Nigeria’s House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review on Thursday proposed the creation of 31 new states in the country.

If the proposal scales through, the Nigerian state will be made up of 67 sub-national governments as the country’s current states stand at 36, including the Federal Capital Territory.

The proposal for new states was contained in a letter read during Thursday’s plenary session by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the session in the absence of the Speaker, Mr. Tajudeen Abbas.

The letter read in part, “The committee proposes the creation of 31 new states. As amended, this section outlines specific requirements that must be fulfilled to initiate the process of state creation, which include the following:

“1. New state and boundaries

“An act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new state shall only be passed if it requires support by at least the third majority of members.

“The House of Representatives, the House of Assembly in respect of the area, and the Local Government Council in respect of the area are received by the National Assembly.

“Local government advocates for the creation of additional local government areas are only reminded that Section 8 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, applies to this process.

“Specifically, in accordance with Section 8 (3) of the Constitution, the outcome of the votes of the State Houses of Assembly in the referendum must be forwarded to the National Assembly for fulfillment of state,” the proposal partly reads.

According to the proposal, the new states are Okun, Okura, and Confluence States from Kogi; Benue Ala and Apa States from Benue; FCT State; Amana State from Adamawa; Katagum from Bauchi and Savannah States from Borno and Muri State from Taraba.

Others are New Kaduna and Gujarat from Kaduna State; Tiga and Ari from Kano; and Kainji from Kebbi State; Etiti and Orashi as the 6th state in the South East; Adada from Enugu; and Orlu and Aba from the South East.

Also included are Ogoja from Cross River State, Warri from Delta, Ori and Obolo from Rivers, Torumbe from Ondo, Ibadan from Oyo, Lagoon from Lagos, Ogun, Ijebu from Ogun State, and Oke Ogun/Ijesha from Oyo/Ogun/Osun States.

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja will deliver his ruling on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL’s preliminary objection against a suit filed by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE over oil import licence dispute on March 8, 2025.

Ekwo scheduled the matter after the NNPCL’s lawyer, Ademola Abimbola, SAN, and John Ibrahim, SAN, presented their arguments and adopted their processes for and against the suit.

Recall that the judge had fixed Wednesday(today) for the hearing of the NNPCL’s preliminary objection after the Dangote Refinery’s lawyer told the court that they were yet to file their response to the application.

At the resumed hearing, the NNPCL’s lawyer brought the attention of the court that the case was scheduled for hearing of their objection, and he said they were ready to proceed.

Ibrahim, who said they had filed their counter affidavit in opposition to the objection, said he was ready to move their application too.

Moving the application, Abimbola said their notice of preliminary objection, dated and filed on November 15, 2024, sought an order striking out the suit for lack of jurisdiction or in the alternative, an order striking out the name of the company from the suit.

He said an affidavit and a written address were in support of the application.

The lawyer said upon receipt of the refinery’s counter affidavit, they filed a further affidavit on February 3 in response and a reply on points of law.

He prayed the court to either strike out the suit or the name of the NNPCL from the suit.

Responding, Ibrahim said a five-paragraph counter affidavit, dated January 31, was filed with a written address.

He adopted the processes and urged the court to dismiss the NNPCL’s preliminary objection for being unnecessary.

After listening to the parties, Justice Inyang Ekwo, adjourned the matter to March 18 for ruling.

In a surprise move on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu jerked up the proposed 2025 budget from the N49.7 trillion he earlier presented to the National Assembly to N54.2 trillion.

The President announced an increase in the proposed budget size in separate letters forwarded to the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The letter read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said the increase arose from N1.4 trilliion additional revenues made by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, N1.2 trillion made by the Nigeria Customs Service, and N1.8 trilliion generated by some other Government Owned Agencies.

Akpabio consequently directed the request to the Senate Committee on Appropriation for expeditious consideration, and declared that the 2025 budget would be passed before the end of February.

Corroborating the National Assembly, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu recalled how the President submitted N49 trillion budget to the National Assembly and legislative work commenced.

He explained that the legislative work continued with interactions between the executive and the National Assembly, as well as the economic management team, which continued to interrogate all the figures.

According to Bagudu, “While the process was still going on, the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senate Committee on National Planning and Senate Committee on Finance established that we can generate more revenue by tasking all the institutions to do more and the Federal Inland Revenue Service confirmed the ability to do more than was submitted.

“It was established that the government-owned enterprises can contribute more revenue, as well as the Customs Service.

“So additional revenue amounting to over N4.5 trillion naira was established and this was taken to the President and he guided that this additional revenue should be used to further strengthen the Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry, support the diversification program by putting more money in the solid minerals sector, as well as infrastructure projects.”

Commenting on the adjustment of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, Bagudu stated that even when the budget was submitted, the MTEF was amended.

“The MTEF that was initially approved was for a budget of less than N49 trillion, so it goes together and so the consequential amendment to the MTEF will certainly follow.”