Seven of this country's 36 states, together with the Federal Capital Territory [FCT], marked the 40th anniversary of their creation on Wednesday last week, February 3. Niger, Bauchi, Gongola [since renamed Adamawa], Benue, Imo, Ondo and Ogun states as well as FCT were created by General Murtala Mohammed in his unforgettable broadcast of February 3, 1976, during which he also announced the relocation of the Federal Capital from Lagos.

Of the seven states, Ogun State made the biggest splash of the 40th anniversary with a program attended by President Muhammadu Buhari that included lectures and the commissioning of several projects. The other states marked the anniversary in a low-key manner consistent with the times. The anniversary came at a time when most state governments are finding it difficult to pay workers' salaries, ex-workers’ pensions and to maintain their basic services to the people, not to mention undertaking capital projects.

The state creation exercise of 1976 was the second one since General Yakubu Gowon created the first set of 12 states out of the four regions in 1967. Even though the first exercise hastened the onset of the civil war, state creation has since turned out to be one of the most popular acts of governance in Nigeria. Agitation for new states has been so recurrent in Nigeria that state creation exercise has been undertaken five times namely in 1967, 1976, 1987, 1991 and 1996. The seven states created in 1976 are barely recognisable today in terms of their territory. In his broadcast of 1976, General Murtala Mohamed went to great lengths to spell out the boundaries of the new states, down to provinces and divisions. Still, many problems remained on the ground with actual boundaries. Boundary disputes led to clashes between communities and local authorities in many places. The Federal Government had to set up a committee under Justice Mamman Nasir that went round the country to address the problem. A permanent National Boundaries Commission was later created.

Of the seven states created in 1976 only Ogun State has remained stable, territorially speaking. Neighbouring Ondo State was split into Ondo and Ekiti states in 1996. Abia State was carved out of Imo State in 1991 and a part of Abia State was incorporated into Ebonyi State in 1996. Benue State lost the old Idah, Ankpa and Dekina Divisions to Kogi State in 1991. Gongola State was split into Adamawa and Taraba States in 1991 while Gombe State was carved out of Bauchi State in 1996. Niger State also underwent territorial change in 1991 to incorporate the old Borgu Division from Kwara State.

Territorial changes apart, how have these states fared since their creation? There is no doubt that all of them have experienced much infrastructural changes over the last 40 years. The respective state capitals of Minna, Bauchi, Yola, Makurdi, Owerri, Abeokuta and Akure have since become much larger towns and cities with the influx of civil servants and businessmen. Many new housing estates were built, together with roads, flyover bridges, secretariat complexes, more schools and hospitals, residential houses as well as varying degrees of commercial and industrial establishments. To that extent, some people will argue that the exercise was justified.

Yet, the root cause of the agitation for separate states since the First Republic was the cry by ethnic and religious minorities of domination by the larger groups. It was this cry, more than anything else that Gowon sought to address with the first state creation exercise of 1967. To that extent the exercise did not succeed because while it immediately placated the group crying of marginalisation, it created new majorities and new minorities in every new state and quickly generated cries for even more states. Since then, we have learnt that cries of marginalisation will not end in Nigeria even if we create 100 states because there will always be a new minority. The groups that once accused some other groups of dominating them in the old regions and states turned around and did much the same thing when they acquired majority status.

Somewhere along the way the justification for state creation changed from cries of domination to claims that a new state will be economically viable. Agitators for every new state claimed that it has a lot of mineral and other resources to fend for itself. But what happened in the end? Even the states that are marking their 40th anniversary today are among the ones that have trouble paying their workers’ salaries. To that extent they have not made an agricultural, commercial and industrial success of themselves.

This is not to say that the states are entirely responsible for the fate that befell them, since the Federal Government has a lot more powers and responsibilities to shape economic policy and fortunes. For example, the Federal Government had a near monopoly of power generation and supply as well as control over currency, tariffs, taxation, banking, security and tertiary education for most of the last 40 years. Under pressure and with evidence of its poor performance it steadily relaxed its grip over some of the areas and allowed other players to come in, which has made a lot of difference in recent decades. Still, the states should not just indulge in buck passing and blame the Federal Government for their woes because in most cases they made themselves utterly dependent on the monthly Federation Account allocations which they collected and squandered. Once these funds started to dry up, they have no fall back positions. All the states created after 1976 should sit up and learn the right lessons so that when their own 40th anniversaries come up, they will not be lamenting and passing bucks like the Seven States of 1976.