On Friday last week, many media houses ran screaming headlines that the House of Representatives was “proposing” 31 new states. It raised quite some dust, as many angry commentators questioned the rationale behind such a “proposal”.

In truth, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, read out a formal letter to the Speaker, notifying him of 31 new demands for creation of states received from across the six geopolitical zones. This was in line with routine tradition. Every session of the National Assembly engages in constitution amendments, an opportunity to bring the 1999 Constitution up to date with the current aspirations of Nigerians.

The Deputy President of the Senate is the Chairman of the Constitution Amendment Committee of the Senate, while the Deputy Speaker is his counterpart for the House of Representatives. The National Assembly can only pass a constitution amendment draft when both chambers concur. Nigerians still have to wait to see if the lawmakers will present a formal proposal for the creation of more states.

The demand for more states is a never-ending feature of all constitution amendments. It is part of the overall demands for the restructuring of Nigeria to foster equity and even development. There are also Nigerians who believe that the current state-based Federal structure should be abolished while the regional system is brought back.

Apart from the mistaken notion that the House of Representatives had proposed 31 new states, this issue caused widespread irritation because of the obvious failure of the state system compared to the regional system we had before the Civil War nearly 60 years ago. Under the regional system, Nigeria and its constituent regions were among the fastest developing in the world.

The regions strongly promoted productivity and development. On the other hand, the state system is configured for consumption. Indolent state governors wait for the monthly revenue sharing exercises to go and splurge. The idea of adding 31 new dependant states can only come from politicians who are looking for their own turfs to control. This should be firmly discountenanced.

If at all we are to restructure Nigeria along the existing state system, we must strive to correct the imbalances left behind by the military. At the least, the additional state for the South-East, which was aborted in the 2006 Constitution Amendment exercise, should be done to give the South-East the equity that has been denied them for so long.

That zone cannot be made to pay endlessly for their role in the Civil War. It is akin to nursing a sore rather than seeking to heal it. Nigerians must eschew greed and selfishness. They must strive to achieve a federal structure that works for everybody; a structure that once again moves Nigeria forward.