Ajimobi, Aregbesola Restate Commitment to Regional Integration at Western Post Launch

Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday renewed their calls for a workable regional integration in the South-west to advance the cause that the founding fathers of Yoruba race stood for. Specifically, the governors clamoured for a development agenda that would be in tune with the ones pursued and vigorously implemented by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. According to them, the development of the six states as presently constituted under a geopolitical zone within Nigeria’s context, remains the solution to the present drop in federal allocation to states because of the dwindling price of oil in the global market. They spoke on the theme: ‘Dwindling Oil Revenue: A Case for Regional Integration,’ during the official unveiling of the regional newspaper, Western Post founded by Alhaji Tunde Rahman, a renowned journalist. The launch was well attended by media executives, including those from THISDAY Newspapers. Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Moses Alake Adeyemo, said it was lack of good governance in the past that made people to advocate regional integration. “The six South-west states of Nigeria, which comprises Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo Osun, and Oyo States have firmly expressed their desire to work and act together under a common set of development strategies leveraging common synergies and economies of scale whereby the region and its people will experience enhanced human and social development outcomes across the spheres of existence. “The economic dangers of extreme dependence on a single product are too obvious to need repetition. I usually lay emphasis on present concentration and dependence on oil and its structural imbalance, which need to be rectified in the interest of Nigeria’s future growth and prosperity. “It was the lack of good governance and transformational leadership at the centre that made people to start looking back into regional integration. Succinctly put, the depression of the last leadership at the centre led to agitation of what Bola Tinubu called common sense revolution. “This was a remarkable step taken by homogeneous people of the south-west Nigeria whose focus, dream, common inheritance and development had been thwarted by the giant father called Nigeria,” he sad. Aregbesola who was represented by his Director of Communication and Strategy, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said Osun State was in full support of regional integration since the inception of his administration. “Aregbesola is fully in support of the regional integration from the onset. He has been advocating for the concept of the regional integration so as to make the South-west region unique in Nigeria. “The first thing we need is to understand the comparative advantage of the concept. Each of the state has what they have in common and they need to utilise it. For instance, if you are talking of agriculture in the South- west, you will go to Ondo and if you are talking about education maybe you talk of Ekiti. So, we are going to build on what each state believe in and make it work. That is what we are saying and it will be helpful if the region could adopt this concept,” he emphasised. In his contribution, the former governor of the old Western Region, Brigadier General Oluwole Rotimi, said the South-west states should embrace the concept regardless of their political affiliations.