For peace, security and development to thrive, Senate President, David Mark argues that justice; fairness and equity must be the yardstick for cohabitation among the various ethnic groups in the country. In Mark’s view, a situation where some sections of a state are permanently confined to playing second fiddle is not good for harmonious co-existence. To which end, Mark has endorsed the creation of more states as one of the measures to address imbalances in the country. We respectfully disagree with Senator Mark because in our humble opinion, the creation of more states is totally unjustified and irrational in the present circumstances. It is borne out of greed and political expediency and for the Senate President to be pandering to such a narrow political agenda, is indeed, unfortunate.
Addressing members of the Anioma Congress from Delta State, in Abuja Thursday, Mark said the on-going constitutional amendment will consider the agitations of minority groups in order to provide the needed elixir for peace, unity and security in the country. “I strongly believe that we truly need to create more states to meet the needs of agitators, bring a sense of belonging to the people, promote healthy competition among the federating states as well as guarantee peace and security in the land, Mark said, adding, more states will ensure adequate zoning of top political offices, which he contended, would douse tension, agitations and feelings of marginalization by some minority groups.
As Nigeria’s experience has shown, attempts at creating more states to accommodate minorities and marginalized groups has only engendered more contradictions in the polity because of the skewed nature of the Nigerian federation. The outcome of the civil war informed the breaking of Nigeria into 12 states by the Gowon administration. Fiscal manipulation guided later efforts; reason why some states, despite paucity of their population, have more local governments than others.
Huhuonline.com understands that there are about 57 requests for state creation across the country’s six geopolitical zones. These demands may be understandable as they are adequately provisioned in Chapter IV of the 1999 constitution. But beyond the latitude offered by permissive free speech, not every demand is rational, and this could be said of the current demand for the creation of more states in the country. While it is the general consensus that the 1999 Constitution is far from being ideal and requires some review, opinion is unanimous that the business of making it reflective of the peoples’ desire is too serious to be anchored on a voracious desire to share the national cake.
But the fundamental question to ask Senator Mark is whether state creation is a top national priority. There are many reasons why it is not. As a matter of fact, it constitutes a diversion to the actual goal of governance and development. More states would constitute a drain on national resources and increase the already high cost of governance as more funds will be spent servicing the corrosive, inefficient patronage-ridden State bureaucracies across the country to the detriment of national development. Despite federal allocation, many states, especially oil-producing ones are in the red. Instead of condoning such clamour, Senator Mark ought to champion a public enlightenment campaign on its lack of viability vis-à-vis the country’s socio- economic and political reality.
Conservative estimates by governance experts put the number of states that can survive without federal allocation, to no more than three. With a huge debt portfolio of N1.86 trillion, the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are in dire financial straits. The Debt Management Office (DMO), which, in its latest report put the total liabilities at N1.86 trillion as at the end of June last year, said this figure was up from the N1.42 trillion level of December 2011.
The report listed Lagos State as the highest debtor with a contingent liability of N238.262 billion, comprising a local debt of N157.536 billion and a foreign component of N80.726 billion. Lagos is followed by oil-rich Bayelsa State with a contingent liability of N167.173 billion, made up of a domestic debt stock of N162.822 billion and a foreign debt liability of N4.350 billion while Cross River State is third with a total public debt of N113.598 billion, consisting of a local debt component of N96.544 billion and foreign debt of N17.053 billion. However, on a debt solvency and liquidity ratio analysis relative to revenue inflow to states, Cross River State is the heaviest debtor.
Next to Cross River is Rivers State, which as at June last year had contracted a total public debt of N112.229 billion made up of N106.880 billion local debt and N5.349 billion foreign debt. Rivers is followed by Delta State with a public debt of N93.304 billion, comprising a local debt of N90.843 billion and a foreign component of N2.46 billion. Imo and Kaduna states are next with total debts of N69.979 billion and N53.808 billion respectively. Crisis-torn Borno and Yobe emerged the least indebted with Borno pulling the least public debt of N3 billion, consisting of N1.684 billion local debt and N1.894 billion foreign debt. Yobe on the other hand has only contracted a debt toll of N6.939 billion, made up of N2.088 billion local debt and N4.851 billion external debt.
Given these unedifying statistics, Senator Mark and those clamoring for more states should drop the idea. They should rather be seeking ways of harnessing the existing states into viable units. Presently, the states are drain pipes and electoral battlegrounds for self-aggrandizing political jobbers. If the country operated a system of good governance and accountability, the agitation for state creation would have remained a footnote in the national discourse. This is the responsibility that Mark should engage in, rather than agitating for state creation and exacerbating tribal and ethnic cleavages.
The alternative to restructuring the Nigeria federation to unleash the development capacity of the component units cannot be multiplication of the existing state structures, but rather; shrinking them into larger productive units in order to reduce the cost of governance and free resources for national development. This is what the country needs and Nigerians deserve no less.
Huhuonline.com Editorial
