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Apart from the agitators, there seems to be an unanimity in opposition to the creation of more states in the country among some eminent Nigerians.

Senate President David Mark, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and House of Representatives Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, had on various occasions assured that the Sixth National Assembly would create more states before its tenure ends on May 29, 2011.

However, citing high cost of governance, rising graft, insolvency of states, non-viability of the proposed states and worsening economic fortunes of the citizenry among others, some eminent citizenry, have asked the National Assembly to put a lid on the requests for new states.

If anything, some of them asked for pruning down of the current 36 states to a manageable size and scrapping of the local council structure. There are demands for additional 35 states, which if approved, will leave the country with 71 states.

Among those who spoke on the issue are former Transport Minister, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Second Republic Goverrnor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande; Second Republic politician and one of the founders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Guy Ikokwu; and former National Chairmanship Candidate of the PDP, Chief Sonny Iroche.

Iroche said: “I think we should reduce the number of states. The problem in Nigeria now is not state creation but failure of leadership through massive corruption. The states are too many.

Creating more states means governments will become too large, more governors, ministers, senators, etc and more money spent on them to the detriment of the desired development.

The government is too large. Money budgeted go into pockets of government officials. Nigeria is bleeding from all offices of all tiers of government. Look at the salaries of our Federal Lawmakers, and they want to add more.”

However, the PDP chieftain said his suggestion was not unmindful of the injustice done to the South East geo-political zone, which has been short-changed on the issue.

“Every other zone has seven or six states except the South East that has five. What should be done is to collapse the states in other zones to five, to ensure equity,” he added.

On his part, Babatope urged Nigerians to be wary of the warning of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, that states might become glorified local councils, if care was not taken.

“Since we have started creating states, you cannot stop people from agitating for more states. The way we are going, we may end up with Pa Awolowo warning that we may reduce states in Nigeia to glorified local government councils. Now, most of the states have no money to operate.

Most states can’t pay salaries. If they have money to operate, no problem but we have to be careful not to turn the states into glorified local councils,” he said.

Jakande said the demands for 35 additional states were unwieldy. He urged the National Assembly to scrutinise the demands painstakingly and handle each case by merit. “The number is too much. I think we should take each case on its merit,” he said.

For Ikokwu, demands for new states were rife because of mis-governance and marginalisation. “People agitate for self_determination or against marginalisation because they are not contented with the status quo. If the country is properly governed with the rule of law, equity and justice, many people will not even mind who governs and where he comes from.

There will be more dedication and patriotism. When you have the absence of justice and patriotism, everyone will want to rule oneself or one’s family.”

He contended that agitation for state, territorially, would continue until “every local government becomes a state; every town within a local government becomes a state; and individuals become states unto themselves.”

The lawyer-cum-politician, canvassed jettisoning of the presidential system of government for a parliamentary system, which he argued, was more accountable and less expensive because “the governor or prime minister is in the legislature, so he can be called to account at anytime. He does not have the immunity, which you have embedded in the presidential constitution.”

Ikokwu contended that new states would make sense if the local councils were scrapped. “Creation of state is expensive. We have 774 local governments. If you scrap the local government system totally, then you can create more states.

These states will become divisions and we adopt a parliamentary system. If it is the parliamentary system, you can have 60 states or divisions in the country. The important thing is that you have their functions and what revenue they have to generate to carry out those functions,” he espoused.

Commenting on the issue recently at a lecture at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Nsukka, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, called for scrapping of the states because “the military, which led the nation into creation of states made a huge mistake.”

Soludo said the present cost of running the 36 states, the 774 local government areas, the large bicameral federal legislature and the federal government were clearly not suitable and urged Nigerians to rally for a change that would abolish the states and embrace the creation of six regions on the basis of their fiscal viability.

Most states unsustainable
Vanguard checks show that more than two-thirds of the 36 states out of which 35 new states may be created are not economically sustainable.

Every year, these states reel out budgetary figures running into billions that are funded from statutory allocation from the Federation Account. Over 80 per cent of the Federation Account comes from crude oil exploited from nine states – Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, Ondo, Abia, Edo and Cross River.