Governance
Rebalancing power between Abuja and the states — creating states, fiscal federalism, devolved policing, a new constitution — recurs in nearly every era, military and civilian alike. Beyond the creation of states under military rule, structural change has been rare.
On 27 May 1967, days before the war, Gowon split the four regions into twelve states — a move that gave minorities their own units and undercut the Eastern Region's secession base. The twelve-state structure held for the rest of his rule and set the template for all later state creation.
From 2004 to 2006, the federal government withheld statutory allocations owed to Lagos State's local governments over a dispute regarding Lagos's creation of additional local council areas, a move the Supreme Court ultimately ruled unconstitutional in 2004 — though the government continued withholding funds for a period even after the ruling, widely viewed as a politically motivated action against a state governed by the opposition.
The National Conference convened in March 2014 with 492 delegates and produced a report in August 2014 with recommendations on devolution of powers, resource control, and state creation. Jonathan received the report but never formally transmitted its recommendations to the National Assembly for legislative action before leaving office, and the report was effectively shelved.
No devolution bill was ever transmitted by the presidency. The 2015–2019 and 2019–2023 National Assemblies handled restructuring only through backbench constitution-amendment bills, most of which failed. Buhari personally showed little enthusiasm for the agenda, and state police, resource control, and fiscal federalism proposals all stalled under his watch.
Tinubu signed a constitutional amendment in July 2024 enabling states to establish their own police forces — a historic structural shift. However, most states have not yet operationalised their forces as of early 2026. Implementation timelines, funding mechanisms, and oversight frameworks remain unclear.
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