The National Conference on Thursday voted
for the creation of 18 more states in the country. The creation of new
states was one of the decisions taken by the delegates at their plenary
while considering the report of the Committee on Political Restructuring
and Forms of Government. Apart from the 18 new states proposed, the
conference said a separate state-yet-to-be named should be carved out of
the South-East to bring the number of the states in the zone to six. In
creating a new state from the South-East geopolitical zone, the
conference said the creation would correct the imbalance of the zone
having the least number of states.
In the existing 36 states arrangement,
each zone has six states with only the North-West having seven states.
The new states proposed by the conference are: Aba, to be carved out of
the present Abia State; Katagum, from Bauchi State; Ijebu, from Ogun
State; Amana, from former Sardauna Province; Apa, from Benue State;
Anioma, from Delta State, Savannah, from Borno State; and Etiti, from
South-East. Others are Njaba/Anim, from Anambra and Imo states; Gurara,
from Kaduna State; Ghari, from Kano State; Adada, New Oyo from Oyo
State; Orachi, from Rivers State; Ogoja, from Cross River State; and
Kainji, from Kebbi and Niger states.
Read more after the cut.............................................
Two other states, one each from the
South-East and South-West zones, are also yet to be named. It was agreed
by the delegates that the 18 new states would be shared among the six
zones in a manner that no zone would have more states than the other.
Though it was also agreed that states were free to have their
constitutions, the request to change the name of Adamawa State to
Gongola State was overwhelmingly rejected by the delegates. The
delegates also voted that the Presidency should rotate among the six
geopolitical zones of the country.
They said the rotation should be between
the northern and southern regions. It was also agreed by the delegates
that in the case of death, impeachment or incapacitation of the
President, the deputy would no longer assume office automatically.
Rather, they said that the Vice President should only act as President
for a period of 90 days within which another election should hold. “In
the absence of the death of the President, the Vice President shall act
as President for a period of 90 days within which an election to the
office of the President shall be held,” the conference said.
The delegates argued that since the
office of the President would be rotated among the six geopolitical
zones, it would be unfair to allow the Vice President to take the turn
of another zone by automatically assuming power. President Goodluck
Jonathan, a southerner from Bayelsa State, had assumed the Presidency in
2010 following the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, a
northerner from Katsina State. The delegates rejected the proposal that
the President should be in office for a single term of six years, and
favoured the present arrangement of two terms of four years each.
It was also agreed that the President and
his deputy should run on a joint ticket, thereby rejecting the
recommendation that the President should pick his deputy among members
of the National Assembly after he must have won. The conference also
supported the bicameral legislature. This implies that there would still
be the Senate and the House of Representatives. It was also agreed that
the office of the governor should rotate among the three senatorial
districts in the state while the office of the chairman of a local
government council should rotate among the components in the local
government areas.
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