A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), J B Daudu says the proposal for state creation is the most unreasonable of all the proposals for amendment of the constitution.
Daudu made the assertion at a one day Rule of Law Foundation Webinar Series No. 14, organized to address the problems of modern day Nigeria through Constitutional Amendment.
The event was to commemorate the 45th year anniversary of the call to the Nigerian bar and 30 years of conferment of the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria on J B Daudu.
Daudu said that the reasons are not far-fetched as, allowing this brazen political agenda to proceed unabated, would appear to be the greatest breach of faith committed by the present administration.
“Firstly, the APC government promised a gravitation to true fiscal federalism when campaigning for the 2023 general elections.
“Thus, in the minds of reasonable Nigerians, this administration should encourage a debate among well-meaning Nigerians as to how to reduce the size of government.”
He called for a concerted effort to enthrone true democracy and set out plans to shrink the states and collapse them into a more manageable number such as six or eight regions or states.
The learned silk added that in financial terms, therefore, it is not viable to embark on the creation of new states for now.
“The demonstration of the unreasonableness of the demand for creation of additional states can be viewed from two angles.
“The first being that Nigeria is just about the size of the state of Texas in the United States. But if Texas was an independent nation, it would rank as the eighth largest in the world.
“The other reason which has been given, especially by the southeast, is that of marginalization and the need for additional states for balance with other places that were also regions, just like the southeast’’.
He stressed that other states are not created based on perceived marginalization but on the strength of several strong factors.
“The most important of which is viability in economic terms. Based on the weak economic ground that the nation presently stands on, what should be the agenda for state creation is the transmutation of the 36 states to six institutionalized geopolitical zones.
“That is what every patriotic Nigerian should back. Nigeria’s constitutional amendment process presents a rare opportunity to correct foundational defects in governance, justice and institutional accountability.”
He urged the National Assembly and public-spirited individuals and groups to seize this opportunity and make far-reaching and transformative suggestions for amendments that will address the root causes of Nigeria’s dysfunction.
“There have been at least five alterations to the 1999 Constitution between 2011 and 2023, the last being the 16 alteration Bills signed into law by the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Barely two years after the last exercise, Nigerian politicians, mainly from the National Assembly, are keen on engaging in another rash cycle of amendments, which activity has provoked in the writer veritable alarm bells signifying ‘DANGER’ to the efficacy and longevity of our political/governmental system.”
He noted that governance in Nigeria, since her independence, has operated under successive constitutional frameworks aimed at fostering unity, good governance, and infrastructural development.
“However, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) continues to reflect a unitary and overcentralised structure that limits innovation, accountability, and regional development.
“It is increasingly evident that some of Nigeria’s major challenges such as insecurity, bad individual and communal attitudes, economic underdevelopment, administrative inefficiency, and political tension, are rooted in leadership vacuum not resolvable by constitutional amendment.
“The seeming structural imbalances entrenched in the constitution are there because of the selfish agenda that have been, by subterranean means, embedded in the said document.
“These imbalances can be adjusted by realistic and unselfish constitutional amendments,’’ he added.
