State Creation: Adada, Most Viable State in S’East-Fidel Ayogu Posted by The Infra News staff *How to realise Aba, Etiti, Njaba *Ohaozara people reject Etiti A member of the national conference, Ambassador Fidel Ayogu, has asked the Southeast leaders to quickly consider the proposed Adada State as one of the most viable states in the Southeast geo-political zone. Of the 19 states recommended by the confab, four states notably Adada, Aba, Njaba and Etiti are expected to be carved out of the Southeast zone. This is coming as the people of Ohaozara in Ebonyi State have opted to be excluded from the proposed additional state in the Southeast planned to balance the number of states in other zones. Speaking with The Infra News in Abuja, Ayogu, who was a former member of the House of Representatives and former Nigerian Ambassador to Uganda with concurrent accreditation to Rwanda, said Adada meets the constitutional requirement to function as a state. He said the proposed Adada State is the only state amongst the recommended ones in the zone that meets the requirement that there must be elected local council structures, house of assembly and members of the National Assembly, who have also endorsed and passed resolutions backing the move. “The most important thing that one has to understand is that one state has been ceded to the South-East on the basis of parity and equity to ensure that the South east gets six states like some of the other geo-political zones. There are proposals again that every geo-political zone should have three states in addition to what they have. In other words, 19 states are to be created. But there is this one that was ceded to the South-east where all things been equal that it should be created soonest. To me, it should be created as soon as we submit our recommendations to government. “The way I look at it is that they should use the proposed state that meets the constitutional requirements right now to do the creation. For the proposed states from the Southeast, we have Adada, Njaba, Aba and Etiti. Statutorily, if you are applying for state creation, the condition is that all the people applying for that state right from the local governments should be the elected ones. People who came through the process of election and it is only in Enugu and Ebonyi States that we have local government elected officials. So these local government officials in Enugu State are the people supporting the creation of Adada State. “We are talking of elected officials from the councillors to chairmen of councils, members of the state house of assembly and members of the National Assembly. We are also talking about the governor of the state. In Enugu State, the people who are pushing for Adada State have structured elected local government executives. They have members of the state legislature and House of Reps and Senate. They have endorsed the application for the creation of Adada State. The other part of Enugu that is remaining has equally endorsed Adada State. These are the problems that needs to be smoothened in other states. “The people of Ebonyi State are supporting Adada State and they are not saying that they need a state. That means that the only qualified state that could be created anytime is Adada State. If the South east leaders could come together and submit the name Adada, it could be created within months. What is left is for the National Assembly to conduct a referendum because it has met the requirements as contained in section 7 of the constitution. But other states do not have elected ones and that is where the problem lies because it will take time for them to conduct local government elections. If you are talking about Etiti that the five Southeast states cede two local governments each to make up Etiti State. But if you take two local governments from Enugu and Ebonyi that is okay but how about other states that have not conducted local government elections”, he said. He maintained that”beyond elected representatives, it has met other requirements. It has over a million people as the constitution states again. There is more in the constitution than only elected representatives, I am stating the one that gives it the advantage as the most viable. It has seven big local governments now. A part of it has oil deposits, that is, Uzo-Uwani. It has Adarice in terms of agriculture, it has other mineral resources, it has University of Nigeria and many other higher institutions. It has every other thing that a state requires. The land mass is there. But where it has an edge is that it meets the constitutional requirements while others have not because other states have not even agreed on the local governments to cede, some have said they won’t cede, that they are okay”. Ayogu, who is also a member of the Adada State Realisation Committee set up by Governor Sullivan Chime urged proponents of the other states to reach the grassroots and harmornise positions in order to realise the creation of the states. On the proposed Etiti State, the spokesman of the community leaders and Chairman of Ohaozara Local Government Council, Ogbuefi Enekwachi Akpa, who led other leaders from the area to address Journalists in Abuja at the weekend, said the people would not want to be dragged into any other entity where they may become strangers. He explained that while the Ohaozara people appreciate the recommendation of the national conference for the creation of additional state for the South East to be at par with most of the zones, they are against their purported inclusion in the proposed Ekiti state, also christened “Equity state”. According to him, their rejection of the new state was based on the people’s cultural and language heritage which the people would not want to loose Source: Posted by The Infra News staff
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:24:05 +0000
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