NATIONAL CONFAB: Committee Recommends Merger Of Nonviable States & Approves Request For Another State In South East.

If the recommendations of the ongoing National Confab is not swept under the carpet, It will probably see some very important changes to the Nigerian landscape. The Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government has adopted a procedure which could make nonviable, but willing states within the federation to merge into one state.

It also resolved that an additional state be created in the South East geo-political zone to bring it at par with other zones in the country; except the North West. The resolutions were taken at the Committee’s sitting on Thursday. They are however subject to the approval of the Conference at plenary.

The South East zone is the only one out of the six geo-political zones that has five states. While the North West zone has seven states, the South-South, South West, North Central, and North East zones have six states each.

During the debate on the issue, a member of the Committee, Femi Okurounmu, noted that the merger of stares was not the same as the creation of a new one, which has stringent conditions stipulated in the extant laws. He therefore suggested that a referendum within the affected states should be enough to give legal backing to the merger.

Another member, Sule Hamma, pointed out that a merger would require that the constitution that gives recognition to the existing states would have been tinkered with. According to him, if such merger was successful an amendment to the Constitution must take place to accommodate the new merged state.

Abubakar Mohammed suggested that for a merger to be achieved there should be a simple majority of the two-third members of the states affected as well as a simple majority of the National Assembly.

The 28-member Committee agreed that the process must be simplified to allow the merger of two or more states without prejudice to the federating units. It further resolved that for such merger to hold, it must go through referendum of 75 per cent of the people of the affected states.

The Committee, which noted that only about five states out of the 36 states were viable, resolved that viability of states proposing merger must be considered.

On state creation, Ahmed Aruwa, a former senator from Kaduna State, said the demand for another state for the South East was legitimate. Stating that the request had been on for long, Mr. Aruwa stated that states should be created where necessary in line with necessary conditions as spelt out in the constitution.

Another member, Yinka Odumakin noted that frivolous demand for states creation would only cease when the injustice perpetrated by the government is addressed while Nimi Barigha-Amange, a former senator from Bayelsa State, warned that the creation may lead to more demands from other parts of the country.

In adopting a proposal for a state in the South East, the Committee proposed that the process of state creation, which is cumbersome under the 1999 Constitution, should be simplified. It however noted that if fiscal federalism was practiced in the country it would help to abate the constant quest for state creation.

Speaking to journalists after the approval of a state for the South-East zone, the leader of the zone’s delegates, Ike Nwachukwu, said he was appreciative of the understanding and maturity of the Committee members on the zone’s demand.He said going by the agitations from different parts of the country, there was a need to consider such agitations in other to eliminate marginalization.