THE clamour for creation of more states as part of measures to amend the constitution is totally unjustified and indefensible in the present circumstance of the country. It is a discordant tune, which vested interests in the polity are all dancing to. The Senate, instead of condoning such clamour as a mere furtherance of democratic norm, ought to spearhead an enlightenment campaign on its lack of viability vis--vis the country's economy and reality of the polity. According to the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), there are about 57 requests for state creation across the country's six geopolitical zones. These demands may be understandable in a democratic environment permissive of freedom of expression, and adequately provisioned in chapter four of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. But beyond the latitude offered by the prevailing democratic milieu, not every demand is rational, and this could be said of the current demand for 57 states in the country.Experts in federalism and governance would argue that determining the 'rightfulness of the unit' with a view to capturing major sections of the polity, including marginalised minorities is an imperative in nation-building. The skewed nature of the Nigerian federation has indeed accentuated the quest for state creation. Successive leadership have, however, not been able to resolve this problem with a great deal of sagacity. Instead, steps taken were motivated by brinkmanship and fiscal manipulation. The breaking of Nigeria into 12 states by the Gowon administration was informed by outcome of the civil war. Fiscal consideration is the reason why some states, despite paucity of their population, have more local governments than others. As Nigeria's experience has shown, attempts at ensuring the rightfulness of the unit has engendered more contradictions in the polity rather than resolving them.The pertinent question today is whether state creation is a national priority. There are many reasons why it is not, and it constitutes a diversion to the actual goal of governance and development. As a matter of fact, how many states in Nigeria today can survive without allocation from the centre' A fair estimate will reveal probably not more than three. Despite this stripped reality, are the agitators asking for more states essentially to get their own share of the national cake' If the existing states are left to harness their fiscal requirement, many, unable to rise up to the responsibility of a state, would wither away. Two, the creation of more states would constitute a drain on national resources as more funds will be spent on servicing motley of non-performing bureaucracies across the country to the detriment of national development. Three, despite federal allocation, many states are already failing and the governors have put their respective states in some debt peonage, through incessant issuance of bonds.Given the above, those clamouring for more states should dump the thought. They should rather be concerned in nursing the existing states into manageable and viable units. Today, the states are non-performing, non-productive, and remain only a turf for electoral battles for those wishing to mind state resources for self-aggrandizement.Intriguingly, rather than directing much of their energy to provision of public goods to the citizenry, incumbent state actors are bickering over the prospects of whether a particular state is created or not. The fact is that they were elected on electoral promises hinged on agitating for more states creation when elected. Not all electoral promises are rational and realisable. If subjected to deep thought, some promises, for instance to create more states, should not have been made at all. The battle for state creation, like most issues on public domain in the country, is being subjected to ethnic and regional cleavages. If the country is run on the basis of equity and justice, the agitation for state creation ought to have remained a footnote in the national discourse. This is the responsibility that present state actors should engage in, rather than fretting over state creation.There is no alternative to restructuring the Nigeria federal structure to unleash the development capacity of the component units. The country is besotted with many contradictions. Finding enduring solution to them requires a paradigm shift, which is not achieved by multiplication of the existing state structures, but rather by shrinking them into manageable units. Even smaller West African countries, such as Senegal are inclining to cutting down the structures of government in order to reduce the cost of governance and free resources for national development. This is no less desirable in Nigeria.
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