The hope for the birth of new states in the country may have been dashed as the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly has declared that creation of additional states is not possible at the moment.
This is coming barley one week after the delegates at the just concluded National Conference released the proposed new map of Nigeria with the inclusion of eighteen additional states.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu averred that creation of new states based on the recommendations of the just concluded national conference was not feasible because it takes a long process, especially during civilian era.
The Senator made this assertion while fielding questions from newsmen in Umuahia, Abia State.
He noted that the existing laws of the 1999 Constitution had made state creation very difficult, adding that until the toxic clauses in the constitution are amended, the country would wait ad infinitum for creation of additional states.
Asked how the leadership of the National Assembly would collaborate with the Presidency to integrate the outcome of the national conference into the constitution, Ekweremadu said “It is up to the President to decide on what to do with the document”.
He said, “You should know the technicalities of state creation. It is not a matter of sitting down in one place and saying you have created states because this is not a military era. There are constitutional requirements and you have to pass through them”.
Clearing the air on his political grudge between him and his State Governor, Sullivan Chime, the Deputy Senate President said their differences would be resolved.
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