Governors in the South-West geopolitical zone of the country on Wednesday reiterated their commitment to regional integration for an all-round development of the zone.
The states, comprising Osun, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti, spoke through Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, shortly after inaugurating the Dawn Commission at its Cocoa House office, Dugbe, Ibadan.
Ajimobi, who was flanked by Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), said, "We have reiterated our commitment to regional integration premised on social services, commerce, health, agriculture, infrastructural development and security.
"What we have done today is, first of all, the inauguration of the Dawn Commission's office. We are having sub-committees that will go deeper into all the areas of development.
"At the end, our objective is to turn our region to a hub for development in terms of being the first area of call for investors visiting Nigeria."
The Director-General, Dawn Commission, Dipo Famakinwa, said, "What the governors did was just the inauguration of the Dawn Commission. This will midwife the process of ensuring that the regional integration agenda of the South-West states begins to get attraction.
"You will begin to see a lot more activities on the regional integration agenda. The governors have made a formal declaration on the commencement of the process of integration. We will now begin to see development along that line."
Stressing that all the governors in the South-West, including Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, were expected at the meeting, he said, "All the governors in the South-West belong to the Council of the Dawn Commission.
"All the governors were invited but you can't really say why a particular governor was absent. Some of those who came must have made a lot of sacrifices. We expect that Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, will be at the next meeting slated for August.
"I don't want us to look at it as a Yoruba thing, but as a development taking place in the western part of Nigeria, because we need the strength of everybody. The development of our states is not going to be by the Yoruba alone."
The Punch