A new bill has been introduced in the Senate, proposing the creation of a new state, Tiga, to be carved out of Kano State.
Senator Kawu Sumaila, representing Kano South, sponsored the bill, which had its first reading on Thursday.
The legislation aims to amend the constitution to provide for the establishment of Tiga as a separate state.
While Kano State, one of Nigeria’s most populous states, currently has 44 local government areas, it is unclear how the proposed bill intends to redistribute these LGAs between the existing state and the new one.
This is not the first attempt by a senator to propose the creation of a new state.
In June, Ned Nwoko, senator representing Delta north, said he would sponsor a constitutional bill to create “Anioma”, a new state in the south-east.
The south-east geo-political zone currently has five states.
The senator said the creation of a new state would address the “longstanding imbalance in the geopolitical distribution of states in Nigeria”.
“The South East geopolitical zone currently has five states, unlike its counterparts, except for the North West, which has seven states,” he had said in a social media post at the time.
“This disparity results in an imbalance of representation and resources, with the South East having only 15 lawmakers compared to the 18 lawmakers of other zones in the senate.”
