Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria continues to stumble under the weight of a federal structure that has become more of a liability than a blessing. With 36 states and 774 local governments, the country spends more on sustaining bureaucracy than on building infrastructure, investing in industry, or ensuring food and energy security. The reality is stark: Nigeria is running a political economy designed to feed politicians, not citizens.
Consider this: Nigeria allocates over 70% of its federal and state revenues to recurrent expenditure, most of which goes to salaries, allowances, and administrative costs. Capital expenditure, which should drive development, barely makes up the balance. In 2024, the federal government budgeted over ₦27.5 trillion, but more than half of that was earmarked for debt servicing and recurrent spending. What does this mean in real terms? It means every year Nigeria borrows to pay salaries while roads, schools, hospitals, and industries rot.
The structure is clearly unsustainable. Compare Nigeria to California, a U.S. state with nearly the same population size and an economy worth over $4.2 trillion, bigger than the entire African continent. Nigeria, despite being about twice California’s size geographically, has a GDP of around $477 billion. While California has one governor and one legislature, Nigeria has 36 governors, 36 state assemblies, 36 bureaucracies, and hundreds of commissioners, aides, and appointees. Add to that 774 local governments with chairmen, councilors, and staff, most of whom duplicate roles and deliver little impact. The cost of running this political machine is astronomical.
Take the old Western Region as an example. In the First Republic, it was one region governed from Ibadan. Today, it has been carved into six states: Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti. Each has its own governor with a convoy of cars, commissioners with ministries, special advisers, security votes, and a bureaucracy consuming billions annually. Multiply this by the entire country and you understand why Nigeria is bleeding resources on governance rather than development.
The tragedy is that ordinary Nigerians see little of the benefits. With over 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty, insecurity ravaging the country, and millions of children out of school, the elite class continues to expand government structures that serve them, not the people. Federal and state allocations, instead of transforming communities, vanish into the black hole of administrative costs and inflated contracts.
If Nigeria wants to survive as a coherent nation, it must rethink its structure. The current model of 36 states and 774 local governments is unviable. Regionalism, whether in the form of six geo-political zones or a smaller number of strong federating units, offers a path to efficiency, reduced costs, and sustainable development. With fewer, stronger regions, the country would spend less on duplicated administrative layers and more on power, roads, railways, agriculture, and industries.
As we mark another Independence Day, the question is simple: what exactly are we celebrating? A bloated structure that has turned public office into the most lucrative enterprise in Nigeria? A federation where leaders borrow to pay themselves while leaving citizens hungry, unemployed, and unsafe? Independence means nothing if it only reproduces dependence on bureaucracy.
Nigeria’s founding fathers envisioned a federation built on productivity, competition, and efficiency. What we have instead is a patchwork of weak states, each dependent on federal allocation and each run like a personal estate. It is time to ask the uncomfortable questions. Should Nigeria continue to sustain this unwieldy structure, or should it restructure back to a system that works? Until that question is answered honestly, every “independence” celebration will remain hollow.
The truth is clear: Nigeria cannot afford 36 states. We are funding duplication, not development. Regional government is not just an idea for debate, it may be the only lifeline left to rescue a nation already living on borrowed time.
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
Chima “Oblong” Nnadi-Oforgu
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
Leave a comment