Skip to main content

REVEALED: List Of 20 New States Proposed By Nigeria’s Senate Committee

  


The agitation for the creation of more states in the country is about to enter a new phase.

This follows the recommendation by the   Senate Committee on Constitution Review that  referendum be conducted for 20 new states by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to The Nation, the committee’s decision was reached after considering various factors including the ability of civilian administration to create states.

It recalled that the defunct Mid-Western Region was created in 1963 in  the First Republic.

To check tax evasion, the Senate panel also approved  the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to allow for the creation of Federal Revenue Court.

There will be about five revenue courts to deal with all tax issues nationwide, especially cases involving multinational firms.

A highly placed source said the Senate panel will soon meet with the House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review for joint consultations on some of the approved amendments.

Creation of new states tops the list of amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

Although less than five of the current 36 states are economically viable, it was gathered that the Senate Committee was determined to respect what it termed “the genuine desire of Nigerians.”

The list of requests for new states is quite long but sources said referendum may be conducted for no fewer than 20 states.

Some of the requests include ITAI State (from Akwa Ibom State); State status for the FCT; Katagum State from Bauchi State; Okura State from Kogi East; Adada State from Enugu State; Gurara State from Kaduna South; and Ijebu State from Ogun State.

Others include Ibadan State from Oyo State; Tiga State from Kano State; Ghari State from Kano State;  Amana State from Adamawa; Gongola State from Adamawa; Mambilla State from Taraba State; Savannah State from Borno State; and Okun state from Kogi State.

Others on the list are Etiti State from the South East Zone; Orashi State from Imo and Anambra states; Njaba from the present Imo State or the excision of Aba State from Abia State; Anioma State from Delta State; Torogbene and Oil River States, from Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states; and Bayajida State from parts of Katsina, Jigawa and Zamfara states.

The source said: ”The Senate Committee on Constitution Review has seen the desirability of creating new states which may even solve the nation’s present security challenges.

What the Senate Committee has recommended is to amend the constitution to empower INEC to conduct the referendum on state creation.

When INEC gets the constitutional mandate, we can then invoke Section in Part 1 of Chapter 1 of the 1999 Constitution.

We are talking of referendum for less than or about 20 new states.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “The procedures for creating new states may be cumbersome but realisable.

At the committee level, it was obvious that a civilian administration is better placed to create new states than any other form of government. In fact, the defunct Mid-Western Region was created in 1963 during the First Republic.

In this Fifth Amendment to the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly can create new states if the conditions are met.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EndSARS: Protesters In New York Want SARS Operatives Sacked

 Hundreds of young anti-SARS protesters on Sunday stormed the Nigeria House in New York demanding transparency in the disbandment of the police unit back home. The protesters said operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad found wanting should be sacked and not redeployed. Among them was Stephen “Papi” Ojo, the artist, model, and choreographer who stole the show as the ‘blue-guy’ in Beyoncé’s “Already” music video. The protest started shortly after the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Adamu also announced plans for a new arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps following the disbandment, and the constitution of an investigative team to probe the alleged cases of rights violations, among others. But the protesters, who bore placards with different inscriptions including, “We no want audio ban”, said they were not buying it. They argued that previous commitments announced by the force to change...

Open grazing ban in South irreversible, Akeredolu replies Malami

  The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has tackled the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Shehu Malami, for faulting the ban placed on open grazing in the Southern part of the country. The Southern Governors had at a meeting in Asaba last week banned open grazing and asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to address the nation over the increasing rate of insecurity in the country. However, Malami who appeared as a guest on Channels Television on Wednesday faulted the ban, arguing that the governor had no right to do that. Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of Southern Governors’ Forum, spoke in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, titled, ‘ Our decision is irreversible and will be enforced ’. He asked the AGF to challenge the governor’s position on open grazing in court, adding that Malami’s comments were “ unfortunate and wicked ”. Part of the statement read, “I have just read the press statement credited to the Attorney...

Biden Announces Purchase Of 200M Vaccine Doses

  President Joe Biden announced a series of measures on Tuesday aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses and increased distribution to states by millions of doses next week. With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans -- nearly the entire US population -- by the end of summer or early fall. He described efforts to combat Covid-19 as a "wartime undertaking." We now have a national strategy to beat Covid-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," he said. As part of the new efforts announced Tuesday, the US will buy 100 million more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna -- the two-dose vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer and Moderna are working to step up p...