Honourable Speaker and members of Nasarawa State House of Assembly.

I am delighted to address you on this very historic day in the life of our administration, and in the life of our young and promising state on the long awaited desire of the good people of Nasarawa State for the creation of new local government areas.

Ever before Nasarawa State was created out of the old Plateau State, and especially after its creation, it became patently clear and obvious that compared to other parts of the federation, our people were unjustly treated in the various local government creation exercises carried out in this country since 1976. Because the process of local government creation under the military was ruled by fiat and without adequate representation and objective guidelines, it was subject to undue influence.

And because the communities that came to constitute Nasarawa State were not visible in any of the military regimes that created local governments, our people were short-changed. The ultimate result is the present predicament in which our state, which has such a large landmass, is densely populated, and is blessed with a huge economic potential, has about the least representation in the country in terms of local governments.

The creation of new districts which this administration undertook, and the current initiative to create additional local governments are geared towards freeing our communities to pursue their aspirations and to take responsibility for their own future.

This ugly situation has not only denied our people fair representation and access to opportunities, it has denied us development at the grassroots because government has been very remote from the people. This situation has over the years increased our people’s feeling of alienation and disillusionment.

It is therefore not surprising that everywhere I went in the course my campaign for the office of Governor, I was overwhelmed by the avalanche of requests for the creation of new local governments. Since democracy is about the people’s aspirations for justice, for development, and for participation, I promised to meet their aspirations for new local governments if elected into office. This was a covenant between our people and me.

Towards the end of our second year in office the entire members of the executive and legislative arms of government undertook an extensive tour of all the local government areas to appraise our mid-term performance, to hear the people’s views about our work, and to listen to their expectations of us. The tour turned out to be a barometer for measuring the deep-seated aspirations of our people for the creation of new local governments. Our people did not only come out en-masse to welcome us everywhere we went, they seized every opportunity to bombard us with their requests and entreaties for the creation of new local governments. Our entourage was almost held to ransom in most constituencies by pressures and lobbies for the creation of local governments.

It is therefore very clear that our people not only want new local governments, they look forward to both arms of government to fulfil their aspirations. We all stand before the court of history. We must work in close partnership to deliver on this historic project because its impact on the future of our people will be far-reaching and significant. Our political adversaries understand this and have been working round the clock to create unfavourable atmosphere in order to stop us from making this history. Our adversaries have tried to stir sporadic crises at every turn to distract and prevent this administration from undertaking the historic promise to create new local governments. Our adversaries know that given the comprehensive achievements our administration has already made in all sectors, the successful creation of new local governments will win for us an enviable and permanent place in the hearts of our people and in the history of our state. They therefore try to engineer crisis in a futile effort to put history on hold. They shall surely be disappointed because our cause is just and selfless, and our determination to do justice to our people is unshakable. They labour in vain who try to resist the will of God and to stop the wheel of history fro rolling on. It is not by our strength, it is by the will of God. Let us all resolve to do God’s will in fulfilment of the long-standing aspirations of our people for local governments. I urge honourable Members of this House to join hands with the Executive Arm to fulfil this historic promise.

I am happy to state that today I stand before you in fulfilment of that promise. I have come to present to you the requests of the people of Nasarawa State for the creation of new local governments. This presentation is in compliance with the enormous responsibilities the constitution of the Federation places upon the legislative arm of government on this very important subject of the creation of new local governments.

As you may be aware, the historical perspective of local government in Nigeria originated from the Native Authority System adopted from the Northern Emirate system by the British. This system became the fulcrum of the Indirect Rule system which the British later applied to the whole of Nigeria for the purpose of effective colonial local administration. This enabled the British to involve local leaders in the grassroots administration of the country, and became the key factor in the success of British colonial administration of Nigeria that was efficient, cost effective and result oriented.

Since independence in 1960, the system of local administration has undergone several reforms to bring it in line with democratic ethos and to ensure poplar grassroots participation. The most far-reaching of these reforms was the one that followed the 1976 Dasuki Report on Review of Local Government System in Nigeria.

Prior to the Dasuki Reforms, the Area today called Nasarawa State comprised the Following Native Authorities:

The Dasuki Reforms, which were nationwide, gave birth to the following local Governments which were merely renamed from previous Native Authorities:

The Reforms of 1976 also introduced additional and more reliable sources of funding of local governments through a 10% share of Federation Account as well as 10% share of total revenue accruing to states. In addition, local governments were to fix and collect internal taxes on a range of services and assets within their domains.

Because of the factors earlier enumerated and because of the low awareness in our communities, this part of the Old Plateau State did not witness concerted demands for local government creation until 1980 under the civilian administration of Chief Solomon Lar which created additional five local government areas in the area comprising present Nasarawa State. These were Obi from Lafia Local Government; Keana and Doma from Awe Local Government; Akun from Akwanga; Uke from Keffi; and Toto from Nasarawa. All these were later annulled by the Buhari Military Administration until the Babangida and Abacha regimes created additional local governments bringing the total number to 13 local governments in a large state like ours.

Hon. Speaker and members of the House, since the 1976 Reforms, and especially since the advent of the present democratic dispensation in May 1999, the number of local governments became the overriding factor in the allocation of revenue to states. This is contained in Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution which governs the distribution of the Federation’s revenue. Due to our unjustly limited number of Local Governments, the state now has the lowest share of revenue from the federation account. This situation has hampered the development of the state at the grassroots level.

Besides, our state suffers under-representation in federal institutions because of this gross denial in previous local government creation exercises. We thought there would be a deliberate effort by the Federal Government to review the gross injustices associated with creation of local governments in the country in the light of the present democratic dispensation, but unfortunately this is yet to happen.

The only option we have left is to take advantage of the constitutional provision for the creation of new local governments which vests such powers in the state governments. It is in the light of this that our administration in July last year set up a panel to determine the desirability or otherwise of creating more local governments in Nasarawa State.

The panel toured all nooks and crannies of the state, collated, and analysed requests from our various communities for the creation of new local governments. Members of the panel in processing these requests held public sittings with all the communities that made submissions, and undertook a physical inspection of all the areas comprising the propositions for new local government to ensure that they satisfied the basic requirements.

This process involved intimate dialogue with all the communities which have shown unprecedented interest in the exercise as you will see in the submissions which are contained in the report. The setting up of the panel was informed by the need to ease our work and to streamline the entire exercise. I am happy to report that participation by the people was overwhelming as you will see from the Report. It speaks for itself concerning our people’s thirst for more local government areas in the state.

The Panel’s recommendations for additional local governments are contained in the report. These recommendations were the result of strenuous efforts in ensuring objectivity, viability, fairness and justice in this highly sensitive exercise.

After a careful appraisal and consideration of the committee’s report and recommendations, Government proposes to create 17 new Local Government Areas if the outcome of the proposed referendum in the affected areas support this position. They are:

Also, the panel recommended a few boundary adjustments for administrative convenience in Keffi, karu, Obi and Lafia Local Government Areas. Because this issue does not involve the conduct of a referendum, Government shall set up an Administrative machinery to handle the exercise.

We had intended to move faster and expeditiously on the process, but could not do so until now because of the enormous difficulties we inherited on assumption of office, and the various distractions we have had to face. Today I thank God that we are now ready to move forward on the road to new local government creation in Nasarawa State.

Other than correcting injustices in access to opportunities and representation by our various communities, this historic mission which we are about to embark upon has numerous dividends for our young democracy. Several of our communities have for decades been yearning for self-determination and self-actualisation. Autonomy is one of the prime factors for development because it encourages local initiative and a healthy competition between communities. The creation of new districts which this administration undertook, and the current initiative to create additional local governments are geared towards freeing our communities to pursue their aspirations and to take responsibility for their own future. This administration has strong faith in the remarkable capacity for freedom to galvanise development through local initiatives and through increased participation in community development efforts and in governance at the grassroots level.

Democracy will remain a remote idea associated only with the ritual of casting the vote in elections if government remains far removed from the people. In deed one of the key factors that derailed previous attempts at democratic governance in our country was the people’s alienation and detachment from the process. This situation made it easier for the Army to usurp power without resistance. And the situation will remain so unless the people are intimately involved in the process of governance, and consider themselves as the true masters of democratic governments. One way of ensuring that this happens is to bring local governance closer to grassroots communities through the creation of additional local governments.

Besides, the closer government is to the people, the more likely it is to be accountable. The whole process of running transparent and accountable government cannot be divorced from its proximity to the people. Herein lies one of the imperatives of creating additional local governments in our state.

The foregoing salutary factors are largely responsible for the efforts by several states under the present dispensation to create new local governments. In deed some states, including Gombe, Ebonyi and Bayelsa, which were created together with us, have concluded this process and now have new local government areas to facilitate the process of rapid development through greater involvement of communities in governance.

These states have put to rest the notorious notion that only military regimes can create new administrative units in the country. This notion is based on the sad fact that apart from the creation of the defunct Mid-West region in the First Republic, and the creation of a few local government areas in the Second republic which were all annulled by succeeding military regimes, all existing administrative units in the country were the creation of military governments. Yet military regimes are the least qualified to create new administrative units.

Apart from the arbitrariness and other abuses associated with such exercises by military regimes, they lack the legitimacy and the capacity to be fair and meticulous as the process is often neither transparent nor democratic. Yet each time duly elected civilian administrations try to create new administrative units, anti-democratic forces coalesce to frustrate the process. The present democratic dispensation in the country owes this country a duty to break this jinx by meeting the aspirations of our people for new administrative units through the careful and meticulous application of the provisions of the constitution for the creation of such administrative units.

Unless we learn to do things in the constitutional and democratic way, dictatorship and arbitrariness will continue to haunt the nation’s polity. We in Nasarawa Stat are determined to join others in breaking this vicious circle. We will use the constitution to create new local governments through the transparent and participatory processes enshrined in the constitution.

Honourable Speaker and Members of the House, in making this presentation I am intimately aware of the historic responsibility the constitution places upon the State’s Legislature on the subject of the creation of new local governments. The Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria (1999) clearly spells out the procedures and institutions involved in this process in Section 8(3). I am gladdened by the fact that this assignment is a popular activity involving the people as well as we their elected representatives. This process, as all indeed all key processes of democratic governance generally demands teamwork and cooperation among all of us involved in this historic mission. I wish to thank this honourable House for the cooperation and consultations we have had on this subject so far, and I believe strongly this will become even more the case now that the process is in full motion. We look forward to working closely with you throughout this historic exercise.

I want to assure you of our readiness in the Executive Arm to give you full cooperation as we proceed on this process. A lot of sensitisation has already been undertaken by government on the exercise. The public is fully aware and involved. As stated earlier, the panel we set up toured all parts of the state to collate and streamline requests for new local governments.

I solicit your maximum and expeditious cooperation in handling this all important exercise, by coming up with a resolution of this Honourable House to authorise the Executive Arm of Government to organise the conduct of a referendum in the proposed local government Areas by the Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission in compliance with Section 8(3) (a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution.

The need for accelerated cooperation and progress on this process is made more urgent by the fact that all things being equal, the country should be conducting another local government council polls in the first quarter of 2002. Therefore if this exercise is expeditiously carried out within a reasonable period in view of the time factor concerning the next council polls, Nasarawa State should be able to feature new local government councils in these elections just like other states where this exercise has been carried out.

Honourable Speaker and Honourable Members of this distinguished Assembly. I thank you very sincerely for your spirit of cooperation and principled collaboration with the Executive Arm in order to stabilise our new democratic institutions and to deliver services to out people.

The principle of separation of powers contained in the constitution presupposes deeper understanding of our functions which are intricately linked in the overall process of democratic governance and delivery of services.

Separation of powers does not imply working at cross purposes, but working in dignified cooperation with one another to improve governance, to facilitate development and to improve the social condition of the vast majority of the people who are the subject matter and the target of our involvement.

Let us fulfil the aspiration of our people for self-determination, popular participation and development at the very grassroots of our communities.

Permit me Mr. Speaker and Honourable Members of the House, to end this address with a special and sincere appeal to our communities whose requests may not have been granted in this very exercise we have started. We stretched ourselves and went the extra mile to satisfy the most glaring cases, but no matter what we do in an exercise of this nature, it is impossible to answer every request and satisfy everybody. But the creation of administrative units is a continuous one. As our population continues to grow and our socio-economic condition continues to improve, the need will always arise in future to take another look at the map. We should continue to trust in God. Over Twenty years ago we started the struggle for the creation of Nasarawa State. We did not get it several times when others did, but faith and perseverance saw us through until it was God’s time to grant our prayers. Ultimately it is God that gives. Everyone’s time comes when God wills it. To all communities I say keep faith.

May the Almighty Allah guide and direct us all in this very historic mission.

Thank you for your attention, and God bless our efforts.