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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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