The Folly of New States

A country does not grow by multiplying boundaries, but by multiplying productivity.

An Opening Note

Across Nigeria today, the calls for new states are rising once again. Ethnic unions, pressure groups, and politicians have dusted off the old anthem of marginalization. But beneath the loud demands lies a familiar illusion — that carving new territories somehow guarantees justice, development, and recognition.

It does not. It never has.

The agitation for more states is not patriotism. It is distraction — a convenient detour from the real and urgent business of governance, productivity, and good leadership.

The Return of an Old Folly

Here we go again — maps on the table, petitions in hand, voices raised in entitlement.

Everyone wants a state of their own. Not to build, but to possess. Not to serve, but to be seen. Our political class loves ceremony more than substance. Every new state begins with fireworks and ends with failure.

For all the fine language about inclusion and development, strip the rhetoric bare and what you find is ambition dressed as grievance. Not service — status.

Not progress — privilege.

Feeding the elite while the country starves.

The Broken States We Already Have

Nigeria already has 36 states. Most survive only by federal oxygen.

Few can pay salaries. Even fewer can build lasting infrastructure. Hospitals gasp, schools crumble, farmers are stranded, and taps run dry — yet convoys grow longer and foreign trips multiply.

If the states we have cannot fix roads, keep schools open, or provide clean water, how will smaller, poorer, weaker ones do better?

A nation that cannot maintain its house should not be busy dividing the rooms.

The Bureaucracy of Hunger

We know this script. It always plays the same:

•Celebration.

•Appointments.

•New ministries.

•New convoys.

•Salary arrears.

•Complaints of neglect.

•Return to agitation.

Nigeria creates governments, not growth. Positions, not prosperity.

Offices, not opportunities.

The result? Bigger bureaucracy, smaller bread.

What we need is not new states — but new thinking.

The Politics of Position, Not Service

Those pushing hardest for new states do so not out of love for community, but hunger for control.

They speak of “bringing government closer to the people.”

What they mean is bringing power closer to themselves.

To them, public office is not service — it is entitlement.

Governance is not duty — it is dining.

Real federalism is not an endless multiplication of offices.

It is making the institutions we already have work with efficiency, fairness, and accountability.

Until competence replaces patronage, until transparency replaces greed, until service replaces self-interest — new states will remain an expensive illusion.

The Real Path to Fairness

Equity is not created by redrawing lines on a map.

It is built through opportunity, justice, and inclusion.

Nigeria’s problem is not geography — it is governance.

We must:

•Strengthen local governments

•Expand economic productivity

•Empower citizens, not politicians

•Reward work, not connections

•Build industries, not more offices

A nation rises not by multiplying flags, but by lifting lives.

Lessons From Our Past

Since independence, every round of state creation has come with music, flags, and hope. Yet today, many of those states cannot feed themselves or sustain their youth.

Look around:

•Idle factories

•Crumbling schools

•Hungry farmers

•Abandoned rural roads

•Young people migrating in despair

The same voices that demanded “freedom” now enjoy comfort, leaving behind communities still waiting for progress that never came.

We must not repeat this cycle of fragmentation without development.

The Courage to Say No

Nation-building is not map-drawing.

It is trust-building.

It is leadership, discipline, and vision.

Nigeria does not need more states to thrive.

Nigeria needs:

•Better governance

•Better economics

•Better priorities

•Better leaders

•Better thinking

What we lack is not territory — but sense, discipline, and sincerity in public life.

Until we embrace these, every new state will simply become another feeding trough for the same hungry elite.

Conclusion

Let us fix what we have before multiplying what we cannot manage.

Let us build capacity, not carve land.

Let us choose governance over geography, and productivity over politics.

A great nation is not created by dividing its land,

but by uniting its people and expanding their possibilities.