Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution, Ike Ekweremadu, has affirmed that the creation of additional states in Nigeria is tedious “but not impossible.”
The senator stated that the requirements set out in Sections 8 and 9 of the Constitution provided a number of obstacles, which must be overcome before a new state can be created.
Ekweremadu disclosed this, Wednesday when he received the Enugu State Government’s Committee on the Actualisation of Adada State, led by Maj.-Gen. Godwin Ugwoke (retd.) in his office.
Ekweremadu had earlier reported to the Senate that none of the requests for new states met the constitutional requirements.
He said, “This is an opportunity to state clearly that the opportunity for state creation is a continuum. It’s not limited to when there’s Constitution amendment.
“Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution already makes that clear. The section didn’t make any specific time frame as to when it should be done.
“Any request that doesn’t meet the specifications of section 8 can still be amended or upgraded and presented in accordance to that section of the Constitution.
“We try to emphasize this point; that creation of state in a democracy is quite different from creation of states under a military regime. The process of state creation is more cumbersome and it is a process and not an event as it used to be during military regimes. It’s a very tedious journey.
“We are not giving up on states creation. For a long time, it’s going to remain difficult to create states; it may not be impossible but the word there is ‘difficult’, but when things are difficult, people still succeed. I don’t want you or any other Nigerian requesting for states to get disillusioned or drop their pursuit.”
He however noted that his committee had been fair to all groups in the process of the amendment of the Constitution and the documents for state creation were carefully analysed.
He said, “We have 61 requests and 13 consultants considered and analysed the requests. The shortcoming, with regards to Adada State, from the analysis they gave to us was the fact that those who signed it were no more in the House of Assembly and they named them.
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