Former Minister of Transportation Senator Idris Abdullahi, on Friday described the decision to create 31 additional states as far from Nigeria’s priority.
Abdullahi who was a two-time House of Representatives member representing Yalmatu-Deba, represented Gombe Central once in the Senate noted that the decision will not yield result.
The politician who described the 31 additional states as ‘exercise in futility’ made this disclosure in a chat with our correspondent in Gombe.
He said, “I don’t subscribe to state creation. I don’t believe this is a priority for now. Starting the process in the National Assembly, you know it’s dead on arrival but it’s easy to pass a carmel through an eye of a needle than to meet the constitutional requirements of creating any state in Nigeria under the current constitution. For me it’s an exercise in futility.”
Speaking further he noted that assuming he opts for state creation, he stressed that it may not be possible with current political setup, “How can people propose creation of 31 states? Unless they want to create country. Under military set up the military can divide and share everything that comes from Federal Government’s purse with just decree,” he added.
He noted that during his years as a senator, saying “We participated in a number of constitutional amendment. When I was in the National Assembly we tried to avoid that route of state creation, we refused to make it attractive for anybody to approach us with proposal for state creation.”
