Creation of States in Nigeria and their Financial Viability in Advancing Development

Abstract

With about 372 different linguistic groups in the country, the attainment of the ideal principle of federalism in which power is divided between a federal government and various states governments, with healthy competition as well as financial viability of the federating units has been a chronic problem in Nigeria. Majority of the states in Nigeria are not financially viable. In the United States, the U.S. Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments, and yet other powers to both. This study examined the nature of state creation in Nigeria and their financial viability. This research utilized a historical analysis technique. Information was sourced from previous studies, reports of government agencies and institutions, and other relevant articles. The findings showed that the extreme fiscal centralization has badly affected the country’s balanced federal system. Therefore, the study recommended that, in order to obviate the negative consequences of the over fiscal centralization, arising from the creation of past and future states, high consideration should be given to the adoption of the six geo-political zones to be administrative units because, principally, they were fairly large enough to be solvent and viable.