Nigeria may have 31 new states

• …As Adamawa wants name reverted to Gongola

By Patrick Andrew

If current requests sail through Nigeria would have additional 31 states, the exact number of requests which the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government is considering.

It means that the present 36 state and the Federal Capital Territory structure which is constitutional would have to give way to 67 and FCT structure. The constitution would have to be amended.

Also, the present Adamawa state has demanded a reversion to her former name Gongola, which was dropped following the recreation of Taraba and Adamawa states from the old North Eastern state.

The creation of new states was the core issue on the table before the committee which spent several hours looking into the merits andf demerits of respective requests. All the geo-political zones had requests.

Virtually all states except Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Yobe, Kaduna and Bayelsa did not forward proposals for new state to the national conference for consideration.

The committee, which began deliberation on the number of states to be created yesterday, unanimously agreed that there was real need for new states to be created.

Though there was heated debated among the members especially as the delegates from the North insisted the basis for state creation as proposed by some delegates from the South was illogical, they however agreed that new states should be created.

Delegates from South-East zone had insisted on creation of state from the zone for balance but were severely opposed by the delegates from the North who did not see any logic in since the zones are not even in population and land mass as to warrant such equality.

Majority were however of the view that some of the requests deserve attention and therefore wanted an appropriate criteria for the reconsideration of new requests on merit.

The states demanding confirmation are: Oduduwa, Aba, Orimili, Ijebu, Adada, Yemen, Amana, Apa, New delta, Okun, Anioma, and Savannah States.

There were also requests for Edu state, Lagoon state, South Plateau state, Confluence state, Etiti state, Anim state, Njaba state, Savannah state Oke-Ogun state, Toru-Ebe state,

Others were New Oyo state, Hadejia state, Ose state, Ogoja state, Okura state, Ugwuaku state, Ghari state, Sombreiro and Old Calabar state.

The committee eventually appointed a four-man committee headed by former River state governor, Dr. Peter Odili to deliberate on the modalities and merits for the new states.