THE National Assembly may soon come up with a legal framework that would ensure states could voluntarily merge through the forthcoming constitution amendment process, Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) has said.
Senator Ndoma-Egba said in an interview that recent revelations about finances of the states were an indication that the states were not doing well and that a framework could be put in place to guarantee merger by willing states.
He said that while it is okay to have provisions for creation of states, it should still be possible to have an avenue that would allow willing states to pursue merger.
He said: "Yes, it is okay to have provisions in the constitution for state creation, but we should also have provisions in the constitution for voluntary merger of states. We should have that in the constitution as well."
Already, there are 47 requests for state creation now before the National Assembly, which is set to commence another round of constitution amendment shortly.
According to him, state creation became an emotive issue in the country immediately the number of states exceeded 12 and that the current financial standing of many states is not encouraging.
Senator Ndoma-Egba said that while the country was doing very well under a four-region structure, it also did well under a 12-state structure but that the slide became noticeable when the country was divided into 19 states.
The senator said that states of the federation were largely living on rent, while failing to develop the productive sector.
He said that it had become necessary to create avenue for merger of states in view of the poor financial standings. "If a number of states think that they would be more economically viable, if they think that they would be more politically viable, there should be no restriction in the constitution for them to merge," the senator said.
He stated that the optimal level of state creation was between four regions and 19 states, adding that the issue became emotive afterwards.
He further submitted: "I have had cause to say many years ago that the benefits of state creation had an optimum level and that optimum level was between when we had four regions and 19 states. Up till the point of 12 states, clearly the states were viable and that was why they engaged in very massive developmental projects.
"Up to the point of four regions, you could see clear evidence of viability because it was when we had four regions that the economy of Eastern Region was described as the "fastest growing in the world." That was between 1964 and January 1966 when the military struck, which means that at a certain size of scale, these component units are viable; beyond that size, they are no longer viable.
"I see that our optimal level of viability between the four regional structure and perhaps, the 19-state structure. It was there clearly during the four-region structure; it was there clearly during the 12-state structure. But after the 12-state structure, there was a question mark, meaning that we had passed that viability line and if we passed it after the 12-state structure, it means any addition to it cannot be for reasons of viability. It must be for reasons of satisfying some emotional whims. So, if viability is the criterion, clearly, we have gone past viability point a long time ago. So, for me, state creation is now more of an emotive issue."
Tribune