Posted by By MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, Abuja on
The lingering controversy over the perceived short-changing of Lagos State in the distribution of federal constituencies may be a thing of the past if a proposal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review various constituencies across the nation receives the blessing of the National Assembly.
The lingering controversy over the perceived short-changing of Lagos State in the distribution of federal constituencies may be a thing of the past if a proposal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review various constituencies across the nation receives the blessing of the National Assembly.
Whereas the former federal capital has the highest population in the country going by the last two national population census exercise, Kano State has far more local governments as well as federal and state constituencies, a situation that has angered the government and people of Lagos State.
But speaking to journalists at the INEC secretariat in Abuja, its national commissioner in charge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Delimitation, Dr. Mohammed Jumare, said INEC had sent a proposal on how to address the imbalance and inequity in the composition of the various constituencies.
'I don't know why Lagos should have fewer members in the House of Representatives than Kano. That's part of the lapses," he said, pointing out that population should be a major factor in determining the number of federal and state constituencies a state should get.
He said the on-going constituency delimitation exercise embarked upon by the commission was aimed at correcting the imbalance, adding, however, that the ultimate decision lies with the National Assembly whatever the proposal INEC comes up with.
The INEC national commissioner lamented a situation where one senatorial zone of a given state have so many local governments while the rest have few, with the result that the biggest senatorial zone could single-handedly produce the governor of the state with little input from the other constituent parts of the state. 'The population to be represented must be as near equal as practically possible.. .so that the zones as much as possible can be equal, " he said.
However, Jumare noted that population is not the sole factor to be considered in the review exercise, pointing out that issues of contiguity, socio-political situation, traditional links, environment and religion are to be factored into the delimitation exercise.
'We don't want to make the same mistake others made in the past, the last one was done by the military without consultation with the people," he said and added that it was for the purpose of getting inputs from the people that INEC had embarked on the on-going consultation.
He assured Nigerians that the process would be transparent, fair and in conformity with equity principle.
For the purpose of the current exercise, he said, the census figures of 2006 which he said had been gazetted for over two years now would be used in determining the constituencies.