Against the backdrop of clamour for the creation of equal number of states in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones, the Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, has said that the Senate has no plans of creating more states in the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution.
Ekweremadu, who confirmed that the committee has so far received 56 requests for state creation ahead of the zonal public hearing on the constitution amendment, enjoined Nigerians to discontinue the on-going clamour for state creation, since the country cannot contend with the problems associated with creating more states.
With 241 memoranda so far submitted to the committee by Nigerians, the committee has planned to organise the review in Makurdi (North Central), Gombe (North East), Sokoto (North West), Enugu (South East), Calabar (South South) and Lagos (South West) between Nov. 15 and Nov. 16.
The Deputy Senate President, while commenting on the increasing calls for the creation of more states, said: “I was in Enugu on Sunday where I met with my own constituents regarding the constitution amendment, and I made it clear to them that Nigerians are confusing things. That is why anyone can begin to expect that at the end of this exercise, somebody will come up to announce that states have been created.”
He disclosed that the on-going exercise does not include that of state creation because the constitution does not have such provisions, adding that the process of state creation is different from the assignment of the constitution review committee.
While harping on the need for urgent enlightenment of the citizenry on the different processes of constitution amendment and state creation, Ekweremadu said: “If you look at Section 8 of the constitution, there are two different issues. It is like passing a big snake through the eye of a needle. It is a cumbersome process and it just has to pass through that process because that is what the constitution says.
“What is going on is that Nigerians are making their request for state creation based on the fact that they believe that these two committees can come up with criteria that will favour them.
“The committee will only advise members of the National Assembly on how many states the system can possibly create and sustain. If for instance, we say the
Nigerian system can contain maybe four, three or eight states, we can possibly give advice on how these states will be allocated to the various parts of the country.”
Ekweremadu therefore disclosed that the committee was collaborating with the State Assemblies in the amendment process and that, “we are carrying them along in terms of information about what we are doing in order to enable them to understand the processes and issues so that when they vote, they would be voting from informed positions.
“We don’t intend to direct the way they vote, that is not for us because they need to make up their minds based on their own convictions and the interest of people they represent.”
Ekweremadu who explained that the committee’s target was to ensure that its work was concluded by the third quarter of 2013 so that it would not coincide with the electioneering process for 2015, advised that Nigerians should support this move to make the country better rather than accuse the committee of ulterior motives in the constitution review exercise.
