Southwest governors and governments of the six states in the region have been urged to collaborate and integrate policies toward sustainable growth and development of the region.
The states in the region are Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti.
The appeal was made by the chairman of Afenifere Renewal Group, Hon Olawale Oshun, during a meeting of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission Focal Representatives hosted by the Lagos State government at Alausa, Ikeja.
The meeting, which focused on development of the South-West, was attended by the director-general, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, Dr Seye Oyeleye, and all the representatives from the six Southwest states.
Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Regional Integration for Sustainable Development in Southwest Nigeria,” Hon Oshun charged the DAWN Commission to engage stakeholders and the public for economic and social transformation in the Southwest.
He said, “All collaborative processes rely on mutual understanding and appreciation of differences. Hence, the governors as heads of their respective states must discount their political differences and continue with their regular consultative zonal meetings and must see themselves as the main agents of change.
“They must integrate policies on security, education, health, and transportation together and look at sustainable development to end hunger, promote employment, and create necessary infrastructure that will support development in the country.”
The director-general, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, Dr Seye Oyeleye, said the commission is trying to foster greater integration in the Southwest, stressing that the region is working collaboratively in the area of agriculture to ensure that the Lagos Rice Mill in Imota has a lot of input from states in the region.
Oyeleye said the South-West Development Commission (SWDC), when fully operational, should focus on game-changing projects like power, transportation and agriculture to trigger development in the region.
“We are now moving into an era where the federal government itself is talking about regional development commissions, and part of the things we are looking forward to when our own South-West Development Commission takes off is the fact that we want to engender regional game-changing projects, and it is better for us now to meet together and agree on what we will be pushing forward,” he said.
In his address, the special adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on DAWN Commission Matters, Hon Ismail Odesanya, expressed the commitment of the Lagos State government and other Southwest states to the commission for the sustainable growth and development of the region.
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