Navigating the constitutional conundrum for creation of Adada State

There is no doubt that a topic bordering on state creation in Nigeria, seems not to be of legal domain but within the niche of political actors and power brokers, yet understanding the Constitutional conundrum underpinning the requisite procedural steps and strategic advocacies – the domain of legal science, provides the needed socio-legal framework for achieving any agitation for State creation under the extant democratic regime, which has not recorded success in State creation.

The topic of state creation not only evokes political interests, it also becomes more emotive when considering the historical trajectory of the quest and failures of previous attempts at creation of Adada State and the struggle with other agitators currently angling to be the proposed additional state for the South East Nigeria. Thus, providing a legal insight into the pathway for successful state creation and basis for creation of Adada State under the current federal structure of governance and democratic dispensation in Nigeria remains imperative. 

It is therefore the object of this discourse to bring to bear the Constitutional Conundrum underpinning the legal framework for State Creation in Nigeria, highlighting the historical trajectory of state creation, and interrogate the prospects and challenges around the quest for Creation of Adada State, while calling for adoption of strategic advocacies for demystifying and getting around potential obstacles.

Perhaps, a good way to kick-start the discourse is to undertake a historical excursion of the evolutionary trajectory of state creation in Nigeria, starting from the Amalgamation and Reconfigurations of Nigeria and the creation of state structure in Nigeria, at various points, during the colonial era and successive military administration in Nigeria.  

Historically, the official commencement of Nigeria as a country dates back to 1914 following the Amalgamation of the then Northern and Southern Protectorates of the British Colonial Territory by the then Colonial Governor, Sir Frederick Lord Lugard. 

Following the promulgation of Richards Constitution of 1946 which introduced Regionalism, in 1949 Nigeria was divided into three (3)regions along geographical bearing, namely, the Eastern region, the Northern region and the Western region. Each of these three regions comprised of multiplicity of ethnic groups, but with numerically and politically dominant ethnic groups (the Igbo in the East, the Hausa-Fulani in the North and the Yoruba in the West, respectively).

This configuration had led to fears of domination and agitations for separate regions by some ethnic minorities in the various regions. From the East was the Calabar-Ogoja-River (COR) State Movement, in the North was Middle Belt Movement, and in the West was the Benin and Delta Movements, all agitating to be free from the perceived domination of their numerically stronger partners.

In response, the then British colonial regime set up the Henry Willinks Commission in 1958, with a mandate to study the fears of Nigeria’s ethnic minorities and suggest ways to allay such fears, including the creation of separate states for them.  

At the end, the Willinks Commission, however, failed to recommend the creation of states for ethnic minority groups in Nigeria, which would have resulted in the first state Creation exercise in Nigeria.

It rather held the view that there were other alternatives for addressing their fears, and recommended entrenchment of human rights, the establishment of special development authorities, and the sustained implementation of democratic practices, to provide comfort assurance for the minority groups among their dominant ethic groups in the regions. But the agitations continued. The colonial era ended with the tripod regional structure of Nigeria at Independence in 1960. 

Another reconfiguration of Nigeria and the first in post-independence Nigeria took place in 1963, when the Mid-Western region was carved out from the Western region, which altered the tripod regional structure that existed during the colonial era. At the post-independent Nigeria, the regionalism subsisted between 1960 and 1966, but was discarded in 1967 by the Yakubu Gowon military administration that dissolved the regional structure, and split the then four regions into State structure in May 1967.

The state structure has remained to date, despite some agitations for return to Regionalism in the course of the current democratic dispensation. Between 1967 and 1996, 36 states were created by successive military regime, with Federal Capital Territory Abuja carved out in 1976.    

The debate on state creation and quest for additional state for the South East Geo-Political Zone Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, there has been intense agitations for creation of more states, particularly additional state for the South East, with the least states (only five states) among other Geo-political zones, each with not less than six states.

Although the regionalism was discarded upon creation of states in Nigeria, yet the principles of regionalism rooted in ethic configuration subsisted with the current division of the country into six recognised geo-political zones under the 1999 Constitution, with component States grouped within the zones based on their contiguous geographical bearing and political lineage, still falling within the old regional base of post-colonial era.

The whole Nigeria were grouped into six Geo-political zones with North and South having three broad zones each within their respective regions of the defunct Northern and Southern Protectorates of pre-Amalgamation era. 

The North has: North East (NE), North Central (NC) and North West (NW), while the South has: South East (SE), South West (SW) and South South (SS). From the current 36 states structure of Nigeria, the States are distributed as follows: NE=6, NC=6 and NW=7; SE=5, SW=6 and SS=6. The SE obviously has a shortage of one State to bring it at par with other zones of historic trajectory, with six states, aside of NW with seven states.  The geo-political zone grouping of the 36 states of Nigeria are as follows: 

There have been divergent viewpoints, even among scholars, on the necessity and rationale for additional state creation particularly in the light of the prevailing economic challenges in the country.

Proponents of state creation argued that such exercises will engender development and check regional economic disparities as well as ensure equality in both political participation and the sharing of federal government resources. On the other hand, it was argued that state creation would not only impede development by draining the limited resources of the Federal Government, but would also encourage laziness on the part of the states.  

Despite the merit of arguments against state creation, the application of federal character principles and allocation of national resources and political positions being based on existing state structure of the federal system of government and representations in democratic governance, heightens the agitation and necessity for creation of additional state for the South East (SE), to put the SE geo-political zone on equal footing with other zones in the distribution of national resources and positions, as well as bring government nearer to the populace along their aligned origin and engender sense of belonging. It also brings additional development and participation of the people in governance affairs. 

As it stands, SE with a missing one state has huge loss. For instance, there is absence of one state governor with components of State governance, with consequent socio-economic development and employment creation. There are also loss of three seats at the Senate and at least five seats at the House of Representative, among other executive appointments and judicial positions. 

Besides, the shortage creates imbalance with consequent psychological effect of perception of inequality in the supposed egalitarian society in democratic dispensation.  

The proposed Adada state in the midst of other agitations for state creation from the south east- chances and challenges
A concerted convergence point by agitators for creation of additional State for the South East (SE) is the need to address the long-standing imbalance in state distribution within the country, where SE has a shortage of one State, having just five States as against at least six States from other geo-political zones.

However, within the SE, there has not been unanimity of position of stakeholders on where the proposed additional State should be carved from. At least four proposals are on the table, with each translated and formalised as a Bill submitted to the National Assembly. The four Bills are seeking to alter the 1999 Constitution (as amended), by increasing the number of States in the federation from 36 to 37. The projected States are: (1). Orlu State (to be carved out from Imo, Abia and Anambra States), sponsored by the Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere, representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency of Imo State; (2). Etiti State (to be carved out of Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo States), sponsored by Rep. Amobi Ogah, representing Isikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State; (3). Adada State(to be carved out of Enugu State), sponsored by Sen. Okey Ezea, representing Enugu North Senatorial District of Enugu State; and Anioma State (will comprise nine local government areas in Delta North-Igbo-speaking part of Delta State), sponsored by Sen. Ned Nwoko, representing Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State.
Ogbuanya, a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria presented this at the 2024 Convention, Public Lecture and Award Ceremony of the Nsukka Journalist Forum (NJF), held at Nsukka, Enugu State, recently.