Oya o!
Over 80 senators have pulled up to support the Anioma state creation
Good morning, Big Brains. I know this will sound silly to non-Nigerians, but I’ve been so excited because it rained all day yesterday, but my light did not even blink, even when the rain became super heavy. Up femco o!
- Chigor
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Let’s get into today’s edition:
Over 80 senators have pulled up to support the Anioma state creation
Atiku and friends are plotting hard for 2027
The Big Deal
Over 80 senators pulled up to support the Anioma state creation
One thing this year has done well is to show up with big doings that have had us talking nonstop; from the look of things, it’s as if we’re about to witness another main event. Exactly 85 senators in the National Assembly have endorsed the creation of Anioma State from Delta State.
If you’re a regular TBD reader, you’ll remember that we’ve been discussing the constitution review since last year and the proposals for the creation of additional states.
Earlier this year, a list of those states was released to the public, and Anioma was omitted. Despite that, it has remained consistent, been in the news, and gained the most momentum since then. This is mostly due to the efforts of Delta North Senator Ned Nwoko, who has championed the cause.
In May, Nwoko applied more pressure by writing individual letters to Senators asking them to endorse and support the proposal for Anioma State. It was after this letter that Senators began to lend their signatures to support the mission.
News of these endorsements comes two days before the constitution review zonal public hearings scheduled for July 4 and 5, and more Senators are expected to endorse the Anioma State creation before that time.
Why is this a big deal?
This is a big deal for several reasons—the call for an Anioma State has been ongoing since forever, it is a major part of the Southeast’s redress for structural marginalisation, and there are fears that the latest champion of the cause might be politically motivated.
For one, this is not the first time the idea for creating the Anioma state has been floated. It started long ago, but gained momentum in 1980 when a Delta Senator, Nosike Ikpo, championed it.
The nine local governments of Anioma are formally situated in Delta North, but because its people speak Igbo, largely identify as Igbo, and trace their ancestry to the ethnic group, Anioma State has always been pitched as an Igbo/Southeast state.
The Southeast, on the one hand, has always loved the idea of Anioma as its sixth state; many within and outside the region have argued that its status as the only region with five states has automatically conditioned it to receive less federal allocation, unlike those with six (or more) states. This has also been linked to more issues like lesser decision-making power, due to less representation in the National Assembly and infrastructural setbacks.
These reasons have largely motivated the call for the creation of Anioma State, but it has still not happened. It’s looking like it’ll be different this time because Ned Nwoko’s mission has gained support from various quarters, especially with President Tinubu, whose direct promise for Anioma State creation motivated Nwoko’s defection to the APC.
But while the recent endorsements and support for Anioma State seem like great boosters, there’s still a high possibility that it might not happen because the process of state creation is so rigorous and complex that no democratically elected President has been able to pull it off to date—all Nigerian States have been created under military dictatorships.
From getting the support of the two-thirds majority in the National Assembly to a referendum that the state Assembly must carry out, it’s still a long walk from here, but then again, delay is not Delilah, so there’s that, too.
Atiku and friends are plotting hard for 2027
When Atiku heard the “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” quote, he took it personally because while the rest of us are still trying to make sense of 2025, he is well into 2027.
On Tuesday, July 1, former Nigerian Vice President and Presidential candidate Atiku Abubarkar, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, ex-Senate President David Mark, and some other shot callers in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had a coalition meeting in Abuja to discuss strategies for defeating the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2027 elections.
After the meeting, Mark released a communique asking all PDP members (and Nigerians at large) to join the coalition and bring their A-game so they can wrestle power from the ruling party.
“All coalition partners must be united on the issues of national unity, democracy, national security and national economy and the political will to stamp out corruption embedded in our institutions,” the communique read in part.
What’s this about?
Atiku and other opposition figures—Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and EL Rufai—are trying to play an uno reverse card on the APC by forming a coalition to take down the party.
As expected, President Tinubu’s camp is saying the new coalition, named All Democratic Alliance (ADA), will not achieve its mission of unseating the APC, and in extension, the President. This is heavily ironic because the APC itself is a coalition that was primarily formed— though a merger of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)—to end the PDP’s 16-year unchallenged rule during the 2015 elections.
Will Tinubu’s allies be right in the long run, or will the ADA party take them by surprise? We can’t wait to find out. One thing is for sure: having a strong opposition will give Nigerians a fighting chance in determining their future.
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