Public affairs commentator and media entrepreneur, Atunyota Akpobome popularly known as Alibaba, says some states created by the military regime should be local government areas.
The ace comedian, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday, some of the 36 states of the Federation were created by the military to appease some commanders who were later deployed to the states as administrators.
Alibaba said subregionals unable to generate enough revenue to sustain their operations but depend solely on monthly allocations from the Federal Government should be local government areas.
At the country’s independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria had three regions — Northern, Western, and Eastern — which would later become four with the creation of the Mid-Western region two years later. But between 1967 to 1996, the military created 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, from what existed. 774 local government areas exist within the 36 states.
Alibaba said, “Some states were created just to appease some military officers. ‘Oh, this guy is a senior military officer, he comes from this area, we can’t give him a state now, let’s just create a state and take care of those people’.
“Or the issue of: We want to create four states in the north, let’s just balance it with some states in the south so that it will look deliberate because some of the states that were created needed to be local governments.
“Up till now, we have states that if they do not get federal allocations for three months, there will be problem in the state. Meanwhile, those same states have enough natural resources.”
The social commentator said Nigeria’s multifarious challenges started when the federal military government asked the regionals and the states to bring all their monies to the national purse and then began to give them whatever they thought they should get through the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
He also faulted the 1999 Constitution bequeathed to the country by the military regime of ex-Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), during the country’s transition from military rule to democratic governance in May 1999.
Alibaba said, “Our constitution is the biggest problem we hve now; it’s an anomaly, it’s not actually a constitution; it’s something that some people drafted, got some lawyers to knock it together because the constitution doesn’t speak to the growth and national development of our country.
“The truth is if you want this country to grow, let each state generate its own revenue. The Federal Government can assist them if they want to but the funds and revenue that comes from certain states should not be shared to every other person.”
