By Emeka Alex Duru
You may have noted the recommendation by the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee for additional state in the South East. The proposal is in order and commendable. It is only hoped that it does not end up a mere populist exercise that comes with a flash and dies in a splash of conspiracies. If you recall that similar suggestion had been made at the 2014 President Goodluck Jonathan National Conference but was dumped by the succeeding Muhammadu Buhari administration, you would understand why the otherwise patriotic proposal by the Constitution Review Panel is being received with cautious optimism in some quarters.
It is in line with the saying that once bitten, twice shy. It however goes without arguing that justice for the South East has become an issue that Nigeria must come to terms with if it hopes to forge ahead. The reason is simple; Injustice against the zone is among the factors holding down the country. That is always the case when a unit or component of a system is excluded from the mainstream.
Nothing perhaps, triggers crisis or misunderstanding in a family as one of it being treated as a stranger. That is the type of treatment the South East geo-political zone is receiving in present day Nigeria. Among the six zones in the country, four – the North East, South West, South-South, North Central, have six states, each. North West has seven. Only the South East has five states – the least in the configuration, not on account of inferior or non-productive population but because of the arrangement in the country that has been skewed against the people. That is quite pathetic.
To be sure, the lopsidedness was, not originally in the system. It was among the aberrations that often accompanied military incursions in the country’s politics. Following the 1914 Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates into one country by the highly opinionated British colonialist, Frederick Lugard, Nigeria took off on a two- regional arrangement – North and South. At political independence in 1960, the emerging leaders settled for a federal system of government anchored on the 1946 Richards Constitution which split the country into the East, North and West. For purposes of equity and to give the Benin and Delta axis sense of belonging, the Mid-West Region was created in 1963.
On May 5, 1967 in the build up to the Civil War, General Yakubu Gowon, head of the federal military government, announced the division of the hitherto three regions into 12 states, in obvious move to check the influence of General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s fledgling Biafra in the East. The states created were the North-Western State, North-Eastern state, Kano State, North-Central State, Benue-Plateau State, Kwara State, Western State, Lagos State and Mid-Western State. From the old Eastern Region, Rivers State, South-Eastern State, and East-Central State were carved out. Despite the balkanization, the North and South regions had six states apiece.
The imbalance in the system began to take roots in1976, when General Murtala Muhammed, a major protagonist in the July 29, 1966 coup and key actor in the Civil War, who had toppled Gowon, created seven new states, ceding four to the North and three to the South. The inequity arising from the 19-state structure, has seen the South East holding the short end of the stick subsequently. Every other state creation exercise had followed that pattern.
On account of the obvious unfairness, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze and indigenes of the South East, have been making demands and presentations on the need to bring the zone at par with other regions in the country. At its 2024 retreat in Enugu, Ohanaeze renewed the push for the quest. The group had earlier presented the request to former President Buhari, demanding that an Executive Bill be sent to the National Assembly for the immediate creation of additional states and more local governments in the South-East. But the request was not heeded.
Ohanaeze has in the current dispensation, tabled the demand before President Bola Tinubu, asking him and the National Assembly to ensure that action is taken to create a new state in the South East in order to address the injustice in the region having only five states. Ohanaeze even threatened to sue the federal government if it failed to give the region an additional state equivalent to other zones in the country. A group of legal practitioners from the region, Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA) has keyed into the demand, pledging to support Ohanaeze in the campaign. You may not blame Ohanaeze and other organisation from the region for considering this option. They have been pushed to the wall. Frustration has set in. For the members of the organisation, it is natural in a situation like this, to paraphrase Ojukwu, that they seem to be in dialogue with the deaf.
Going by the principle of Federal Character as enshrined in the 1999 constitution (as amended), the South East should have equal number of states as other zones. By the shortfall in the number of states in the region, out of the 774 Councils in the country, South East has 95 local government areas, the least compared to other zones. North-west has the largest number of local government areas with 186; North Central Zone has 114, while the South-South zone, has 125.
The lopsidedness in the local government distribution, places the South East at serious disadvantage, given that many appointments and openings in the country are made based on the number of states and councils in a zone. Whether in recruitments into the security agencies, paramilitary outfits, admission into higher institutions, employment in the public service, Igbo are the least.
There are other implications. In the legislature, the zone is deprived of a whole State assembly, denied substantial seats in the Federal House of Representatives, and robbed of three Senators. In the Senate, rather than having 18 Senators as most of the other regions, the South East has 15 members. For a system that preaches peace and justice, this is hypocritical and unacceptable. The weight of the unfairness also manifests during presidential primaries, in which case, delegates are drawn from states and local governments. In such situation, South East posts least number of delegates. The region has also suffered deprivation in revenue from federal allocations due to the inferior number of states in it.
The unjust arrangement runs against the principles of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (3Rs), enunciated by the federal government at the end of the 1967 – 1970 civil war. There is no how Nigeria can claim to have ended the war against the Igbo when indices of injustice, inequity and other tendencies the gave rise to the field hostilities of the era still persist. There is equally no justification for the South East having only five states, while other zones have six or seven.
It may therefore not be out of point to suspect that the current agitations and security challenges in the South East are manifestations of exasperation by the youths from the region over marginalisation of the area by the federal government. For the sake of equity, justice and fairness, additional state should be created for the South East.
Let the proposal by the Constitution Review Committee be given effect by the National Assembly and the Executive arm of the government. Lawmakers from the South East should liaise with their counterparts from other zones to ensure the actualisation of the agenda.
DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Online Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)