How Many States Do We Need?

Following a meeting of National Assembly members under the umbrella ‘Forum of the National Assembly for the Actualisation of State Creation’, Senator Ayogu Eze was quoted in the media saying, "…….. And all of us agree on one thing; that there can be no constitutional amendment in Nigeria without state creation”. The Senator was even confident that these states could be created before the next general in 2011, which means people can contest elections in the new states. What an ambitious statement to make!

The Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Dimeji Bankole, has also played his own part in the recent call for state creation. Firstly, we were told that the Hon Speaker broke down in tears as agitators for the creation of Ijebu state from the present Ogun State stormed the House to press home their demand. Secondly, the Speaker was reported to have told the delegation agitating for the Edu State that ”If it was up to me right now, this moment, this minute and this second, I would call for the creation of this state. This is the most enthusiastic, largest ever contingent that will come and ask for a state”.

Most Nigerians get very emotive when the issue of state creation is discussed, and I understand the reason for this. This is mostly common among minority ethnic groups who feel marginalized because they see state creation as a way of addressing the inequality and injustice in the system. Whilst this may be true, I do not think it will provide a lasting solution to the inherent problems in our federal structure. I consider the “pseudo-federalism” to be the major cause of the marginalization of ethnic minorities. But as the agitation for state creation continues to gather pace, there are important questions which remain unanswered.

First it was General Yakubu Gowon who on May 30, 1967 announced the creation of 12 states from the then four regions in a bid to frustrate Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu's efforts to reap the benefits of his declaration of the Republic of Biafra three days earlier (May 27, 1967). General Murtala Mohammed who succeeded Gowon in 1976 created additional seven states, bringing the number of states in Nigeria to 19. General Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993) created additional 11 states in 1991 while General Sani Abacha added six more state, bringing the total number of states in Nigeria to its present 36. We will however note that no additional state was during the civilian regime between 1979 and 1983.

History has shown that the rationale for state creation by the military was to appease certain ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the same thinking exists today among our politicians. But in a country of 140 ethnic groups how many states will we need to appease everyone? The situation is bad enough with 36 states. How can the reason for dividing state into two be because the state has not been divided into two since 1976.

Also, on what basis is a state considered viable? Is the economic viability of the state based on projected revenue allocation from the Federal Government or ability to generate sufficient “internal revenue” through taxes etc.? According to figures contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) annual report for 2008, the state with the highest internal generated revenue is Lagos with N139.2 billion, followed in distant second by Sokoto with N34.8billion in 2008. According to the report, the IGR by 36 states and FCTA was N441.1 billion representing 1.8 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP).

Let’s take the situation for the proposal to create Edu State from the current Niger State as an example. The proposed Edu state is considered long overdue because of its population of 2.1 million and the landmass of 76,000 square kilometres. However, the CBN report noted Niger State as one of the states heavily reliant on federal allocation. Now tell me how can the creation of Edu state from a state that his heavily dependent on federal allocation be economically viable? We may in fact acsk ourselves, if Nigeria as a country itself is economically viable. Of what benefit is a state of 2.1 million people? We all know the so-called federal allocation is intrinsically linked to proceeds from “volatile” crude oil sales.

Creation of states just to appease ethnicity without regards to its long term economic viability should not be encouraged. It is time we start looking beyond tribal lines on issues that affects us as nation. Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution is very clear on matters of state creation. As easy as it may look, the process is very laborious and I will be really surprised if state creation can be achieved by any civilian administration. Even if federal lawmakers are successful in their quest for state creation, the decision will still need to be subject to a referendum. How anyone thinks this can be done before the 2011 elections beats me imagination.

There are fundamental problems with our Constitution that needs to be addressed as matter of urgency. The only way to address ethnic marginalisation is through establishment of sound democratic principles, and promotion of true federalism. Honourable members of the national assembly should focus on issues that will help build democratic institutions that will outlast political generations. These issues are more important than state creation at this present time.

The nation is in dire need of legislations to support a reformed electoral system. Nigeria needs a change in constitution that will entrench “true federalism”. We need legislation that will support and encourage good governance. We need a constitution that will support and encourage genuine separation of power. We need legislation that will promote accountability and transparency at all levels.

We are not interested in a constitution review that is wholly dependent on state creation! We are not interested in manipulation of our constitution to suit individual political aspirations!! We are not interested in a constitution review that will allow perpetuation of kleptomaniacs in power!!!

Hon Dimeji Bankole, Public Servants and Ministers

Honourable Dimeji Bankole noted at 6th Annual Trust Dialogue organised by Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust, that civil servants steal the bulk of unspent funds that should have been returned to the government treasury. In fact he was quoted has saying “………we have now discovered that each year, N700 billion is lost in the hands of civil servants. The money was never remitted to government coffers”. He observed that while politicians “come and go”, civil servants are a permanent feature of government bureaucracy. And that no Permanent Secretary had been put on trial for any financial misdeed.

I’m not entirely sure about the motivation behind these statements. Is it to score cheap political goals? or create an impression that politicians are no more corrupt than civil servants? For the Speaker to say civil servants are ‘corrupt’, is like a-pot-calling-a-kettle ‘black’. It is common knowledge that the Nigerian public service is as corrupt is it can get. The Nigerian Civil Service evolved from the colonial service which was established by the British authorities as the administrative machinery for governing Nigeria. However, it is unfortunate that currently 70% of its workforce is made up of unskilled staff (only 1.7% is in the strategic thinking directorate). It is saddled with the problem of “ghost” workers, symptomatic of poor personnel records and payroll control systems. And to make matters worse, we currently have Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with neither Mission nor Vision Statements, or clear corporate and individual schedules of duties. The Nigerian civil service is perhaps one of the most poorly paid in the world. A Permanent Secretary in the Federal Service earns an average of $1000 a month!

The creation of Bureau of Public Service Reform in 2003 by Ex-President Obasanjo was aimed at dealing with the some of the structural decay in the civil service mentioned earlier. It is however sad to say that, six years on these problems still remains. Probably, the ‘reformers’ themselves needed to be reformed. Unfortunately, the public service reform has not lumped into the President Yar’adua ‘7-point agenda’ - which is currently a waste of time.

My question to Hon. Bankole is, what has the National Assembly done to strengthen and re-vitalise the civil service? In a democracy, the Legislature should be responsible for holding the Executive and Public Service accountable. However, instead of that being the case, Nigerian legislators collude with civil servants to loot the treasury. The same National Assembly members have been guilt of sharing ‘unspent funds’ with civil servants – as seen recently in the case of Ministry of Health and Sen. Iyabo Obasanjo.

Also in the same vein, he alleged that three ex-ministers, (whose names he refused to divulge) sacrificed the opportunity of a foreign direct investment because the investors preferred to execute the projects themselves under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model and were not prepared to release the funds to the ministries related to the projects. His word I quote “There was a consortium that came to Nigeria last year. They all own banks and have already facilitated meeting with the three ministers after the meeting with the President. They were to bring $14 billion and to show the faith they were ready to block-off $1 billion for the government even before any transaction takes place between those ministries and the consortium. However, from the date of the meeting with the ministries till last week, it’s about eight months there was no movement, none whatsoever in fact, the three ministries totally discouraged us from having access to this fund, which is being offered without interest to build Nigerian infrastructure. I don’t understand that. I don’t know if you understand it. Well, I made bold to say that those ministers are no longer manning the ministries or are they in government anymore”.

It is also not surprising that our Ministers bungle foreign direct investments that would have benefitted that nation. In a situation when you have a President, who seems to care less and ‘nonentity’ as Ministers (all in the name of federal character) then you can’t expect any magic.

The democratic structure establishes a system of ‘checks and balances’. When the Executive makes mistakes, it is the role of the Legislature to ask the right questions. However, what we see is bickering about personal allowances. When you expect the National Assembly to scrutinise Ministers prior to their appointment, they simply ask them to ‘take a bow and leave’!

Despite been a former Senator and First Lady, Hilary Clinton was subjected to serious questioning at the US Senate prior to confirmation of her confirmation as Secretary of State. She was made to answer questions relating to her husband’s businesses and perceived conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of her appointment. In Nigeria, such a personality wouldn’t even be required to attend the Senate.

The National Assembly has demonstrated lack of competence and vision since its inception. Commentators who thought the election of Bankole as Speaker was breath of fresh air (considering his age and exposure), are now beginning to see that, he his just a new wine in an old bottle.. Honourable members have embarked on series of probes, inquiries etc in the 18 months, none of which has yielded any result till date.

It is time the Legislature starts fulfilling its role in holding the government accountable. It should help empower our democratic structure through an objective, open and transparent constitutional review process.