Rep: why Southwest needs a development commission

By Victor Oluwasegun, Abuja

A member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Commerce, Olufemi Fakeye, has explained why he and other 80 lawmakers sponsored the Southwest Development Commission Bill.

He said the bill, which passed second reading on the floor of the House last week, was necessary to compensate the region for a lot of sacrifices it had made for the federation.

Besides, it will be an economic stimulant, which will fast track development in the region, Fakeye said.

“We have to move the bill because if we go back into the history of the country, especially about the time of independence, Southwest was doing very well on its own. It was ahead of the pack.

“We were the first to start free primary education. We were the first to do many things, like first television station in Africa. The University of Ibadan in Ibadan, which we called the premier university, was established in 1948; Agric research institute was established as far back as 1921. Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) 1961…everything is now federalised.

“Prof. Wole Soyinka started Road Safety in Ibadan in the mid-70s. I recall very           well because they stopped me for speeding. Then came the military intervention in 1966, and the rest, as they say, is history. We like to be associated with positive history,” he said.

The lawmaker said the Southwest has been stampeded to the point where currently all regions are even.

“If you will, what was ahead— a section of the country that was ahead or doing very well on its own, at least, suddenly, must wait for others to catch up.”

Fakeye said that was the so-called unity as espoused by the military, “but almost two generations later, between 1966 and now, we have seen that yes, we have unity in Nigeria in the sense that the country is in a single whole. But what is the health of Nigeria today?

READ ALSO: House of Reps summons BOA over ABP

“What is the economic health of the country today? So for that reason, we figured that we had to take some initiatives to ensure that people pay attention to the plight of the Southwest, and that was the major rationale for sponsoring the bill at least.”

The legislator, who represents Ifedayo/Boluwaduro/Ila Federal Constituency in Osun State, said bringing the bill before the House was not because other regions had brought similar bills.

“Nigeria is together today, thank God, but it has come at a cost to different sections of the country.

“And I dare even say on TV, in the media, that there’s hardly any section of the country that will claim to have lost more than the Southwest in terms of what we had to give up to have Nigeria’s unity.”