The House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Amendment has rejected all 31 proposals for new state creation, citing their failure to meet constitutional requirements.
The committee received the proposals for 31 new states on February 6, 2025, but Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, announced that none of the requests met the necessary constitutional standards for consideration.
Kalu, who also chairs the House Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, made this announcement on Friday during a two-day retreat in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.
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The retreat, organized by the 10th House of Representatives in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), aimed to evaluate constitutional amendment proposals and determine the next steps in the review process.
“Although we have received 31 requests for state creation, none of these requests met the constitutional requirements for amendment,” Kalu stated.
Despite this setback, the committee has extended the deadline for submissions to March 5, 2025, to allow communities to amend their proposals. Kalu also suggested that further extensions could be considered depending on the outcomes of the retreat.
In addition to state creation, Kalu shared that the House Committee is reviewing 151 constitutional amendment bills designed to tackle governance challenges in Nigeria. “Some of the bills have passed the second reading, while others are still in the first stage,” he noted.
As the review process progresses, communities seeking state creation will need to meet the constitutional requirements for their proposals to be considered.
