President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is reportedly backing the creation of a new Ijebu State in Nigeria’s Southwest region.

The proposed state would be carved out of Ogun State, following a long-standing demand by the Ijebu people for recognition as an independent entity, a fresh report has revealed.

Sources revealed that President Tinubu gave his assurances during a meeting with the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, at his Bourdillon residence on January 5.

During the meeting, Oba Adetona said that Ijebu is the only former colonial province in Nigeria that has not been granted statehood, unlike other provinces such as Oyo and Sokoto, which have been divided into multiple states. The monarch argued that the Ijebu people have waited long enough for their own state.

“The president did not hesitate to express his support,” People’s Gazette quoted a source familiar with the meeting as saying.

Oba Adetona had reportedly highlighted the region’s resources and infrastructure, including industrial estates, an international airport under construction, and plans for a deep-sea port, while making case for the state creation.

In December 2024, Oba Adetona, alongside other traditional rulers and leaders from the Ijebu province, held a meeting to discuss logistics for the proposed state. These discussions focused on issues such as the location of the state capital, the creation of local government areas, and the allocation of federal resources.

The monarch expressed confidence in the region’s ability to thrive as an independent state, stating that it is well-positioned for growth and development. “Ijebu province is economically viable and already has all the infrastructural facilities needed to sustain a state,” he had said.

Before that, in November 2024, Senator Gbenga Daniel, representing Ogun East, introduced a bill titled the “Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2024 (Creation of Ijebu State) to the National Assembly. The bill seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow for the creation of the new state.

With bills for the creation of other states in other regions of the country, it passed various legislature stages.

Critics argue that the move for the creation of Ijebu State is ill-timed, given the country’s pressing economic issues, including poverty, inflation, and insecurity.

Some political analysts have speculated that President Tinubu’s alleged support for state creation could be politically motivated, as new states might be more inclined to back him for a second term.

Meanwhile, the presidency has reportedly avoided issuing an official statement on the matter, possibly to prevent sparking controversy among supporters of other state creation initiatives across the country.

The federation account allocation committee (FAAC) says it shared N1.42 trillion among the three tiers of government in December 2024, noting that Nigeria’s gross statutory revenue declined by 32 percent.

The allocation, which was from a gross total of N2.310 trillion, represents an increase of N300 billion compared to the N1.72 trillion distributed in November.

In a statement on Friday, the ministry of finance said the FAAC announced the disbursements at its December meeting in Abuja, chaired by Wale Edun, minister of finance.

The committee said from distributable amount inclusive of gross statutory revenue, value added tax (VAT), electronic money transfer levy (EMTL), and exchange difference (ED), the federal government received N451 billion, the states received N498 billion, local governments got N361 billion, while the oil producing states received N113.477 billion as derivation, (13 percent of mineral revenue).

FAAC added that the sum of N84.7 billion was given for the cost of collection, while N801 billion was allocated for transfers, intervention and refunds.

The communique also said the gross revenue available from the VAT for the month of December 2024, was N649.5 billion as against N628.9 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in an increase of N20.5 billion.

“From that amount, the sum of N25.982 billion was allocated for the cost of collection and the sum of N18.707 billion given for Transfers, Intervention and Refunds,” FAAC said.

“The remaining sum of N649.561 billion was distributed to the three tiers of government, of which the Federal Government got N90.731 billion, the States received N302.436 billion and Local Government Councils got N211.705 billion.”

The committee said gross statutory revenue of N1.22 billion received in December was lower than the N1.82 billion received in the previous month by N6.98 million or 32.9 percent.

“From the stated amount, the sum of N57.498 billion was allocated for the cost of collection and a total sum of N782.468 for Transfers, Intervention and Refunds,” the committee added.

“The remaining balance of N386.124 billion was distributed as follows to the three tiers of government: Federal Government got the sum of N167.690 billion, States received N85.055 billion, the sum of N65.574 billion was allocated to LGCs and N67.806 billion was given to Derivation Revenue (13% Mineral producing States).”

Also, N31.2 billion from EMTL was distributed to the federal government (N4.6 billion), states (N15.6 billio), and local governments (N10.9 billion), while N1.3 billion was allocated for the cost of collection.

In addition, the communique said N402.7 billion from exchange difference was shared with the federal government (N188 billion), states (N95.4 billion), and local governments (N73.5 billion).

The committee said N45.6 billion was given as 13 percent derivation funds.

FAAC said VAT and EMTL increased significantly, while oil and gas royalty, CET levies, excise duty, import duty, petroleum profit tax (PPT) and companies income tax (CIT) decreased considerably.

The Federal Government has announced plans to distribute N75,000 cash transfers to an estimated 70 million ‘poorest of the poor’ Nigerians by 2025.

This was disclosed by Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, during his appearance on The Morning Show on Arise Television on Wednesday.

Prof. Yilwatda revealed that the ministry aims to deploy the program across all 36 states of the federation by the end of January 2025, targeting the registration of up to 18.1 million Nigerian households through the National Identity Number (NIN) system.

“We want to deploy by the end of January across 36 states to ensure we start harvesting the NIN number of up to 18.1 million Nigerian households that we need to capture as fast as possible so that we can make payment for them,” the minister said.

“The target of the president is that we should target 15 million households. And an average household is about 4 to 5. We are discussing here roughly about 70 million households with about N75,000 per person this year,” the minister noted.

The initiative is part of President Bola Tinubu’s directive to address extreme poverty and create a more inclusive social safety net.

Yilwatda noted that each household in the program would have an average of 4 to 5 individuals, translating to a target of roughly 70 million individuals nationwide.

The program will also enhance the digital identities of low-income Nigerians by collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to increase NIN registrations. According to Yilwatda, this will help streamline the process and ensure the most vulnerable populations are included in the database.

“We are doing the data capturing, but for now, the poorest of the poor that we have in our data is only 1.4 million with NIN. We are working with NIMC, deploying resources, and conducting training. NIMC has brought in more devices under a program with the World Bank to assist us in data capturing for those without NIN numbers.”

The Minister detailed ongoing efforts, saying, “We are training in some states like Rivers, Kwara, Abuja, and Nasarawa, among others, and deploying to these states in the first round. By the end of January, we want to deploy across the 36 states to start capturing the NIN numbers of up to 18.1 million households. This will enable us to make payments to them for Conditional Cash Transfers.”

The minister emphasized the importance of leveraging technology to make the cash transfer program efficient, transparent, and accountable. He added that digital registration would reduce errors, improve tracking, and ensure that funds are disbursed to those most in need.

On January 12, 2024, President Bola Tinubu suspended all programs managed by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation due to allegations of misappropriation, including those under the direct cash transfer initiative.

Earlier, on January 8, 2024, President Tinubu had suspended Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, over allegations of funds mismanagement within NSIPA.