Eight pillars of South-West development
A first-time reader may be wondering before having a grasp of what the document he holds is all about. From the boldly written title: Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) and the pictorial regional coat of arm, one is left with no doubt that the authors and promoters of the document actually have their jobs, […]
A first-time reader may be wondering before having a grasp of what the document he holds is all about. From the boldly written title: Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) and the pictorial regional coat of arm, one is left with no doubt that the authors and promoters of the document actually have their jobs, well cut out.
DAWN, as it is simply addressed, is a brainchild of a Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). The document evolved from a concerted effort by ARG and its think-thank unit, the Yoruba Academy. Yoruba Academy itself dwelled largely on some of the contributions from the Yoruba Development Agenda Summit in Ibadan on September 23 2010 and the follow-up retreat held between July 22 and 24, 2011 within the confines of University of Ibadan.
It is noteworthy that DAWN’s pillars of development hold pragmatic prospects as to how to pilot the roadmap to a safe haven. Eight strategic areas have so far been developed in this regard, all of which are marshaled with clear-cut policy imperatives.
The framers of DAWN say the target in this regard is to make the South-West region the record holder of highest annual average rate of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Human Development Index (HDI) in sub-Saharan Africa between 2012 and 2020. To attain the set goal, DAWN notes that effort would be discharged in the area of true federalism, fiscal, macroeconomic and policy environment, financing, power self-sufficiency and agriculture.
Recognising the imperative of getting right the agriculture sub-sect of economic development, DAWN earmarks about 16 pages of its “pillars of development” to discuss it.
The document emphasises the need for state governments within the region to invest more money into the sector, encourage youth participation, subsidise the cost of agricultural implements including the availability of fertilizer and more importantly, re-channel efforts on some of the competitive crops within the region. Of note is the listing of palm kernel, cassava, plantain, yam and cocoa. And considering the enormous wealth, the old western region tapped from the sale of cocoa in the 50s and 60s, the framer of DAWN couldn’t have failed in prioritizing it.
The second pillar of development as noted in the document is the human capital development. Education and health services are the two key areas that catch the fancy of the authors in this respect. For a region that has an enviable record in education advancement, the parlous state of education couldn’t have been less worrisome. And since education is the fulcrum of human development, the brains behind the framing of DAWN call for immediate declaration of state of emergency in the sector. And not only that, the document is advocating that instructional means of communication at primary school level is Yoruba language.
Commerce and industries occupies the third position in the list of development pillars. Here, DAWN is focusing on the need to develop both the manufacturing and small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
The fourth in the list of developmental pillars is infrastructure development. Key areas of attention in this category include transportation (rail, road, water and air), information and communication technology (ICT), housing and urban development as well as power sustainability. The recurrence of power sustainability under this section having been earlier noted as an area of focus under the first developmental pillar (economic development), simply underscores the importance attached to its sustainability.
The fifth identified pillar of development is security, law and enforcement. In an explicit term, DAWN states its mission as it regards security of lives and properties, thus: “ensure a safe and conducive environment for economic, social and political development based on local knowledge and community ownership.” The document doesn’t seem to lose sight of current security challenge, Nigeria as a nation has been contending with and it is on that pedestal it emphasizes the need for community policing and neighbourhood watch. Interesting, the socio-militia group, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) features prominently here. But the new line of thinking in the document is that, OPC “needs to be re-oriented and rebranded through the infusion of more enlightened people into its cadre to raise the quality of membership.”
Culture, tourism, arts and heritage occupies sixth position on the ladder of developmental pillars. Here, attention is being paid to the stipulation of Article 7.1.1 of Nigerian cultural policy, 1988. The argument being put forward is that mobility of people is a major factor in cultural growth and as such there is a need for synergy between culture and tourism for economic growth, education and leisure.
Of more significance in this segment, is the advocacy being championed that states within the region should endeavour to develop tourism attractive centres in their vicinities to the international status attained by Osun Oshogbo festival in Osun state and the black heritage festival in Lagos.
The seventh pillar of development as identified by DAWN is environment, climate change and habitat. The document noted that environment sustainability is one of the major goals of vision “20:20-20” in the southwest region. The document recognizes the threatening impact of coastal erosion and flooding, household solid wastes and the act of deforestation going on within the region’s rain forest. All these are identified as major contributors to the global climate change. To mitigate its effect, DAWN proposes reforestation through the growing of fast-yielding species, awareness campaigns about climate change as well as development of early warning system.
The eight pillar of development is the civil service, governance and institutions. DAWN recognizes the fact that the civil service is the engine of any government and as such the institutions of governance must be elastic enough to accommodate criticism, especially constructive ones.
As it is often said that no piece of artwork can lay claim to 100 percent perception, DAWN and its framers are not in delusion that the document has all the answers to issues concerned in the quest to establish a strong and a viable economic region.
“The framework is by no means the last word on the pathway to regional cooperation and integration. However, it is expected to provide significant inputs into the action plans, programme and methodology that would subsequently drive the southwest Development Agenda,” DAWN states.
But beyond the issue of non exclusivity of ideas, is a more disturbing perception or credibility problem. Not a few are still skeptical about the true agenda of DAWN as it is believed to be a propagation of certain philosophy of some politicians within a political group. The fact that a socio-political entity, ARG championed its compilation ordinarily should have doused such skepticism. But that was not to be. If anything, it has even succeeded in fanning that ember of skepticism. Observers said this might be attributed to two related factors.
The first critical factor being the emergence of ARG itself as a socio-political group. The renewal group as it is known today is indeed a breakaway faction of the main Afenifere group which has for long stood as an umbrella body of Yoruba people. However, division crept into Afenifere immediately its leadership was hijacked by certain vested interests. That division led to the emergence of two parallel ideologies, one that is sympathetic to the cause of People Democratic Party and the other which has a soft-spot for Action Congress of Nigeria. Their inability to resolve those ideological differences led to the breakaway faction, now known as Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG.
During the reign of former PDP governors in the region, the faction led by Chief Ayo Fashoranti and which still retains the name; “Afenifere” was speculated to be cutting patronages from the then governors. Today, little is heard of it. The ARG which used to wear the toga of “a rebel group” now seems to be the “rallying point”. As if to confirm that suspicion that it has the sympathy of ACN, the DAWN’s publication, sponsored by ARG, uses every available space within its pages to reaffirm certain ideological traits often associated with ACN and its governors. Hence, for some of those who still believe in the regional integration philosophy, ARG platform may not necessarily be accommodating to all and sundry.