The year 1967, and fifty years later …

Many thanks must go to the governments of Kano, Kwara, Lagos and Rivers states for marking the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of states in the country in 1967. For emerging as the ultimate survivors in the miry game of state creation politics, these states are deservedly in a class of their own. They have transcended the highs and lows, the worst and best of several transitions of the country from military administrations to brief stints of civilian rule, as well as the hiccups associated with dangling between the extreme swings of the pendulum of governance in Nigeria. Hence they need to be lauded for emerging the only states that have retained at least their names all this while as their contemporaries at different times have either been dissolved, broken up into several components and even lost their identities.

By marking their relative longevity, they collectively took Nigerians through a journey in history to that landmark year of 1967, when the ground-breaking restructuring of the country by the administration of General Yakubu Gowon into a twelve state structure, took place. Before then the country was a four region set-up that was contrived largely after the colonial permutations of Britain. Finding it expedient to respond to the growing pressure from pioneer Nigerian nationalists for self rule, Nigeria’s colonial master Britain, deemed it expedient to avail Nigeria some semblance of self government. Hence the colonialist offered the colony the opportunity of picking its own leaders through ethnic based political groupings. Hence the first set of political groupings.

However while this arrangement favoured the British colonialists, it inevitable generated negative fall outs, whose roots were inherent in the political alchemy of colonial Nigeria. For a country that comprised an assemblage of over three hundred ethnic groups of varying population sizes and cultural traditions, with many of them having not heard of each other earlier, the adoption of such a catch-all dispensation created an unjustified pecking order, among the constituent groups, with the three majority groups of Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo dominating the remaining minority groups. Hence arose the persistent clamour for a remediation of sorts that would address the fears of the minorities, in order to ensure peaceful coexistence among all the groups in the country, regardless of size or culture. It was therefore Gowon’s restructuring through the creation of states that actually set the stage for today’s multi-state Nigeria. And that dispensation was on May 27th 1967. Yesterday Saturday May 27th 2017 therefore marked the 50th anniversary of that day.

Incidentally contemporary Nigeria has long re-designated May 27th of every year as the National Childrens’ Day - a development that offers many Nigerians better comfort than any reference to the state creation tragic drama. One governor even politics, given the state of affairs tried to demonstrate his capacity as pertains to the decadence for unparalleled magnanimity playing out in the terrain of states with distribution of caskets to administration. Ordinarily, the the state indigenes. Another justification for creating states would sponsor marriages for his rests on several premises including loyalists while yet another other the following two. Firstly is the would distribute rams to select need to address the fears of the beneficiaries. minorities as earlier mentioned. However, lying beyond the Secondly, is the expectation that idiosyncrasies of errant state creating states to replace the four governors is the other question regions would take government of how far the country has presence and development closer progressed with allaying the to the people. However the fears of the minorities through experiences of Nigerians in these the state creation exercise. This past fifty years with respect to consideration remains critical how far the states have brought given the unending demand governance to the people, have for new states as soon as new left much to be desired. By a ones are created. For in the large measure, many Nigerians past fifty years the country has see the most popular indicator restructured politically. The of the style of administration country has undergone four in any state as not being the state creation exercises excluding proximity of governance to the Gowon’s pioneering effort. people, but the level of misrule Hence the country increased by successive governors; which states from 12 to 19 in 1976 leaves the citizens bereft of the under the administration of late very dividends they are entitled General Murtala Mohamed; 21 to have. In state after state there in 1987 under General Ibrahim are instances of extreme play out Babangida; 30 in 1991 under of impunity by governors, in their the same Babangida and 36 in desire to play god, while their 1996 under late General Sani tenures last. Many state governors Abacha. But for the stringent have turned their states into Constitutional provisions for private theatres of the absurd with creation of more states in Nigeria, them acting as lead actors in the and the apparently indefensible However the experiences of Nigerians in these past fifty years with respect to how far the states have brought governance to the people, have left much to be desired insolvency of most of the existing states, their proliferation would have continued unabated as even the report of the last National Conference under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, recommended the creation of additional 19 states to bring the total number of states in Nigeria to 55.

Contemporary events however point to the fact afterall, the state creation exercise had always had a missing link that must be plugged, if the country must move forward. A typical area of concern is the syndrome of ethnic irredentism whereby virtually all ethnic groups are complaining over one perceived privation or the other. The majority groups of Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo groups who dominate the country’s public life and hence call the shots are complaining. Just as well are the ethnic minorities who are left to grovel at the command of the domineering majority groups also protesting the onslaught of the later. It is this state sponsored inequity in the country’s public life that constitutes the bane of Nigerian politics, and denies the country the full dividends from the serial exercises in state creation.

The ultimate lesson from the 50thanniversary of state creation is that the country needs to go back to the drawing table to revisit the issue of restructuring until a dispensation acceptable by all is achieved. That is the Nigeria of the collective dream of her founding fathers.