The Senate Committee on Constitution Review has said the current Constitution amendment exercise will not produce new states, given the stringent procedure provided in Section 8 of the Constitution.
Speaking to correspondents on Tuesday ahead of the zonal public hearings which would hold simultaneously on Thursday and Friday in the six geopolitical zones, Chairman of the committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said the process that would see the creation of states was different from the ongoing amendment.
He said, “Nigerians are confusing things and that is why anyone can begin to expect that at the end of this exercise, somebody will come up to announce that states have been created. That is not going to happen because the constitution does not make such provisions.
“So, the issue of state creation is completely different from what we are doing because if you look at Section 8 and Section 9, there are two different issues. So, any group that wants a state can necessarily start the process without meeting any requirement of the committee of the Senate or the House dealing with the issue of constitution amendment.
“It is something that can run its own course without involving the committee. What is going on really is that Nigerians are making their request for the creation of states based on the fact that they believe that these two committees can come up with criteria that will favour them.”
According to Ekweremadu, the National Assembly can provide the leadership in attaining the aspirations of the different groups requesting for state creation by advising on the possible states to be created and where they would be created.
He said, in spite of such advice, the people making the request would still be required to generate their requests and submit to the National Assembly as well as generate resolutions of the requisite authorities, the local councils, the Houses of Assembly and then the National Assembly where a two third vote would be taken by both chambers.
He noted that the process would then proceed to the stage of holding a referendum after which it would go to the Houses of Assembly of all the states in Nigeria. “So even if you are requesting for a State in Sokoto, the House of Assembly in Abia State will also vote for it,” he added.
On the public hearings at the zones, Ekweremadu noted that besides the 56 requests for states, the committee had received a total of 241 memoranda from various groups on the different areas of focus for amendment.
He restated that the areas covered were devolution of powers, state creation, constitutional recognition for the six geopolitical zones, local government system, fiscal federalism, residency and state of origin, and the police system among others.