By Dennis Agbo
Justice Nelson Ogbuanya of the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom, Owerri Division, has revealed that among the many 4 proposed states for creation in Nigeria’s Southeast area, Adada stands out as probably the most fascinating and legally formidable.
He described it as a state with robust cultural homogeneity and the oldest unresolved state creation request in Nigeria.
Justice Ogbuanya made this assertion throughout a Visitor Lecture titled “Navigating The Constitutional Conundrum for Creation of Adada State: Interrogating the Prospects, Demystifying the Challenges, and Strategizing the Advocacies.” The lecture was delivered on the 2024 Nsukka Journalists Discussion board (NJF) Conference, Public Lecture, and Award Ceremony held in Nsukka, Enugu State, on Wednesday.
In accordance with Justice Ogbuanya, the agitation for Adada State dates again to 1983 when Hon. Yunusa Kaltungo, a federal lawmaker from Bauchi State, first proposed it within the Nationwide Meeting, citing Nigeria’s imbalance in state creation, notably within the Southeast.
This was adopted the identical 12 months by Senator Isaiah Ani, who represented the Nsukka Senatorial zone within the Second Republic.
He additional defined that the request was submitted to the Mbanefo Panel on State and Native Authorities Creation and Boundary Adjustment in 1996 and gained traction following the 2014 Constitutional Convention, which really helpful the creation of a further state within the Southeast.
“The creation of Adada State was additionally unanimously endorsed throughout the 2005 Nationwide Political Reform Convention held beneath former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration,” Ogbuanya added. He identified that Nsukka, the proposed state capital, is Nigeria’s largest and oldest native authorities, relationship again to the colonial period. It stays the one district of its measurement and historical past that has but to turn into a state capital. The world designated for Adada can be the one former province east of the Niger that has not achieved statehood.
Presently, the Nationwide Meeting is contemplating the proposal beneath the ‘Structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Alteration) Invoice, 2024 (SB. 482)’. The invoice seeks to amend Part 3(1) and the First Schedule, Half 1 of the Structure to facilitate the creation of Adada State, bringing the variety of Southeast states to 6. This is able to allow the Southeast to be on par with different geopolitical zones within the nation.
Justice Ogbuanya emphasised that Adada State has a stronger case than its opponents because of the must appropriate imbalances throughout the Southeast. He defined that the present 5 Southeast states are inconsistently distributed between the Northern Igbo (Ndi Wawa) — comprising Enugu and Ebonyi States — and the Southern Igbo (Ndi Agbenu), which incorporates Abia, Anambra, and Imo States. With the Southern Igbo holding three of the 5 states, a further state must be allotted to the Northern Igbo, the place Adada belongs.
He urged the general public to not be discouraged by the difficult technique of amending the structure for state creation. For instance, he cited the profitable elevation of the Nationwide Industrial Courtroom of Nigeria to the standing of a Superior Courtroom of Report beneath Part 254C of the Structure (as amended), demonstrating that constitutional amendments are achievable in a democratic system.