REMINISCENT of the days of the defunct Western Region and the collaborative efforts of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN)-controlled Lagos, Ondo, Bendel Ogun and Oyo (LOBOO) states in the Second Republic, the governors of the six states in the South-West yesterday aside all differences and met in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State to set the ball rolling on the socio-economic integration of the region.
To this effect, the governors agreed to set up a 21-member Technical Committee to "appraise various issues of development viz; agriculture, infrastructure, health, education among others." Each participating state is to present three members of the panel.
The governors also agreed to explore and collaborate in all critical areas that could revamp the economy of the region and return it to the enviable position it has maintained in the pre-independent era.
At the meeting were Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) and Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), who ruled out the possibility of considering party affiliations in the proposed regional integration.
Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, was represented by his Deputy, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, while Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and his Lagos counterpart, Babatunde Fashola, sent their apologies.
A communiqué read by the host Governor, Fayemi, said the meeting deliberated on the possibility of formulating a regional plan action in the area of politics and socio-economic integration of the zone.
The governors agreed that they would pool resources together as strategy for regional economies of scale for rapid socio-economic development of the participating states.
They said the meeting became imperative in order to fine-tune the legal and political processes that could engender a quick take-off of the integration.
In actualising the proposed integration, they agreed to study the defunct Western Region's development blueprint as well as what was obtainable in other parts of the country, especially the then Northern Nigeria Region.
They posited that since all the constituent states were historically connected and have a common value of making life better more for the people, the integration process would be devoid of partisanship.
Fayemi, while delivering his welcome address, regretted that the "do-or-die politics" that was allegedly imported into the South-West in the last eight years by a certain political party reduced the economic strength of the zone.
His words: "This region came under the control of ultra-conservative elements, and thus began stultifying process of replacing ideology with expediency, and the quality of governance declined to the lowest ebb.
"This region that had been used to setting standard regressed badly into mediocrity."
The governor observed that Education, which was the pride of the region, also nose-dived during the period, as only 13.2 per cent of registered students in the South-West passed public examinations like WAEC and NECO in the recent time.
He said 14 per cent of children between the age six and 11 were not in school and that of "those in primary schools, only 50 per cent manage to make it to the secondary level."
The Guardian