Lionger, we are viewing the same point but from different angles. Its a bit like the chicken and egg question. I am of the view that our structure is fundamental to the progress we will make. We are a country of many Nationalities. I believe, and I stand to be corrected on this one, that the states were created to bring government closer to the people, but most importantly, to suppress any more urge for seccession ala Biafra. Having more states, in my view, has been a very binding factor on us as a Nation, as it is more difficult for say, 6 Ibo states to put heads together and talk about seccession; during Biafra it was only the Eastern region governed by one man. If I am right on this one, then surely having 400 LGs will even be more binding cause then, even amongst the same tribes, every one shall answer his Papa name as they say. I would like to think our problem is more to do with how much power is concentrated in an office rather than the number of offices.
Suleiman,
Yes, perhaps it can be argued that the creation of states have made us more 'unified' - well it is probably more accurate to say as you did initially that it had made secession more difficult, because it is clear that many still want out of Nigeria - but lets humour you on this one. Unification at what cost, however? Has this 'unification' led to an improved standard of living for our people? It should be possible to have the basic social amenities available even in a country that ultimately fails as a political unit. Why is this not the case in Nigeria, where a fraction of the oil revenues would have achieved the said goal?
To be sure, political structure is fundamental to our progress. However, we need to think carefully about this, because it is not all about political setup or even economic policies; among other things, culture and values also count big time. If we go about radically restructuring our government without giving heed to other attenuating factors, we may end up with diminishing returns, as some have discovered.
On this note, lets look at your proposed solution again. While it is questionable that increasing the number of LGAs will 'unify' us more, it should be altogether obvious that it will not improve the socio-economic lot of the people. Why? Because that is precisely what has happened!
Nigeria has grown from 19 states and 300 LGAs in 1979 to 36 states and over 700 LGAs at present.With all the conflagrations that have flared up in that period of time it is difficult to say that we are any more 'unified' now than we were 30-40 years ago - and some of these conflagrations have been over LGA creation/edition. It is even more impossible to say that we have improved in terms of public services, because we clearly haven't. Infact, if anything, we have regressed. And yet in the same period of time, Nigeria has actually gotten richer! Worse, part of the rationale behind state/LGA proliferation as you also identified is the creation of more ethnically homogenous mini-entities, which is supposed to mitigate our apparently disavantageous ethnic heterogeneity. So why then are we still in the gutter? How come 'Papa' still dey 'chop and quench', even when it concerns his kinsman?
The reason why I've zeroed in on our poor code of public ethical behaviour is that I have come to believe that it is deeply ingrained in our culture, and predates contact with the imperial Western powers. So while colonization brought its own share of problems, it alone does not explain our present predicament.(And lets be honest folks, we would be much worse off without colonization, but that's another argument). Other countries like South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil and India were also colonized, but they are not the basket cases that Nigeria is today. Ironically some of these nations were in worse conditions than Nigeria 50 years ago. A common denominator with some of these nations is that they have fought a hard fight against corruption. In Nigeria, we have done NOTHING.