The clamour for an additional state for the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria has been on for some years now.
This clamour is predicated on the obvious fact that the SouthEast remains the only geo-political zone of Nigeria the country which has only five states with fewer number of Local Government areas.
The other geo-political zones namely: South-South, South-West, North-East, North West and North Central, have six states each except North-West with seven states to her advantage.
With only five states,it means the South-East has just 15 Senators, while her contemporaries have 18 each, with the same North-West ahead of others with 21 Senators.
Ditto for statistics on the number of Federal constituencies
This structural imbalance by implication, could also mean lesser amount of money accruing from the centre to the zone considering the number of LGAs, Federal constituencies, Senators, Representatives, Ministers, among others, in the zone.
This is important in view of the enshrined Federal Character arrangement in sharing political offices or appointments at the Federal level.
Besides, the present five states-structure of the South-East of Nigeria tends to portray the zone as the smallest in the country, when in actual fact, the Igbos who are predominant in the zone, are widely believed to be one of, if not the largest in terms of population.
In the light of the foregoing, we welcome the recent move by some Federal legislators from Imo State for the creation of an additional state for the South-East.
As the process is at various stages in country’s National Assembly, NASS, currently, we urge other geo-political zones to see reasons why they have to support the effort.
Since injustice, inequity or marginalization breed agitations (sometimes violent agitations),
the other zones should not abandon this move as it was in the past because it is in the interest of equity,
justice and stability of the nation.
