State Creation; 31 Request Did Not Meet Constitutional Criteria say Kalu

Oluwakemi Kindness

The House of Representatives Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, says none of the 31 requests it received for state creation met the constitutional requirements.

Chairman of the Committee, Benjamin Kalu, disclosed this on Friday during a two-day retreat for members of the Committee in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.

Kalu who is also the Deputy Speaker of the House, acknowledged the importance of state creation in Nigeria’s governance discourse, noting that while the demands reflect the aspirations of various communities, they fell short of the legal criteria necessary for consideration.

The retreat, which serve as a platform for reviewing pending amendment bills and strategizing on the next steps in the constitutional review process, is organized by the 10th House in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre and supported by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Kalu said the House Committee is currently reviewing 151 constitutional amendment bills, reflecting lawmakers’ collective effort to refine governance in Nigeria.

While some bills have progressed to the second reading, others remain at the first stage, he said.

“Although we have received 31 requests for state creation, none of these requests met the constitutional requirements for amendment.

“Therefore, we have since extended the submission date to 5th of March, 2025. But this retreat could in our resolution extend it further if we find out that there are still challenges that the people we represent in their efforts to make their voices heard.

Kalu decided that a major challenge in the review process is duplication.

To streamline efforts and eliminate redundancy, he said the committee categorized the bills into thematic areas.

The thematic areas are Federal Structure and Power Devolution, Local Government Autonomy, Public Revenue, Fiscal Federation, and Revenue Allocation, Nigerian Police and Security Architecture, Comprehensive Judicial Reforms, Electoral Reforms, Gender Issues and Human Rights as well as state creation.

For the Executive Director of PLAC, Clement Nwankwo, he said they are very delighted to work with and support the Committee.

“We are quite confident that this committee intends to deliver on the mandate that it has set for itself and for us it will be a key and great win to see the amendments to the constitution delivered within the timeframe that this committee has set.

“We’re looking forward to great deliberations. My colleagues who are co-consultants with me on this project have been meeting over several the last couple of months to deliberate and come up with suggestions for this committee to look at,” he said.