Senate denies doing secret work on state creation

The Senate yesterday denied doing any selective work in favour of certain proposals for state creation submitted to it by people agitating for new states.

The senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze, on Thursday in Abuja, denied allegations that the senators have shortlisted a list of new states which they intend to rubber-stamp during the state creation exercise.

“There is no list of states to be created that has been drawn by the national assembly,” he said. “That matter is not being considered right now but we hope that we will consider it in the life of this sixth national assembly.” He added that currently, the lawmakers are only receiving requests and collating such requests and that the issue of state creation has been relegated until the constitution review exercise is finished.

“We don’t have any reason whatsoever at this stage to eliminate any request or to include any request because we have not started the consideration of any request,” he said.

Mr Eze said all the requests for creation of states are with the senate’s 44-member ad hoc committee on the alteration of the constitution, which would bring out criteria for selection of the states to be created - in accordance with section 9 of the constitution - “when the time comes.”

“All the requests that have been received are with us, we have not drawn up any list, we have not thrown away any request, and we have not taken any request onboard. All of them are intact as they have been made,” he said.

He insisted that the state creation exercise will follow the same pattern with that of the constitution alteration, as outlined in section 8 and 9 of the constitution. He added that it is through such a process that the lawmakers will determine which states would be created, depending on the mood of the public.

Altruistic lawmakers

He also added that the insistence of the lawmakers that the president need not sign an amendment to the constitution before it becomes effective is not an “ego trip,” but a necessary argument that will benefit the constitution in the end.

He also defended the ongoing amendment to the 2010 electoral act, part of which seeks to make the lawmakers members of the National Executive Committees (NEC) of their various parties.

“We are not making laws for ourselves because we are not going to stay in the national assembly forever,” he argued. “We think that if you pull in the representatives of the people into the decision making bodies of the parties, we are making it more democratic; we are bringing in more voices, and views; we are enlarging the political space within the parties and increasing the participation.” He added that the amendment is not strange, considering that only a few parties in Nigeria do not have all their national assembly lawmakers as members of the NEC.