Nigeria Beyond Divorce: Amalgamation in Perspective

Chapter Five: The Problem with Nigeria – Over Bloated Bureaucracy Caused by Undue Creation of States

C H A PT E R 5 THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA – OVERBLOATED BUREAUCRACY CAUSED BY UNDUE CREATION OF STATES The dreams of Nigeria’s founding fathers were shattered by the cumbersome and unworkable governance architecture which fuels corruption, political instability, and ethnic incoherence. 2015 worries me…let’s return to Regional Structure… – Chief Eleazar Anyaoku (On 18th January 2013, his 80th Birthday) Everything in life has its optimal limit. The four regions though unbalanced, were very close to the optimal limit, but Gowon hurriedly and punitively engineered the 12states structure primarily to de-stabilise Biafra. Consequently the 12-states structure was a bit too far from the optimal point because in reality it should be six states from the existing six zones. If Gowon had given Nigeria six states from the existing six zones he would have singlehandedly put Nigeria on the path to our dream greatness. 49 50 Nigeria Beyond Divorce However, it’s never too late. We will get there. Unfortunately, leaders after Gowon exacerbated the problem. Gen Murtala Muhammed opened the gate wide for the creation of more states and it came in floods beyond what the economy could bear. With oil price on the verge of hitting an all-time low following the discovery of Shale gas in US, China, and UK, we must think fast, go back to the drawing board and put in place a less expensive structure which should be a six-states structure. This sounds inchoate, crazy, unreasonable, impracticable, and even impossible but ultimately it is the most rational way to go. However, in retrospect, how did we get to where we are today? The journey started with the arbitrary creation of three regions (North, East and West) by Governor Sir Arthur Richard in 1945 without consulting the representative of the people or the 46-man Nigerian council that was put in place since 1920 by Sir Hugh Clifford. The massive land area of the Northern Region sowed the seed of perpetual imbalance in Nigeria and hence a perpetual discord within the Nigerian polity. Unfortunately, on getting our independence, rather than our political leaders reviewing this imbalance objectively, they compounded it by hastily creating a region and then followed by more states with no recourse to what the economy can sustain. The Mid-West region was created on 9th August 1963 after a hurried constitutional process and in the midst of political crises involving Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Action Group and twenty six of his party members on charges of treasonable felony. Also, Western Region was suspended and in an emergency under the administration of Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. 51 The Problem With Nigeria – Overbloated Bureaucracy Caused by ... Furthermore, the census controversies were brewing and therefore, creating another region in that chaos and before becoming a republic was not very appropriate. Then, barely four years later, on 27th May 1967 under the same political crises and the apparent mobilisation for war, Gen Gowon, in order to stop Ojukwu’s secession, did the first geo-political vivisection of Nigeria and created twelve states structure out of the four regions. However, it was wise of him to endeavour to strike a balance between the North and the South in that he created six states in the North and six states in the South. Obviously, if state creation had stopped at these twelve states the unbearable financial burden of these thirty six states wouldn’t have been there. On 3rd February 1976, Gen Murtala Mohammed created nineteen states structure and upset the balance by creating ten states for the North and nine states in the South. Then by September 1989, Gen Ibrahim Babangida created two additional states (Katsina and Akwa-Ibom States) thus bringing the total number of states to twenty one. This was followed on 27th August 1991 (Gen IBB’s 6th anniversary of coming to power) with creation of additional nine states bringing the total number of states from twenty one to thirty. Again, IBB worsened the imbalance by creating sixteen states in the North and fourteen in the South. Gen Sani Abacha on 1st October 1996 iced the cake by increasing the number of states from thirty to thirty six states with nineteen states in the North and seventeen in the South. Also, 138 additional local government areas were created by him bringing the total to 774 LGAs. On the whole, this atomisation or morselisation of...