By Dr Abdullahi Dahiru
There is no single cogent reason of more state creation in Nigeria.
The number of states and local governments proliferated under military governments. Various reasons were giving-top among which-was bringing governance closer to people. But many of the states and local governments were created to satisfy the wishes of many top military leaders and their associates at that time.
The number of states in the country shouldn’t have been more than 15 or at most half of what we have currently.
Many of the created states and local governments are not financially viable. They heavily depend on federal funding. Without federal funding, these tiers of government cannot pay salaries and gratuities talk less of other projects. Most states depend heavily on federal agencies like TETFUND to construct lecture theatres and sponsor their lecturers for further studies. They rely ecological fund to address desertification and erosion.
Many states that were created from 1991 to 1996 have only new buildings and roads constructed at the state capitals but the other local government areas have not changed significantly from what they were in the former states.
If new states are created according to Senate proposal, more bureaucracy and workforce would be added on the same federal funding that would be shared to the new and old states.
The Senate should rather channel its energy in creating laws that would support industrialization, job creation, commerce and trade rather than creating more bureaucracy and inflated cost of governance.
Dr Abdullahi Dahiru is a medical practitioner and wrote this from Kano
