Former Minority Whip in the 9th Senate, Senator Chukwuma Utazi, has said it was an injustice that only South East has five states among the six geo-political zones.
Naijaonpoint reports that the former Enugu North Senator said every region of the country should have an equal number of states for equity.
In an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, Senator Utazi decried that South East was marginalized in state creation.
According to him, the proposal for 31 new states to be created across Nigeria should not be discarded but be used to address injustice against the South East region.
“You see, we have talked, we discussed this extensively in the past, restructure the country. Create the states, restructure the zones, and according to the geopolitical zones, let them work. But this issue of every month you go with your begging bowl to Abuja to receive is not the way out. It makes some people to be lazy.
“If you do justice to the people that are asking for, that they are using justice against them, like the Southeast, you will tie their hands back and you will tell them to just continue. Only five states, you know, with our population and everything. It’s not fair. This country has to do justice to the Southeast. If me doing justice to the Southeast will make others to get one state or thereabout, let it be done. But let the Southeast feel at home that they are part and parcel of the country,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu Can Do it
The former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain warned that opposition against creating additional states in the South East would be further injustice to the region.
He recalled that the progress of state creation in Nigeria from 3 regions to 4 regions and the current 36 states was done to include all parts of the country.
“We moved from three regions, four regions, three to four regions, to 12 states, to 19, to 27, to where we are. What are you talking? What are you saying?
“I want the parity of the geopolitical zones. Seven in the North West, seven in the North East, seven in the North Central, seven in the South West, seven in the South East, and seven in the South-South. That’s what I want of this.
“Well, if you want to cry, there will always be cry. Check in the Kano and Katsina alone. The local government you have in that area is more than the whole entire South East. So if you want to say they’re crying, people are already.
“You can imagine, you will bring 360 members of the National Assembly. You check the membership of all of us, Kano and the Katsina, take care of the whole in the southeast. And we’re one country. That’s not fair. That is not just. That’s not equitable. That does not give a sense of belonging to a people, that they are part and parcel of the entity, of the society. They find themselves,” he stated.
Senator Utazi further called on President Bola Tinubu to take decisive action like former Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa and Nnamdi Azikiwe did in creating the Midwestern region.
“Let the leadership of the country, under Tinubu… He can do it. The civilian administration, during the Tafawa Balewa and Zik regimes, they created Midwest region. Nobody died. They went through what the Constitution said, the 1963 republican constitution. They went through it. It’s leadership, understanding.
“Why didn’t the North, say, the Midwest region should not be created? They saw it. It’s justice. It’s not just about the enormity of the numbers or the number of people,” he added.