Fundamental Flaw Of Nigeria Structure

The current structure of Nigeria and the thinking that led to it is fundamentally flawed. The crude thinking was to bring "development" to the grassroots under a feeding bottle formula from the center - Abuja (or Lagos before then). So people (politicians) were complaining that "when money gets to Ibadan it is spent in Ibadan (by Ibadan people) and does not reach Oshogbo". Solution: give them Osun State so that money can go to Oshogbo. When money gets to Enugu it is spent by the Nike people. Solution: give them Ebonyi and Anambra so that development can reach there under the same feeding bottle formula.
We chose to overlook the fact that each state requires administrative structures and that setting up the structure and keeping it working cost money. We overlook the fact that delivering development, even where such is deliverable, requires infrastructures and people to do it and also to maintain the infrastructures. We forget that as we balkanize the component units that make up the federation we not only make the center stronger in relation to the weakened components but also create additional points of failure in the system. We multiply the same band of thieves and unconscionable individuals who are eternal leeches on the system. We create thirty-six funnels which bandits can seal up at the neck and punch holes into at the junction and siphon content. When we are gifted the so called states (which we do not need and indeed aimed at impoverishing us) we would assemble some fake "leaders of thought" and counterfeit "opinion leaders" but more egregiously a band of dummy traditional leaders (looters) to go on courtesy visit and thank those bent on wrecking us. We went to thank Babangida, went to thank Abacha and even constituted groups to go to Jonathan's constitutional conference to demand more states. Haba!

What to do is find the political will to agree that the current defective structure should be reversed into more vibrant administrative/political units that can sustain themselves. We owe this to our children and their own children and the sooner we know this the better. How come our regions were able to sustain themselves and finance the centre but the balkanized new states cannot do same. Salaries are owed in Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti,  Abia and Kogi  states. I am only sure of Lagos State as being up to date and have no information about Ogun State. The same experience cuts across the other states of the federation. Practically all the states are having a hard time meeting their obligations to their workers and are unable to deliver anything in development or social services to their citizens in the true sense of the word. Even if oil bounces back (which will not happen) we are still operating a defective structure. We are living on rent and not on production. We are not currently structured to be productive or to live off our productive engagements. That simply is one reason there is so much corruption and poverty in the land.