State creation and human development in Nigeria

Summary

The study investigated the impact of state creation and human development in Nigeria. The federal structure of Nigeria has been implicated in the failure of governance hence the numerous clamour for political restructuring with its variants of state creation. The continuous agitation for state creation in the Nigerian political system is quite alarming as every ethnic group in an existing component state seeks the creation of their state by their elites. Naturally, state creation is a mechanism to draw government and governance closer to the people for developmental purposes. But this lofty idea has been hijacked by the elites for political gains and patronage thereby accruing the resources of the newly created to service their pockets. To navigate this study, four specific objectives were raised to corroborate the main objective of the study which is to examine the impact of state creation and human development in Nigeria. The specific objectives are as follows: To explore the rationales for state creation in Nigeria, to examine the impact of state creation on the quality of education in Nigeria, to ascertain if state creation has improved health in Nigeria, and finally, to explore how state creation has engendered political participation in Nigeria. Subsequently, four research questions were raised to interrogate the study. The first was what are the rationales for state creation in Nigeria? The Second was what is the impact of state creation on the quality of education in Nigeria? Third, to what extent has state creation improved the quality of health in Nigeria? And finally, how has state creation engendered political participation in Nigeria? Again, four research hypotheses were formulated to test the relationship between the variables in the study.