Nigeria is currently grappling with a severe trifecta of crises: hyperinflation reaching 34 percent, youth unemployment exceeding 33 percent, and widespread banditry that has rendered highways perilous and villages vulnerable. Despite these pressing national emergencies, the National Assembly is engaged in a contentious debate over the creation of up to 31 new states, which would expand Nigeria to 67 entities, and a significant number of new local government areas (LGAs). This proposal has been widely criticized for resurrecting a military-era solution to a democratic-era catastrophe, fundamentally ignoring the fiscal and social implications of multiplying bureaucratic structures.

The economic case against state proliferation is unambiguously dire. Nigeria's existing N80 trillion debt mountain already hinders development, yet adding new states would inflate governance costs by an estimated 86 percent, diverting N6.2 trillion annually from critical sectors like hospitals, schools, and security. Each new state would necessitate parasitic layers of administration, with governors' offices potentially costing N25 billion yearly, assemblies N15 billion, and judicial complexes N10 billion. This scenario unfolds while 29 existing states heavily rely on federal handouts for over 80 percent of their budgets, and oil-rich states like Bayelsa still require bailouts. Proponents have failed to offer a viable revenue model for these new entities, seemingly content to deepen Nigeria’s resource curse, a dependency that historically undermined regional powerhouses like the North's groundnut pyramids and the East's palm oil plantations.

The social devastation resulting from boundary redrawing is equally catastrophic. Historical wounds from past state creations continue to fester, as seen in the 1991 division of Enugu and Kogi, which stranded kinsmen in artificial territories and fueled ongoing land conflicts. Proposals such as Apa State (to be carved from Benue’s blood-soaked farmlands) or Savannah State (in Borno’s Boko Haram heartland) risk detonating further violence in already volatile regions. At a time when Nigeria ranks sixth globally on the Global Terrorism Index, with bandits sacking villages in Zamfara and farmers abandoning fields in 26 states due to kidnappings, diverting police and military resources to boundary demarcation is seen as a profound misprioritization, bordering on complicity in the ongoing insecurity.

Governance failures further expose the debate’s rotten core. While lawmakers pursue new fiefdoms, they actively undermine Local Governments, which are Nigeria's only true grassroots tier. In 35 percent of LGAs, no elections have occurred since 2020, with governors installing puppet administrators who have diverted over N5 trillion in federal allocations between 2020 and 2024. Creating new states would only add another corrupt filter over these crippled LGAs, widening the chasm between power and the people and manufacturing fresh corruption ecosystems through ghost worker slots, inflated contracts, and patronage networks. As BusinessDay reported, proponents are perceived to be seeking “personal empires to milk the treasury” even as 29 states owe workers months of salaries.

Historically, this endeavor is anti-democratic and economically suicidal. The majority of Nigeria's current 36 states were created by military dictators through decrees – from Gowon’s 1967 division to fracture Biafra, to Babangida’s 1987/1991 creations to reward cronies, and Abacha’s 1996 expansion to buy loyalty. Democracy’s constitutional safeguards, including Section 8’s requirement for two-thirds legislative approval, 24 state assembly endorsements, and local referendums, exist precisely to prevent such reckless fragmentation. Yet, despite these safeguards, Northern senators have historically blocked South-East statehood to protect their oil revenue share, revealing the underlying zero-sum extortion driving much of this political theater.

The development myth surrounding state creation is debunked by outcomes: despite multiplying states from four regions to 36, life expectancy stagnates at 55 years, 75 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty, and 12 million children are out of school. Nigerians have made their verdict clear, with 72 percent rejecting new states in 2025 polls. Citizens battling wages devoured by food inflation demand nourishment, not territorial remapping. Youth facing massive unemployment need factories, not redundant bureaucracies. Communities under siege crave police reform, not cartographic committees. Their collective wisdom points to the undeniable truth: governance quality, not territorial quantity, determines survival.

The true escape route from Nigeria's woes demands radical restructuring. Firstly, emancipating local government councils through constitutional amendments guaranteeing direct federal funding, elected councils, and anti-graft audits, potentially deploying N500 billion from proposed state creation budgets to revive grassroots governance. Secondly, collapsing the 36 unviable states into six geopolitical zones with devolved powers over agriculture, security, and infrastructure, thereby reviving the First Republic’s competitive regionalism that spurred economic revolutions. Thirdly, amputating federal bloat by eliminating the N400 billion Senate and merging duplicated ministries, saving an estimated N1.2 trillion yearly, which could fund 40,000 clinics or train 200,000 community police officers.

The House of Representatives Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution is currently considering 46 formal requests for the creation of new states and 117 requests for new local government areas across the 36 states. Additionally, two requests for boundary adjustments and 86 Constitution amendment bills are under consideration. The North Central zone leads with 12 requests for new states, followed by the South West with 8, North West and South-South with 7 each, and North East and South East with 6 each. For new local government areas, the North East has 22 requests, North West 14, North Central 21, South East 24, South West 12, and South-South 24. Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, chairman of the House Committee, has urged Nigerians to participate fully in the constitution review process, though he noted that no state creation requests have yet met the constitutional requirements, with the submission deadline extended to March 5, 2025.

This state creation debate is not merely a distraction; it is active sabotage. The N6.2 trillion required for 31 new patronage pyramids could instead fund universal broadband, mechanize agriculture, or equip every primary school. True progress demands burying the military’s cartographic colonialism and rebuilding governance from the ground up. As mothers deliver babies in candlelit wards and students learn under trees, Nigerians issue a clear mandate to their leaders: fill our plates before redrawing maps, and secure our homes before carving fiefdoms. Only then might this bleeding nation rise.