LET’S leave Abuja, federal powers and other federalism haters this week again and continue with some self-examination of our Western region we have been celebrating as the pacesetter region that sits on a hill that can’t be hidden. We need to use the passage of the South West Development Commission (SWDC) Bill this week to ask questions from leading lights of a region that is supposed to be the light of the black people of the world, Nigeria. Here is the real question, what has the region done with the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission set up since 2012? What disaster has come upon South West in the last 25 years of unbroken democracy that would have triggered an intervention agency, the SWDC that is now equated with the disaster-prone Niger Delta and North East regions? Is there no sense in which we can claim that the only unnatural disaster that has come upon the Yoruba race in the last 25 years is celebration of mediocre and inept leadership in the six states that make up the South West?
I hope no one is carried away by a consistency in National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data that Western Nigeria is still the wealthiest and highest in literacy rate in its indices on poverty and literacy rates in Nigeria. There is also a new mind-blower: ‘sooner than later, Lagos will be third largest economy in Africa, competing with Nigeria and South Africa. Just as we have California in the United States competing as sixth largest economy in the world with $2.4 trillion GDP, which moved slightly above that of France and Brazil since 2015. That is good to hear. But how has this great expectation and rating of Lagos affect the people and critical infrastructure in the state and south-west region? As I was asking for instance, when will Lagos authorities announce to the world that Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) that has been locally rated as one of the best teaching hospitals in Nigeria, is now the best teaching hospital in Nigeria and even West Africa?
We are in the forefront in the advocacy for practice of true federalism within the framework of restructuring. Where are the brand ambassadors of federalism among the governors in Western Nigeria? In the last 25 years what have the Tinubus, the Agagus, Mimikos, the Akeredolus, the Ambodes, the Fasholas, the Amosuns, the Ajimobis, the Fayoses, the Aregbesolas, the Adelekes, the Osobas, the Daniels, the Adafaratis, the Akalas, the Adesinas, etc invested to enhance quality education, healthcare, agriculture and road infrastructure in their states? What have the ministers and other elected representatives from Western Nigeria in Abuja and the state capitals influenced or lobbied for the development of critical infrastructure in south-west region?
In an inside stuff piece titled, ‘Does South West Need Federal Development Commission?’, dated Sunday January 17,2020 here, I had stated why the South West didn’t need any federal development agency to develop the southwest region at this time. That was the time the then Senator Ibikunle Amosun, et al sponsored the South West Development Commission Bill. I had then stated from the opening paragraph of the piece:
‘Let me state from the outset that the specific objective of this article is to engage the power elite in Western Nigeria, the most developed region in Nigeria, on why they do not need a federal Development Commission at this time to develop their region. It is also not to berate the southwest federal legislators who have sponsored the South West Development Commission Bill (2019) now being debated in Abuja. I just would like us to ‘calm down’ and reason together without raising dust over needless debate and bombast on why the Bill should be withdrawn. I would also like to appeal to those who have been promised some limitless opportunities that will come with setting up of a federal Commission – to develop the South West – to hold their breadth for now. Let’s debate the feasibility and risk assessment ‘reports’ on the legislative project.
I just want us to engage one another on why that legislative project is though promising and prominent, it is not significant at this time. I would like to reiterate here that the bill (SWDC) will complicate development agenda for South West when we all need to persuade the ruling powers in Abuja to fulfil their promises on organic federalism. That is the clincher that will work in the long run for the South West…So, let’s migrate from the debate on how their strong institutions have helped them to defend democracy and development agenda in America, their America. It’s a time to borrow some brilliance from Tip O’Neill, the proponent of all ‘politics is local’ saying and face our local politics this week. It is a time to speak again some truths to our local powers, notably to revive and sustain development agenda in Western Nigeria, the pacesetter region, which set the tone for physical, infrastructural development for Nigeria long before independence…
I had then restated to the young ones who didn’t know that the Western Region, Nigeria set up the first television station in Africa – Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) on 31st October 1959. That is what is today known as Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), which was seized by the military in 1977 when it was merged with Benue Plateau Television Corporation and Radio Kaduna Television and others. The same Western Nigeria built and opened the first stadium (in Africa) in Ibadan since 1960. It was originally named Liberty Stadium with a capacity for 25, 000 seats. It is also worth remembering that Western Nigeria had in (1956) opened its ‘foreign mission’ in the United Kingdom before Nigeria’s independence in 1960. The first Western Region’s envoy called “Agent-General” to the U.K was a lawyer of Itsekiri extraction, Chief M.E.R. Okorodudu. The residence the Western Region procured for its first ambassador is still the official residence of Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
In the 2020 piece against the SW Development Commission Bill, I also pointed out that, “there are other firsts” but that was just to build a case against the South West Development Commission Bill that I insisted “the region doesn’t need”.
I had then raised the bar of the argument this way: And here is the epilogue against it: the Western Nigeria, which set the pace recalled above – even before independence should not be competing with war and terror zones that have had interventionist outfits to rebuild their broken walls – Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and North East Development Commission (NEDC). What is more, the NDDC has been fingered as a cesspool of corruption. Even there are snippets already from the NEDC that Nigeria’s public enemy, number one, corruption has found its way into the new northeast development agency, NEDC….’
Amosun and 17 other senators on the SWDC Bill
When Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on behalf of 17 other senators, opened the debate on the Bill in March, 2020 on the floor of the Senate he noted the following:
‘…Mr. President, Distinguished colleagues, it is a great honour and privilege to, on behalf of all the l7 other Senators from the South West geopolitical zone of the country, lead the debate for an Act to establish the South West Development Commission… Mr President, Distinguished colleagues, this Bill was first read on the floor of the Senate in November, 2019. In leading this debate, I would like to crave your indulgence to stress that the issues that necessitated the enactment of this are prevalent in all the other geopolitical zones in the country. What this literarily means is that all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria have more or less similar issues.
Mr President, Distinguished colleagues, in the pre-independence period up into the early post-independence era, Nigeria was made up of three regions: Northern, Eastern and Western Regions. Midwestern Region was later carved out of the Western Region. In the Western Region, the founding fathers had a development ideology, which focused on the empowerment of the people. A policy mix in such core areas as health, education, agriculture, employment, infrastructural development and a functional and efficient public service agenda for the region was in place. The free primary education scheme and the universal health programme were two elements of their governance agenda, which were meant to produce a vibrant human capital as a basis for sustainable growth of the region…’
In deconstructing Amosun’s rationalisation then, I argued that, ‘Amosun appears seminal. But I think all the brains behind this project should note that all the bill should be seen for what it is: a diminution to the stature of the South West region, which should continue to be a reference point in the country…’
As I once noted here, there should be no question that the governments of the states that make up the Western Nigeria should be reference points when it comes to creating structures that should reflect federalism. The SW leaders should be collectively challenging certain provisions (in the constitution and some extant laws) that limit productivity and viability of the states. The region for instance, should have challenged the foundation and hypocrisy of the Land Use Act the federal military governments imposed on the country, which has destroyed the foundation of how to benefit from land ownership in the country.
The current struggle for sustainable national minimum wage too should have been another avenue for the Western Nigeria to challenge the rationality in setting up a federal government committee to determine a minimum wage for the 36 states and 774 local governments that have been unequally yoked, to face the challenges of this nonsensical uniformity. There is no federation in global context that would allow a central government to determine how much all the federating units and all the agencies should pay their workers. Why can’t the richly endowed Lagos State signify intension to pay a minimum wage of N150, 000 through a legislation by the State Assembly? Why can’t the Ondo state government too follow suit by signifying its readiness to pay N100, 000 minimum wage as a member of the littoral (NDDC) states?
Meanwhile, I have consistently challenged the irrational decisions of Ondo and Ogun states in establishing three universities each without paying attention to the implications of such proliferation. In a three-part article in this column in 2016, which gave me the DAME Media Award of Informed Commentary/Columnist of the Year 2017, ‘Why we need better universities, not more’ June 4, 2016 (https://guardian.ng/opinion/why-we-need-better-universities-not-more/), I had asked for a rethink because they are not sustainable.
We need to continue this serial to ask the southwest leaders to account for the future-ready constituency projects they have implemented since 1999 for the pace-setter region, before they begin to bamboozle us with this new white elephant called South West Development Commission.
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.