Governor Fashola, who was represented by the Attorney-General and Justice Commissioner, Mr Ade Ipaye at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and said that more states would increase the amount the nation spends in administrative cost of government.
He said: "Creating more states will further emphasise Nigeria's diversity and fragment the country. The more states we have, the weaker the federation because we would have a central government that is too strong.
"When you fragment the states, a lot of resources would go into administration. You would have governors, commissioners, ministries, all of which positions are currently being run by executives of the states from which these new states would be crafted. "I think we have learnt a lesson from the past that there is no end to state creation.
He continued and said that in one of the new states, a region will start asking for it's own state, and if the nation wants governance closer to the people, it should follow the laws the Nigerian Constitution provides and create new local government.
He also talked about how poor some states were doing financially and that some couldn't even boast of enough internally generated revenue (IGR) to rely upon.
He also took time to talk about Lagos state and its diversity, he said: "Lagos belongs to everybody; it is not a no man's land nor a melting point but a blend of the two. Lagos' diversity has yielded up to 60 per cent of corporate organisation having their head offices here. We have built this key economy together and we cannot afford anything that would upset it,".
Sources: Naij.com news, The Nation
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