Chapter III · Power
Since 1966 every serious constitutional review in Nigeria has returned to the same alternative: six semi-autonomous geopolitical zones in place of thirty-six dependent states. This is the record of the proposal — who has recommended it, in which document, and what it would have changed.
The premise
Nigeria's 36 states are a creation of military decrees (1967 · 1976 · 1987 · 1991 · 1996). Of the 36, only six raise enough internal revenue to meet recurrent expenditure without monthly federal allocations from the Federation Account. The other 30 are, in fiscal terms, dependent administrative units. The proposal — repeated across every major constitutional conference since 1966 — is that the federating units should not be the 36 dependent states but the six historically and culturally coherent zones, each of which could plausibly fund its own government, police, judiciary, and basic infrastructure. The comparison reached for most often is post-1949 Germany: sixteen Länder with constitutionally entrenched concurrent powers, own police, own education ministries, and a shared federal centre.
The six zones
The six geopolitical zones, first entrenched by the 1994–95 Abacha Constitutional Conference and now used by every federal agency for planning and quota purposes, would become the constitutional federating units. Population estimates are 2022 NPC projections.
North-West
Sokoto · Kebbi · Zamfara · Katsina · Kano · Jigawa · KadunaCaliphate heartland; phosphate, agriculture, banditry-affected.
≈ 55 m
North-East
Borno · Yobe · Bauchi · Gombe · Adamawa · TarabaKanem-Borno + Adamawa Emirate axis; epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency.
≈ 27 m
North-Central
Plateau · Nasarawa · Benue · Kogi · Kwara · Niger · FCTMiddle Belt: confessionally mixed; food basket; tin and hydropower.
≈ 27 m
South-West
Lagos · Ogun · Oyo · Osun · Ondo · EkitiYoruba culture-area; Lagos megacity; only zone with continuous state-level industrial policy since 1952.
≈ 40 m
South-East
Abia · Anambra · Ebonyi · Enugu · ImoIgbo heartland; the only zone with five states (every other has six or seven).
≈ 22 m
South-South
Akwa Ibom · Bayelsa · Cross River · Delta · Edo · RiversNiger Delta; oil and gas; 13% derivation flowpoint.
≈ 25 m
What would change
Zonal (state) police
End the monopoly of the Nigeria Police Force. Each zone constitutes and funds its own police service under a national standards regulator. Modelled on Germany's Länder police.
Concurrent legislative list
Education, health, prisons, mines, railways, stamp duties, electricity transmission, agriculture, road traffic — all moved from the Exclusive to the Concurrent Legislative List, with zones free to legislate beyond a federal floor.
Derivation at 50%
Returns the 1960–66 First Republic position: revenue from minerals (including oil) accrues 50% to the producing zone, 50% to the federation. Currently 13%.
Independent candidacy
Removes the constitutional requirement that candidates run on a registered party platform — enabling independent gubernatorial and presidential candidates.
Rotational federal presidency by zone
Constitutionally fixed six-zone rotation of the presidency, ending the recurring zoning crisis at every election cycle.
Fiscal floor, not fiscal dependence
The federation guarantees a per-capita minimum to each zone (a constitutional equalisation transfer, as in Germany's Länderfinanzausgleich); above that floor each zone funds its own budget.
The proposals on the record
Nine documented constitutional moments, 1967 to 2024, in which the six-zone counter-federation has been formally recommended. None has been implemented.
Jan 1967
Aburi Accord (Gowon · Ojukwu et al.)
Inter-regional summit, Aburi (Ghana)
First post-independence agreement to convert Nigeria into a loose confederation of four regions with residual federal powers limited to defence, currency and external affairs. Repudiated by Lagos in Decree No. 8 (March 1967); its collapse precipitated the Civil War. Establishes the template every later 'restructuring' proposal returns to.
1994–95
Abacha National Constitutional Conference
NCC report (1995 draft constitution)
Formally entrenched the six geopolitical zones (North-West, North-East, North-Central, South-West, South-East, South-South) as the country's planning units. Recommended rotational presidency by zone and zonal vice-presidents. The zones survived even though the draft constitution did not.
Feb–Jul 2005
Obasanjo National Political Reform Conference
NPRC report
Recommended that the six zones become recognised tiers of government with concurrent legislative powers, devolution of policing, resource control raised to 17%, and a fiscal-federalism formula benchmarked to derivation. Rejected by the National Assembly during the third-term tenure-elongation crisis.
Mar–Aug 2014
Jonathan National Conference
2014 Confab report (632-page final report, 600 resolutions)
The most detailed restructuring blueprint on the record. Affirmed the federal character of the country but recommended that the six zones be treated as the de facto federating units for revenue allocation, policing (state and zonal police), independent candidacy, devolution of mines, prisons, railways and stamp-duties, and a 50:50 derivation transition. 600 resolutions adopted by consensus; not gazetted; not implemented.
Jan 2017
APC True Federalism Committee (Nasir El-Rufai, Chair)
APC report to the National Working Committee
Internal APC report endorsing devolution to the six zones in 24 of 27 areas examined — state police, fiscal federalism, independent candidacy, merger of states, derivation, resource control, ministerial appointments. The committee recommended that the party adopt restructuring as official policy. The report was received and shelved.
Source · APC True Federalism Committee Final Report (2018, publicly released).
2017–present
Atiku Abubakar
Personal manifesto and PDP platform statements
Long-standing public position that Nigeria should devolve to the six zones with concurrent legislative power and 50% derivation. Filed as part of the PDP 2019, 2023 and (likely) 2027 policy platforms.
2017
Olusegun Obasanjo
Public letters and lectures
After leaving office Obasanjo publicly endorsed the 2014 Confab recommendations he had earlier resisted in 2005 — specifically state police and the six-zone fiscal framework. His position is the most consequential elite reversal on restructuring in the Fourth Republic.
2023–2024
The Patriots (Wole Soyinka · Anyaoku · Akinyemi)
The Patriots' national-dialogue communiqué
Convened by Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Professor Wole Soyinka. Reiterated that the 1999 Constitution is not a federal constitution and proposed that a People's Constitution be drafted on the basis of the six zones as the federating units, with a sovereign national conference to ratify it. Submitted to President Tinubu in 2024.
2024
Southern & Middle-Belt Leaders Forum
Joint communiqué
Coordinated statement by Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum and the Middle-Belt Forum endorsing the 2014 Confab report verbatim. The first time the four ethno-regional umbrella bodies have signed a single restructuring document.
The case against
Read alongside
Tier 1 · primary
Courts. Gazettes. National archives.
Tier 2 · corroborating
OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.
Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged
Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.