Seven (7) Reasons for the Creation of States in Nigeria

INTRO: Since 1967, the federating units of the Nigeria federation became known as the “states,” following the creation of the 12 states by General Yakubu Gowon. Prior to that, the federating units were called regions, especially since the Richards Constitution of 1946 that introduced regionalism in Nigeria. The regions were 3 in number originally until 1963 when the Mid-Western region was carved out of the Western Region. During the era of regionalism, there were agitations for separate administrative entities (states) by the minority ethnic nationalities who were being marginalized or so they felt, by the big three ethnic groups: Hausa (Northern Region), Igbo (Eastern Region), Yoruba (Western Region). Prior to independence, in 1957, this had necessitated the Henry Willink Commission tasked with ascertaining the facts about the fears of minorities in any part of Nigeria in order to propose means of allaying those fears, whether well or ill founded. The Commission in their reports refused to recommend state creation for the minorities (Omotosho, 2009). Accordingly, there were agitations for the Calabar-Ogoja-River (COR) State Movement in the East; the Benin and Delta Movements in the West, and the Middle Belt Movement in the North. Since 1967, according to Adeniyi (2014), the federation underwent significant expansion, starting with 19 states by March 1976. By 1987, it had increased to 21 states, including the addition of a new federal capital territory in Abuja. The number of states further rose to 30 by August 1991 and ultimately reached 36 by 1996. In total therefore, the federal structure of Nigeria has been altered for six good times in 1963, 1967, 1976, 1987, 1991 and 1996. These changes in the structure of Nigeria’s federation were entirely done by the several military governments in Nigeria with the exception of the creation of the Mid-West region in 1963. It is also worthy of note that even though that there were genuine calls for the creation of the states, the restructuring of the federation served the interest of the various leaders. In this thought, for instance, the creation of 12 states served Gowon in clipping the wings of the secessionist Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu of the Eastern region.

In the recent times, there have been bills in the legislature for the creation of new states in Nigeria including a bill seeking to create Ijebu, Oke-Ogun and Ife-Ijesa states; and another for the creation of Etiti state, and yet another for the creation of Orlu state, and also another for the creation of Anioma state. The bills were greeted with mixed reactions. The supporters claim that state creation in Nigeria is long overdue as it holds serious development potentials while the detractors including Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) call it a misplaced priority. While it is not in our interest to join the debates, we explored the various reasons for the creation of states in Nigeria in this piece.

The reasons for the creation of states in Nigeria are as follows:

1. Diversities: Nigeria features immense diversities in religion, ethnicity, language, culture, and aspirations. On the religious fronts are the Christianity, Islam, and the African Traditional Religion; on the ethnic fronts, there are the North and South divide on the one hand and the over 350 ethnic tongues and tribes on the other, and consequently, Nigeria has a litany of discordant cultures and aspirations. State creation is adopted as a tool for compartmentalization and coordination of the diversities. The first Head of State of Nigeria, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi paid with his life for among other reasons reversing the compartmentalization with his notorious unification decree, the Decree 34 of 1966. Gowon reverted to the status quo when he took over power from the slain Ironsi.

 

2. Minority Fears: In Nigeria, state creation was originally conceived as a solution to the problems of ethnic minority groups (Akinyele, 2014). The ethnic groups in Nigeria are numerous as they vary in sizes. In Nigeria, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups are recognized as the “big three” ethnic groups, and at independence, Nigeria’s federal structure stood on the tripod of the big three ethnic groups as the Eastern, Northern and Western regions respectively. This by implication means that the minorities were subsumed under the big three ethnic groups in the various regions. This fact sparked both real and fancied fears of domination by the minorities which started clamouring for separate spheres for themselves. We have said something above about the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR), Benin and Delta, and Mid-West movements for separate political spheres away from the giants. The movements resulted from the minority fears of domination by the majority tribes. States creations in Nigeria were conscious efforts to allaying the fears expressed by the minorities.

 

3. Framework for Federalism: As a system of government, federalism preaches equal power sharing between the centre and the component units in such a manner that they are in their respective spheres coordinate and independent. Even though the component units of Nigeria’s federation were known as regions, they were simply like the states as we have it today in the Nigeria’s federation. Component units can go by any name including regions, states and provinces, and they are sine-qua-non for federal arrangements because there must be a centre and the units for federalism to exist.

 

4. Even and Need-Sensitive Development:  State creations take governments closer to the people so that the needs of the people would be adequately articulated and resolved. This is a way of saying that state creation helps people to take their destinies in their hands. For instance, there were notable regional variations in development in Nigeria in the first republic. There were a notable South-North decline in infrastructure, such as primary schools, health services, and road density (Weinand, 1973). In 1965, the Northern Region, comprising about 79% of Nigeria's total area, had only about 39% of the total road mileage. By 1966, disparities were evident as the Midwest Region, with 4.6% of the population, had nine times more secondary school pupils per thousand people compared to the Northern Region. Additionally, in 1965, the North's per capita income was approximately 38 naira, whereas Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and the most prosperous area, had a per capita income of 246 naira (Adedeji, 1969). More states were created in conscious efforts to address these development imbalances. Literature abound which demonstrate that the development needs of state creations have been a mirage, but then, it is worthy of note that it is not all doom since then.

 

5. Elite Interests: The elites in Nigeria have engineered state creation for achieving a number of interests. The 1967 state creation was ostensibly for introducing divisions in the former Eastern region against Ojukwu’s centrifugal thrusts. The state creation was masterfully engineered in a way that confined the core Igbo people within the East Central state, and created some sense of “we” versus “them” among the people of the former Eastern region. In the beliefs of Nnoli (1978), Ake (1985), and Ekekwe (1986), the class contradictions and the conflicting interests of the country's dominant social forces drive the persistent and intense communal demands for more states, local government areas, and an ethnic-based confederacy. Expanding on the class analysis of the elitism in state creation, Ayoade (1999) posits that state creation is a tactic employed by the northern oligarchy to maintain 'Northern ascendancy' in Nigeria. This strategy aims to divide and control the East and West, rendering them subservient to the North. What is more, state creation is "a veritable source of socioeconomic opportunities and political patronage for sectional elites and communities” (Suberu, 1994: 67-82). It follows therefore that the elites pursue socio-economic and political interests via state creations.

 

6. Political Participation: This is another reason for the creation of the component units in the Nigeria’s federation. New states bring new opportunities to the people for political participation. The reason is simple; new states entail more seats in the National Assembly to be occupied by new set of people. It suffices to say that states are represented equally (3 senators per state) in the Senate House, while the House of Representatives is based on population, and in both Houses, creation of states have implications to the number of states. The states also have a horde of elected officials other than the legislators at the national level.  This fact indicates increase in political participation not just for the elected but also the electorate.

 

7. Conflict Management Strategy: Nigeria is a product of British colonial construct which separated kith and kin and united strangers with the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates. Since then, Nigeria has known no peace. It has faced immense political instability which climaxed with the Nigeria Civil War between 1967 and 1970. Successive governments have taken many steps to nation-building including creation of states. In this regard, state creation is an ethnic conflict management strategy woven into federalism in order to achieve unity in diversity. Regrettably however, the state creations as a strategy for conflict management constituted yet another source of conflicts in Nigeria. For instance, according to Nkwede (2014), during the second republic, the Southern states’ agitators reacted vehemently against the imbalance in the 19 states structures.