrenching much-needed humanity in governance by investment in social services, rather than simply wastefully developing new states and creating more opportunities for treasury looting!
The argument that creating more states means more funds will be allocated to human capacity development belies the evidence at hand. The end result is more likely to be the opposite as more states will lead to more corruption, more wastage and more squander-mania!
Since 1999 governors have routinely fritted away billions on white elephant projects and abandoned infrastructural projects which they “commissioned” before completion! Analytical investigations relating to the management of public funds have revealed that on average, 270 projects have been abandoned in each state of the federation! This suggests that poor state governance is a major problem in Nigeria.
At the federal level, one of the biggest concerns over government spending is the amount spent by INEC on conducting elections whose integrity is suspect and whose outcomes are always challenged in court. While defending the commission’s budget, its current chairman, Prof. Yakubu, explained that despite public outrage at the amount requested, he considers it “insufficient” for the commission to carry out its responsibilities. Meanwhile, senior INEC officials confess that they are unable to project the additional cost of preparing a new electoral register in order to conduct elections in an additional 31 states.
It’s quite clear that the creation of new states doesn’t address the priority problems of the nation. The number one priority is to end corruption and the question has been posed severally; “between state creation and introducing the death penalty for corruption, which one is more likely to enhance good governance?”
There can be no denying that creating more states isn’t a solution to any of the nation’s problems. It’s an economically unviable misplaced priority which will only benefit the political class. NASS in all patriotism must reject it for now.
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