IT started as one of the brightest ideas conceivable by man when it was launched in 2013. With its basic objective as spelling out what the six states that constitute the Southwest should do to make them buoyant and self-sustaining with a view to fast-tracking the development of the entire zone, the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) became an instant hit in progressive circles.
So impressed were some egg heads in the North with the agenda that they met with some of the brains behind the DAWN initiative to see how it could be adapted for the development of their region. They were obliged and they silently swung into action. A secretariat to push the agenda for the North was set up and has been working behind the scene.
But in an instance of great irony, the secretariat of the northern version of DAWN today has more than N700 million in the kitty while that of the Southwest in lbadan is limping. Why? Southwest governors now simply perceive it as a burden.
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