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AN ADDRESS DELLIVERED BY THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF EKITI STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY, DR KAYODE FAYEMI AT THE GOVERNORS’ MEETING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGENDA FOR WESTERN NIGERIA AT ADO EKITI ON

FRIDAY 8TH JULY, 2011

PROTOCOLS

I welcome you all to today’s meeting on behalf of the government and good people of the Ekiti State, the Land of Honour. Your Excellencies would recall that in November, 2010, the Governors of Ekiti, Osun and Ondo States met in Akure to discuss the need for a platform of engagement among our respective States and the need for cooperative governance and collaboration. We have deliberately not convened a follow-up meeting because we were waiting for the total liberation and emancipation of Oyo and Ogun States which by the grace of God and the benevolence of the people of those States came to fruition recently; i thereby welcome specially the Governors of Ogun and Oyo States to this meeting. Also, i congratulate the Governor of Lagos State for his victory and subsequent re-election in the just concluded general election.

Today’s meeting is very historic in the annals of the history of Ekiti State because on this day, history will properly record our collective efforts to kick-start the process of building a new momentum for engaging and mobilising our respective States to harness our inherent capacities. It will also enable us to build a consensus on major issues of communal concern and also facilitate a genuine process of political and economic cooperation

 

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for the much needed rapid growth and development of our dear States. I believe honestly that with determination and concerted efforts on our part, we call collectively surpass the 1952 benchmark, enunciate a developmental paradigm and also provide the window of hope for our people that would herald a new dawn for the region.

Cooperative government binds participant States to put in the front burner collective interest and place an obligation on them to cooperate, support each other and avoid destructive competition. This obligation necessitates an efficient intergovernmental system and structure for interaction, cooperation and coordination between States. The motive succinctly put is to allow for joint ventures in the provision of Infrastructure, Power Generation, Commerce, Agriculture and other areas. This would enable States to prosecute projects in areas of mutual benefits and comparative advantages in a cooperative manner as a way of re-inventing the development model of the Old Western Region.

The process of regional desertification reached its zenith in the past eight years when a political party at war with its people took power in questionable circumstances. Though deeply ideological and historically progressive, the region came under the control of ultra conservative elements, and thus began stultifying process of replacing ideology with expediency, the quality of governance declined to the lowest ebb. A region that had been used to setting standard regressed badly into mediocrity.

 

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The region, according to The Nation of Sunday, April 3rd, 2011, has a remarkable history on its side. It did it in 1952-1959, and to some extent in 1979-1982 as LOOBO States. More crucially and overwhelmingly, it even did it before colonialization, with political and economic structures that were breathtaking not only in Africa but were also fairly competitive in the world. We can do it again. If we can all subscribe to a unified regional developmental agenda.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, in the seven States of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo, about 14% of children between the ages of six and eleven are not in school, and of those in primary schools, only 50% even manage to transit to junior secondary schools. The media has been full with the bad news that only 5% of Nigerian Children who sat for the NECO examination made a credit pass in five subjects including English and Mathematics. It is very disheartening to note that the State with the highest percentage score credit pass in any five papers recorded just 13.2%, while the one with the least percentage score recorded just 1.11% of the students registered for the examination. This happened in a Western Region whose main stake in Nigeria used to be her excellence in Education. (Oshun, 2010).

I have gone through this historical excursion to underscore the critical nature of this meeting and to assure our people that help is on the way. We are aware that the expectation is huge, we are also aware that it is going to be a daunting task, but it is not an insurmountable challenge, we are resolved as a people to move beyond our most recent wounds because we do not suffer

 

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a dearth of ideas. It is therefore a notorious fact that having achieved electoral credibility, it is now time to achieve performance credibility through collective efforts, competence and compassion for our people.

Most of the critical issues which confront us today centre on how to organise a liveable society that guarantees a decent life for the greater number of our people and they have been meticulously articulated by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his book The People’s Republic and The Strategy and Tactics of a People’s Republic. Awo posits.

“The man is the alpha and omega, the only dynamic means and the sole end, of all earthly human activities; and that any development plan is a failure which falls short of benefiting every member of society in accordance with deeds or needs as the case may be” (p. 82).

Your Excellencies, today’s meeting represents a watershed in our determination to return the Old Western Region to the path of real growth and pragmatic development. This meeting would rigorously interrogate issues such as the nature and structure of collaboration, the development of a legal framework, mechanism for information sharing and evaluation, enunciate a developmental paradigm for the region, the desirability for a Peer Review Mechanism, the development of a policy guideline on an ongoing basis aimed at strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of integration and also locate the cause of the retrogression in the region, proffer solutions and develop a regional action plan.

 

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In concluding, Your Excellencies, we should remind ourselves that history has placed on our shoulders a very serious burden because we are “heirs to a tradition of hope and tireless expectations –which Awo captured repeatedly as “Ba o ku ise o tan” – Can we then give up? We return then in the end to the endless optimism of that eternal spirit of possibilities made manifest in the person and leadership of Obafemi Awolowo. We cannot be tired of reminding ourselves of this. In the voice-over of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) anthem, Awo’s voice rings through the ages;

“It is a duty we owe, to our dream motherland

To our dear great motherland

To ensure her, and to boost her

In the eyes of the entire world ......”

(Adebanwi, 2010)

Your Excellencies, once again, I welcome you to this epoch making event in the Land of Honour and I wish all of us a successful and fruitful deliberation.

Thank you and God bless you all.

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