By Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN
I am surprised and greatly disturbed to hear that members of the NASS are proposing 31 additional states to the present already behemoth, over-bloated and unwieldy 36-state structure that Nigeria operates. I see this needless venture in the midst of more critical national issues as nothing but jesters playing out Baba Sallah’s Alawada Kerikeri histrionics and buffoonery. How can they be talking about creating additional 31 states when over 2/3 of the present states are unviable entities existing on life support and merely dependent on the federal centre for monthly oxygenation under section 162 of the 1999 Constitution? How can we be talking of going through the stringent provisions of section 8 of the 1999 Constitution for a meaningless exercise that adds no value to a nation gasping for existential breadth?
How can they be talking about creating new states when hunger, starvation, squalor and melancholy envelop inhabitants of the present minion states that literally beg for crumbs from the Abuja master’s table? All that Nigeria needs now are only two things to correct the inherent injustices in our warped federalist system and move towards growth and development: one additional state in the South East to equal others; and a brand new Constitution that is legitimate people-driven, autochthonous, credible and referendum-compliant to help correct our deep fault-lines and lopsided federation that make some states mere vassals consumers of the national cake without knowing or caring how the cake is baked.
The NASS should immediately drop this provocative, funny and phoney butterflies-chasing and stop insulting our collective intelligence. Their present venture amounts to rubbing hot pepper deep inside Nigerians’ already bruised bodies of gaping sores. NASS, enough is enough, please.
