Constitution Review: Why other zones should support additional state for South East -Nwodo
Constitution Review: Why other zones should support additional state for South East -Nwodo
By John Okezie
Former Enugu State governor, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, has said other geo-political zones should support the creation of additional state in the South East, in the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) by the National Assembly, in the interest of equity and justice.
Nwodo, via telephone interview, was reacting to the resolution of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review to create additional state for South East.
The South East currently have five states, while other geo-political zones, apart from the North West, which has seven states, have six states each.
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review, at its retreat in Lagos, at the weekend, reportedly voted to create an additional state in the South East to create the imbalance, and set up a committee to look at the 55 proposals for new states across the six geo-political zones.
However, amid concerns if the National Assembly can pull through the creation of new states, particularly to correct the imbalance in the number of states in the South East, Nwodo said the zone has made sufficient representation, since the inception of the fourth Republic, for an additional state.
The former governor said: ” it is a long standing demand. As we speak, we are short of one state compared to other zones and short of two states compared to the North West. And you know the resources that go into a state every month and go into the number of local governments.
“’All the local governments in the South East are not up to the local governments in Kano and Kastina put together. Now, you come to representation, you have the smallest number of councillors, because these councillors come from wards in the local governments.
“We have the fewest number of local governments and that tells you how much we get as allocations every month, as allocations to develop our local government and we have only five states that receive monthly allocations. We have only a fraction of members of the House of Representatives, compared to other zones. So, those have thrown us back.”
He added: “every national conference, we come up with this matter. Even at the Oputa panel, we also presented this grievance. It is just that it is more rigorous for states to be created under civilian administration than in the military. But we think we have made sufficient representation, especially in this fourth republic to justify an additional state being created in the South East.
“If this country is to be built on fairness and equity, we don’t see why other zones will not support us. In previous constitutional conferences, they have always agreed that a new state should be created in the South East. In all constitutional conferences, other zones have supported that the South East, as a priority, needs a new state.”
Nwodo added that in the event that the National Assembly wants to create more states across the country, there are several demands for new states in the South East that could also be considered to address the inequality suffered by the zone.
According to him, “all though other state demands have arisen from other zones, but it is not only one zone that is being demanded in the South East. If they want to create two states in every zone, we have up to four demands in the South East, to meet whatever the country wants to do.
“Definitely the current situation speaks volumes about the marginalization of the South East, which had become entrenched in the Nigerian polity since after the civil war.”
