Nigeria To Increase Number of States to 42
The Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Constitution Review has approved a proposal to create six new states.
If the committee’s approval is passed into law, the number of states in the country would increase from 36 to 42.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, revealed this while briefing journalists on the key resolutions from the joint committee’s meeting in Lagos.
They disclosed that the joint committee considered a total of 69 bills, 55 requests for state creation, two requests for boundary adjustments, and 278 requests for local government creation during the session.
“During the consideration of the 55 requests for state creation on Saturday, the joint committee unanimously resolved that six additional states be created in the country,” they stated.
The resolution specified: “Creation of one additional state in each of the six geopolitical zones: North West, North East, North Central, South West, South South, and South East.”
If the resolution is approved, the South South and South West zones would each have seven states; the South East would have six; and the North West, North East, and North Central zones would have eight, seven, and seven states, respectively.
