The
National Assembly has received 45 memoranda requesting the creation of
new states from the existing 36 states of the federation.
Deputy
President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who stated this at a
public lecture organised by a group of lawyers of the South East
extraction in Lagos on Friday, said the requests were presented to the
National Assembly by various groups from different parts of the country.
Speaking
on 'Constitution Amendment and State Creation,' Ekweremadu, who is the
Chairman of the Senate's Constitution Review Committee, said about 34 of
such memoranda were intra-state demands, seven interstate, while four
cut across geopolitical zones.
According to him, minority fears,
search for equity, speedy development and quest for political empires
and influence by the elite are some of the key factors responsible for
the proliferation of states and the agitations for more since
independence.
He noted that Nigeria would therefore become a federation of 81 states should all the requests be granted.
Raising
fundamental questions on the state creation debate, Ekweremadu stated,
“Has the creation of more states allayed the fears of minorities and the
feelings of marginalisation and domination?
“Has it resulted in good governance and speedier development at state levels than we had before?
“If
it is meant to bring governance closer to the people, what then is the
essence of the local government areas? Importantly too, is the
proliferation of states and even the extant ones viable and
self-sustainable?
“Again, at a time the global trend is
aggressively moving towards the contraction of the size of government
and cost of governance and at a time the nation is already sweating
profusely under the yoke of unwieldy size of government at the federal,
state, and local levels, can we really sustain the status-quo let alone
create new burdens?”
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