Issues
Constitution Review: Long Road To State Creation
Precisely a month ago, members of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution were in Rivers State for a two-day Zonal Public Hearing on the proposed alteration to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Committee was led by its South-South Chairman and Senate Deputy Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN). Others include Senator Effiong Bob from Akwa-Ibom, Eme Ufot Ekaette, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri from Bayelsa, Senator Patrick Osakwe from Delta, Senator Ehigie Uzamere from Edo and Senator Lee Maeba from Rivers State.
The hope raised by the two-day hearing is still reverberating as state creation and minority rights dominated most of the presentations made at the forum.
From far away Edo State to Cross River State, various calls were made by stakeholders for more states creation.
And if the agitation sails through, not less than 10 states may be split from the six existing South-South states in the country.
The states include Ogoja in Cross River State, Turobe State to be carved out from Ondo, Edo and Delta States. Oil Rivers to be carved out from Rivers State. In short, only in Rivers State, agitations were made for Ahoada, Ogoni and Minji-Se states.
Agitation for states creation did not start today. Shortly after independence in 1960, the country split from the three regions to four including Middle Belt. By 1967, during Gen. Yakubu Gowon regime, the country was further split into 12 states.
By 1979, during Gen. Murtala Mohammed/Obasanjo regime, the country grew into 19 states. Gen. Babangida increased it to 21 in 1991 and when Gen. Sanni Abacha came in 1995, the number of states went up to 36.
In all, only during Gen. Murtala regime was a deliberate action taken through constitutional procedure to create state.
Experts are of the view that it was a coincidence as at that time because a Constitutional Drafting Committee, led by eminent lawyer, Late F.R.A Williams, (SAN), was already putting together the 1979 constitution for eventual military handover that same year.
Aside from that instance, right from the regime of Gen. Gowon, state creation has always been through military fiat. It was in this light that most political analysts assert that it would be difficult this time to get new states created considering the complex political, economic, social and ethnic intrigues that would come to play in the process.
Since the present constitutional review process was mooted in 2007, agitations for more states creation have resonated in the country. The agitation cuts across the different zones of the country.
In the South-East zone of the country, Governors like Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State has called for the creation of Njaba state. Governor Ohakim bared his mind on the matter last year when he received a delegation of Orlu Council of Elders, led by its chairman, Hon. Justice L.C. Alimor at the Government House, Owerri.
Governor Ohakim, while asserting his support for the creation of the new state said the people of the zone have lost lot of federal attention. He urged the delegation to come up with a strategic design on how to actualise the goal.
The same view was promoted by Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, who observed that the South-East has the least number of states.
He told newsmen at Abakiliki that there was no way to define marginalisation than in the present arrangement which detracts from the contributions of South Easterners to the country’s development.
“My view is that the agitation for an additional state as the beginning of new creation is that it is national neglect that calls for a national resolve. There is no reason why this geo-political zone should have only five states,” Elechi argued.
“Above everything else, we deserve that additional state before we talk of how many more states that should be created all over Nigeria. We handled this issue almost to a definite conclusion in the defunct national political reform conference.”
The Ebonyi State Governor submitted that because of its urgency and importance in building national unity through equity, ‘justice and fair play, state creation could even be taken care of by national consensus rather than the tedious process of constitution amendment.
Adding, “after all, none of the existing states was created through constitutional provisions. So it is a national problem that requires national focus and national commitment.”
In the North, the Movement for the Creation of Savannah State, has renewed its call for the creation of Savannah State out of the present Borno State.
The movement said during its meeting with members of the National Assembly last year resolved that all sons and daughters of Southern Borno shall work to achieve their long desired objectives.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the Publicity Secretary of the group, Inuwa Bwala, commended the vision and efforts of the founding fathers of the movement, and urged all sons and daughters of the zone to remain committed to the course of the area.
Calling for the creation of Torube State, President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Dr. Atuboyedia Obianime, during his presentation said the call for the creation of the state started over 20 years ago.
The new state, which for him was needed for the creation of more political space and homogeneity of Ijaws. It would cover Burutu in Delta, Bomadi, Patani, Warri South and Warri North. In Edo, it would cover Ovia South/North and in Ondo, Ojibo, which are exclusively Ijaw territories.
For Oil Rivers State, Dr. Obianime, would cover 13 local government areas in present Rivers State consisting of 5,000 square kilometers of abundant gas, oil and fish resources.
In order to make it a reality, he noted that the Senate needs to distance itself from extraneous influences that, may come from the federal government, arguing that, state creation should be a way of addressing the age-long marginalisation the people of the Niger Delta have suffered.
Speaking on behalf of the Movement for Minji-Se State, Dr. Charles Numbere, said the stakeholders need to go back to the Willinks Commission of 1958, which declared that the Niger Delta was not sufficiently developed.
Dr. Numbere was of the view that the restiveness in the Niger Delta was as a result of aggrieved minds over the underdevelopment of the area. He urged the federal government to treat the area as a special area.
He proposed four new Ijaw states namely, two from the East of Bayelsa and two from the West of Bayelsa.
The two of the East of Bayelsa include Minji-Se and Abaji-Se Minji-Se, he said should consist of Abua, Bille, Kalabari, Kugbou, Odual and Udekema. While the two West of Bayelsa should be Torube and Benibe.
He further declared, “we have gone to the people and sought their consent, and we have gone to see the Senate President and have submitted our memorandum.”
The idea of state creation according Dr. Numbere goes beyond politics, “we are talking about the future of our children, we have always been cheated in the past. When the North, West and East were created, the South ought to have been created rather, they were sidelined,” he added.
Advocating for the creation of Ogoja State, Prof Itai recalled that the area was formerly referred to as Oil Rivers and Ogoja Province during the colonial era. But since independence, the area has remained dormant because the people have not been given a voice.
Quoting section 8 subsection one of the constitution, Prof Itai remarked that the right of the minority have to be protected considering the fact that almost all the former provinces have now become state headquarters except Ogoja.
For him, what the people of the area have suffered, “is gross oppression, regression of Niger Delta communities.”
In Bayelsa State, according to Mr. Gideon Okei Owei, what the people need goes beyond infrastructural development. He gave knocks to the Land Use Act and harped on the need for more local government areas creation.
“We do not subscribe to the provision of section 41 subsection three”, he said, “we believe that the question of Revenue Allocation as determined by the National Assembly has not been fair”.
Mr. Owei called for fiscal federalism. He maintained that states need to be given freedom to control their resources, create their own Police and also allowed to create local governments based on convenience.
The same view was re-echoed by eminent lawyer and former president of the Nigerian Bar Assocation, Onueze Okocha, who spoke on behalf of Ogbakor Ikwerre Movement.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria stressed that the call for state creation would be based on merit. According to him, states must be homogeneous and economically viable.
OCJ Okocha asserted that local government should be left for states to create, “if Rivers State can manage 50 local government areas let them create, as far as they can maintain it.”
Earlier, Senator Ndoma-Egba has assured stakeholders in the area that the Upper House would collate and study their views in order to produce an equitable and balanced constitution.
He dismissed the view that the public hearing was an effort to kill time as the National Assembly was bent in ensuring that the constitution is reviewed to reduce tension by incorporating the views of all the citizenry.
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
