The boastful people of southwestern Nigeria, who insist that their region is the most prosperous and the most secure in Nigeria, must now ask themselves, “Quo vadis?” Their pride of place doesn’t seem secure anymore.
The Afenifere sociopolitical association that birthed the Alliance for Democracy political party of the South-West ahead of the return of Nigeria to democratic governance seems to have gone to sleep after losing out to Bola Tinubu whom they sponsored to be governor of Lagos State.
After Afenifere was pushed aside by the political strategy of Tinubu, it was almost annihilated by the Afenifere Renewal Group, made up mainly of young Yoruba elements, who have no patience with its dinosaur approaches to issues.
The most recent fallout of the skirmishes is that of the replacement of the acting Leader Ayo Adebanjo, the “regent” of substantive Leader Reuben Fasonranti, the Asiwaju of the Yoruba, with the hydra-headed Afenifere Elders Caucus, that is not unlike the praesidium of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic.
Afenifere must return to the centre of the Yoruba political establishment and lead the way for the return of the ideals of Obafemi Awolowo in order to realign and refocus the Yoruba to bring back the halcyon days.
But Afenifere will never live up to expectations until it finds an intelligent and long-term solution to its internal crisis that has become a grave embarrassment to the Yoruba whose interests it claims to be protecting.
To get their groove together the Yoruba must urgently hold the feet of their governments to the fire, and ask their governors, legislators, local government chairmen and councillors to implement the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy of Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution without further delay.
Otherwise, their region will sink into the abyss of poverty, insecurity and despondency, and the “Area Boys” menace that the region is currently experiencing may deteriorate into a reign of terror under the control of warlords.
What those boys who terrorise the streets of Lagos are doing will be child’s play if the hosts of hell descend on the South-West in the form of desperate Lords of the Streets. May heaven forfend.
Section 13 of the Constitution provides that “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government and all authorities and persons exercising legislative, executive and judiciary powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of… Chapter (II) of this Constitution.”
Other relevant portions of Chapter II of the Constitution are: Section 16(1a) “(on harnessing)… the resources of the nation and (promotion of) national prosperity; Section 18(1) (to ensure) that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels; and Section 20, “(to) protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air and land, forests and wildlife of Nigeria.”
If South-West governments would only address the issues of education, exploitation of the mineral resources within their borders, and agriculture, the purpose of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria and the dreams of its pioneer Director General, Dipo Famakinwa, would have been fulfilled.
DAWN was established in 2012 to provide a roadmap, foster good governance, midwife regional integration, and advance the growth and economic development of the states within the South-West region.
Famakinwa, born in 1967, studied International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and worked with an insurance firm, before moving on to an aviation company and then on to a branding company.
He later established Famedge Travel & Air Services and Bluehall Advisory Limited, a consultancy firm. When the vision of DAWN came, he ran with it with dedication and sure-footedness. Unfortunately, Famakinwa died in 2017.
Incidentally, it was the “Young Turks” ARG who couldn’t stand the lethargy of the older generation Afenifere, that gave Famakinwa the needed support to set up the non-political and non-governmental DAWN for the benefit of the Yoruba.
Ironically, it is looking as if ARG is unable to regroup and give renewed fire to DAWN which currently appears to always be in the habit of announcing some grandiose projects and then going back to sleep.
There are allegations that the South-West governors treat DAWN like a panhandler that begs for a pittance. If that continues, the DAWN vision for an economically integrated South-West will remain a mere wish.
The begging-bowl template of going to the Federation Allocation Account Committee to collect the monthly dole has disincentivised southwestern political actors from thinking through and finding solutions to their economic problems.
Instead of doing the needful, South-West state actors pander to the whims of political kingmakers, who “create” political protégés who must return to pay homage and deliver political patronage. Politics in Nigeria has become a Russian roulette, a guessing game.
The governors, especially, have woefully failed to proffer appropriate solutions in the manner of Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola, the first and second Premiers of Western Nigeria of the First Republic.
Why, for Pete’s sake, do successive South-West governors fail to reactivate the sundry farm settlements that were established through the vision and zeal of these pioneer leaders of the First Republic?
If nothing else, the South-West would be able to produce the food that their people will eat, and call off the bluff of those who sometimes threaten to withhold their foodstuffs just because the Yoruba want to protect their region against (mostly alien) herders who destroy the crops on their farms and sometimes kill their promising young men.
Now that former President Muhammadu Buhari has liberalised the railway system, why don’t southwestern states go beyond rhetoric and take concrete actions to establish a railway line that will run throughout their region?
The governors should note that it is no longer fashionable to keep accusing the northern political establishment of holding back the hand of political emancipation of the South from the claws of the behemoth Nigerian leviathan.
If President Buhari took a foreign loan to extend the railway line from Kano, in Nigeria, to Maradi, in Niger Republic, his father’s home country, the least that the governors could do is to pool their resources to establish the South-West railway system – which should extend to Benin Republic, by the way.
It is becoming glaring that DAWN may no longer make any impact on the lives of the Yoruba people. DAWN is so much out of the news that it seems like there is hardly anyone who knows the name of its current Director General. It’s that bad.
South-West governors must use the auspices of the South-West Governors’ Forum to rejuvenate the economy of their region, the same way they forged ahead with the Amotekun Corps that Abubakar Malami, Buhari’s Minister of Justice, kept shooting down.
Why must Gani Adams, National Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress, have to beg South-West governors to invite his organisation to assist in combating the recent wave of insecurity, presumably perpetrated by aliens, in the region?
But for the courage and steadfastness of late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, the Amotekun Corps would have been a pipe dream. The Yoruba are earnestly waiting for the governor who will push the DAWN Agenda through, and any South-West governor who is not willing to work on the DAWN Dream should be regarded as an enemy of the Yoruba.
Famakinwa’s death must not eclipse the DAWN Dream; is efforts must not also be in vain.
- X: @lekansote1, lekansote.com
