Veteran Nigerian comedian and media entrepreneur, Atunyota Akpobome popularly known as Alibaba, has said that some of Nigeria’s 36 states should be local government areas.
The veteran comedian who is also a public affairs commentator stated this when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday.
He said some of the states were created by the military to appease some commanders who were later deployed to the states as administrators.
Alibaba said sub-regional governments who are not able to generate enough revenue to sustain their operations but depend solely on monthly allocations from the Federal Government should be local government areas.
During the country’s independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria had three regions – Northern, Western and Eastern. The number rise to four with the creation of the Mid-Western region two years later.
However, between 1967 to 1996, the military scrapped the regions and created 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. 774 local government areas exist within the 36 states.
Alibaba said, “Some states were created just to appease some military officers. ‘Oh, this guy is a senior military officer, he comes from this area, we can’t give him a state now, let’s just create a state and take care of those people.
“We want to create four states in the north, let’s just balance it with some states in the south so that it will look deliberate because some of the states that were created needed to be local governments.
“Up till now, we have states that if they do not get federal allocations for three months, there will be problems in the state. Meanwhile, those same states have enough natural resources.”
The social commentator said Nigeria’s multifarious challenges started when the federal military government asked the regionals and the states to bring all their monies to the national purse and then began to give them whatever they think they should get through the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
He also faulted the 1999 Constitution bequeathed to the country by the military regime of ex-Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (Rtd), during the country’s transition from military rule to democratic governance in May 1999.