The Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Philip Agbese, has condemned the criticism against call for creation of more states.
Henzodaily reported that the House Committee on Constitutional Review, during plenary, on Thursday, presented to the House requests for creation of additional 31 states across the country.
In an interview with Arise News on Friday, the lawmaker representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituencies of Benue State said the demand was good for democracy.
Agbese noted that democracy remained for the good of the citizens. He stated that people should be able to have their way in whatever they demand for their own good.
The Deputy Spokesman of the House also condemned the mindset that state creation cannot be achieved under a democratic regime like the military government did.
His words: “My background, well-rooted in the civil society and where I came from before I joined the parliament, it is very easy to criticize some of these issues. And what is the essence of governance? Governance is about the welfare of the people. So if Nigerians have concluded that state creation will lead to governance getting to the last citizen of this country, then it is not about the boys. It should be about the people because democracy is about the people.
“If state creation, if we all mean it as parliamentarians and I have seen the buy-in of parliamentarians, my colleagues, their commitment, their level of patriotism that many of them have exhibited.
“There is something very different about this constitutional amendment that we are embarking on today. At committee levels, I have seen members of the committee speaking for other regions of the country. I am from Benue State. When the issue of state creation was raised in the committee, it will shock you that members of parliament from other parts of the region were the people who were advocating for the creation of state for my people.
“A good example, like I mentioned earlier, is the way that the Deputy Speaker has been able to present the South East agitation, and you saw what happened recently with the creation of the Southeast Development Commission. You don’t come to the central table with a mindset, entitlement mentality. You lobby people. You make your case. You discuss with people. You share your pains, your worries with the people. So people buy into your worries. Why do we need a state? We need to reach a larger number of persons in our community, develop our communities to do better for the people, engage more people.
“So governance or democracy is not a bad voice. And secondly, I do not subscribe to the group of people who believe that what the military did, in a democracy, we cannot do it. It should be that what the military was able to achieve, democracy should be able to better that. We have engineered reforms in INEC, in the banking sector, telecommunications sector, built better infrastructure than in the era of the military.
“Is it not now in a democracy where the people now have the right to speak, to say what they want, that we should be able to amend the constitution and birth to ourselves a better nation?”