(OPINION): EKITI 2022: Making a case for a new face with new ideas in state governance

On 1st October 1996, in a national broadcast to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, the creation of six additional states to the existing thirty states that constituted Nigeria was announced. Ekiti State was one of these new states.

Agitation for the creation of Ekiti State had been pronounced for many years prior. Indigenes of the area, which was a part of the old Ondo State, argued in different fora that their homogeneity and history of mutual understanding and cooperation would afford them the opportunity to take their destiny in their own hands, determine the course of their future, and expedite their socio-economic development. Hence, there was jubilation upon the announcement of the creation of the state.

However, today, twenty-four years later, despite various programmes to bring to actualisation the state’s enormous potential in terms of economic growth and development, Ekiti State has continually underperformed in all indices of development, with its estimated 2.5 million population, an annual GDP of US$2.9 billion, and a per Capita GDP of about US$1,000.