CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ANALYSIS BY TUNDE RAHMAN

What are the Constitutional Amendment Issues in State Creation?

By Tunde Rahman


It was human rights activist and lawyer Festus Okoye who raised that thought-provoking issue at a media dialogue on the constitution amendment process last Tuesday in Lagos. Perhaps exasperated by the growing demand for additional states in the country (at the last count 56 requests for new states were submitted to the Senate Constitution Review Committee) and the way and manner the constitution review committees were carrying on as if they could bring about new states just with their votes, Okoye had raised a poser. He asked what I consider to be the big question: “Are there new issues in the constitutional amendment apart from those set out in Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution?” Just what are new constitutional amendment issues?  It was real food for thought. Section 8 sets out the procedures that must be followed by those seeking additional states in their areas.


Okoye wonders whether the National Assembly Constitutional Review Committees have problems with those procedures and want an amendment of such and that’s why they are putting the issue of creation of additional states on the front burner. Both the Senate Constitutional Review Committee headed by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and the counterpart committee in the House of Representatives headed by Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha listed creation of additional states as one of the thematic issues. It was Ekweremadu who disclosed that of the 231 memoranda or so that the Senate Committee received, 56 of them were in respect of additional states.

The provisions of Section 8 are very clear on the procedures to be followed in state creation. Do the committees want to subtract from these procedures or add to them during the extant amendment process? What are the new issues in constitutional amendment? I completely agree with Okoye on his observation. But my take goes thus: the issue of state creation is a constitutional matter as it is also a political issue. Those seeking new states and the National Assembly committees moving to drive constitutional amendment know this very well. But by making their agitation for states loud and strident, the promoters of the new states are merely drawing attention to their demands in the hope that there would be enough national consensus to make this happen. Okoye argues that to create additional states, there has to be sufficient national consensus around the request, otherwise those making such demand are merely chasing shadows. I agree.

The matter of state creation, according to Section 8 of the constitution, must proceed from the majority of the members representing the area demanding the new state in the Senate, House of Representatives, the House of Assembly and local councils in respect of the area before other states of the federation and the National Assembly in Abuja take a decision on the request. So a national consensus on the request is required. I agree but I shudder to think, as I had argued on this page before in a piece entitled “Trust Me, No New State is Underway,” that perhaps the framers of the constitution themselves did not expect new states to be created and that’s why the provision for state creation has been made so cumbersome. Following the present arrangement, I had argued that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a new state to be created. Only the military have created states in Nigeria’s history; the present 36-state structure is a creation of the military because they do so by fiat. No additional state has been created under our civilian dispensation and perhaps no new state would be created, at least not in the nearest future.

In the meantime, however, it would be interesting to hear the perspectives of Ekweremadu and Ihedioha on the big question raised by Okoye to wit – what are the new constitutional issues in state creation?


At the forum, Okoye spoke on the theme, “Reviewing The 1999 Constitution: The Journey So far”. The media dialogue was organised by the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD11) Project of the UNDP in collaboration with the office of Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. Other speakers at the forum included former Chairman Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalist Lanre Arogundade who spoke on the “Assessment of Media Coverage of the Constitutional Amendment Process”.

Former NTA Director-General Dr. Tony Iredia chaired the first session while acting editor of The Guardian Martins Oloja chaired the second session. The media dialogue had the theme “The Role of Editors in The Constitutional Amendment Process”.  It was very instructive, very enlightening.  Such was the importance the editors attached to the dialogue that they turned out in large numbers. Indeed, there is a need to increase such interface with the critical stakeholders going forward in the constitutional amendment process, as such would enrich the exercise.

It is in this light that the move by both the Senate and House constitutional amendment committees to engage with the people in what they call public sessions on issues in the amendment is commendable. The House committee under Ihedioha is expected to hold Peoples’ Public Sessions on the review on Monday November 5, 2012 throughout all 360 federal constituencies of the country at the same time. During the session, the lawmakers will interface with their constituents and get their perspectives on the issues in the amendment. The sessions are coming as a kind of response to the strident calls for a more participatory and transparent review of the constitution, with some people demanding an SNC or national conference. If carried through, this can only enrich the amendment process and engender the emergence of a true people’s constitution. Some commentators have, however, added that at the end of it all the lawmakers should subject the final document to a referendum by the people so that the people can actually own the constitution. This, however, is not a constitutional requirement. Will the National Assembly make it happen? We wait.