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  • DAWN boss Famakinwa buried in Lagos

    DAWN boss Famakinwa buried in Lagos

    THE late Director –General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), Mr. Dipo Famakinwa, was buried in Lagos yesterday amidst tears by family members and other sympathisers.

    Famakinwa was buried at the Ikoyi Vaults and Gardens after a funeral service held at the Chapel of Christ the Light Church, Alausa, Ikeja.

    The interment was witnessed by the wife and children of Famakinwa, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, retired AIG Tunji Alapini as well as friends and colleagues of the deceased. Paying tributes to the late DAWN chief, Ajimobi expressed sadness that one of the brightest, dutiful and committed citizens of the South Western part of Nigeria has gone.

    The governor had last week described the death of Famakinwa as a rude shock and a loss too much to bear. “The energetic young man was always prepared to sacrifice his time, expertise and resources to ensure the integration of the South West. “He was a rallying point for all the stakeholders in the south west developmental agenda. “He has left us when his wealth of experience is still much treasured,’’ the governor said. Famakinwa died in a Lagos hospital on April 21 following a brief illness.

  • Death at DAWN: Famakinwa died remaking the Southwest

    Death at DAWN: Famakinwa died remaking the Southwest

    ‘He was an extreme workaholic. He didn’t see problems. If you go to him and say there is a problem, he would listen to you and, after a few minutes, Dipo would bring out the
    possibilities in the problem. He did not take ‘No’ for an answer. He would always find a way out. You will literally drag Dipo away from his table at the closing hour’

    There was a loud cry at the Cocoa House headquarters of the Southwest development agency, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission on Friday April 21. It was the announcement of the death of its Director-General and chief executor of the vision, Mr Dipo Famakinwa.

    The news immediately threw the development house into mourning for many reasons.

    One, Famakinwa set up the agency and recruited every member of staff. Two, he directed the activities of the technical work group that developed the DAWN Strategy Document, and on the back of that, led and coordinated the processes that culminated in the setting up of the Commission. Three, Famakinwa left a thriving business to lead DAWN, just as he pulled his Deputy, Mr Seye Oyeleye, from a very gainful employment and shining career to join him for a rather less paid job and selfless service at the commission.

    Four, Famakinwa worked against all odds to bring the six Southwest states together to pursue development agenda through the platform of the DAWN Commission. Five, Famakinwa offered an uncommon leadership to his team and members of staff to the level that they all embraced and unconsciously developed similar passion for the regional development vision. Six, Famakinwa was excessively passionate about remaking the Southwest. He was an icon of hope to every Yoruba that was getting despair about the receding Nigeria.

    As Oyeleye recalled, the late D-G would sometimes bring out the portraits of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Samuel Akintola, looked at them intently and declared: “But these people did not have two heads, Seye. They had only one head like ours. Then, nothing should stop us from achieving or even doing better than they.

    “We can recreate the past. We can recreate the old Western Region where everything was first- first skyscraper and first television station, among other things. We can go back to that era without scrapping states.”

    It was not only the DAWN family that was thrown into mourning. The house of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), the socio-political organisation of exceptional technocrats and other Yoruba eggheads that envisioned the DAWN Commission was also thrown into mourning.

    The Yoruba Academy, the organisation Famakinwa led before moving over to the DAWN Commission was deep in mourning. So were the six governors of the Southwest states of Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ondo.

    Civil servants in the various state ministries who have been working with Famakinwa on various DAWN intervention programmes were shocked. Politicians, academics, youths who have had one thing or the other to do with DAWN were all shocked. Indeed, the house of Oduduwa is mourning the demise of a young man who spent the last eight years preaching development and breaking barriers against southwest regional development.

    Famakinwa, 49, was an entrepreneur and development technocrat.

    As D-G, he provided strategic insight and leadership towards delivering on the vision and mission of the southwest development agenda.

    While serving as D-G, Famakinwa led his team to achieve a lot in integrating the Southwest states for development.

    He succeeded in establishing the Southwest Governors’ Forum which made the six governors to work together as development partners of the region. Though the move suffered a setback after the initial inauguration of the commission in July, 2013, Famakinwa’s DAWN succeeded in making the governors overcome party differences to come together on the same table in reviving the idea in November last year. They met at the Oyo State Governor’s Office, Ibadan.

    The second one was held in February in Ekiti Government House while the third quarterly meeting was to be hosted by Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on April 24. It was cancelled at the last minute to honour the deceased.

    Famakinwa’s DAWN worked on creating regional collaborative solutions through different programmes, including Heads of Service Strategy Briefing on the DAWN Development Index, Regional Workshop on Security, Law and Order in the Southwest and the Pre-inaugural Meeting of the Regional Technical Team on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability in the Southwest.

    It also developed strategic roadmaps with its OneBloc Document, a framework for organising Southwest Nigeria for global competitiveness. DAWN developed Homeland Strategy Document – a high-level attention document for Yoruba Homeland Affairs.

    It hosted a Strategy Retreat on the Southwest Creative Economy which was sponsored by the Oyo State Government. It also made preparation for the presentation of the Southwest Creative Economy Strategy Document in the final stages.

    Famakinwa’s DAWN also worked on Social and Human Development Strategy in the Southwest, developed the Southwest Nigeria Sports Development Strategic Plan of Action and also organised a strategy retreat on S o u t h w e s t E c o n o m i c Competitiveness Strategy which was sponsored by the Lagos State Government.

    The commission also developed an Integrated Commercial Agriculture Development Programme for Southwest Nigeria.

    DAWN also organised the Southwest Governance Innovation Conference, held a roundtable on Education Development and Advancement in the Southwest which was hosted by Osun State Government on June 20, last year.

    Since last year, Famakinwa’s DAWN held Stakeholders’ Workshop on Urbanisation and Economic Corridors as catalyst for economic development (Northern and Southern Nigeria) held in June, last year at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja and Eko Hotel, Lagos State which was co-hosted with the World Bank.

    It also held Optimisation Dialogue on Solid Minerals Development and Exploration in Southwest Nigeria as well as Optimisation Dialogue on Digital and ICT Sector in Southwest Nigeria.

    It is currently working on a project in partnership with the World Bank on Enhancing the Economic Performance of the Lagos–Ibadan Corridor and another in partnership with the DFID with the title: “New Vision for Agriculture: Building a Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Southwest Nigeria.

    Recalling how Famakinwa made every member of staff buy into the DAWN vision, Mr Oyeleye said: “He would say there is no looking back. We have put our hands in this plough and there is no looking back. Apart from being young and having the energy to drive the vision, he believed in it and had the passion for remaking the West.”

    Describing the experience of working with the deceased, he said: “He was an extreme workaholic. He didn’t see problems. If you go to him and say there is a problem, he would listen to you and, after a few minutes, Dipo would bring out the possibilities in the problem. He did not take ‘No’ for an answer. He would always find a way out. You will literally drag Dipo away from his table at the closing hour.

    “There is no money here. The work here is an intellectual work. If Dipo was looking for money, he would not have been here. He always came up with ideas. And he always worked out ideas with me.

    “There were times we had challenges. But because of the way he related with members of the team, they so much believed in him. He was not a typical boss.

    “Trying to bring six governors to believe in this dream was a very tough task.”

    The big shoes left by Famakinwa can only be worn by a thoroughbred technocrat with rich experience and passion for the development of the Southwest region.

    Famakinwa had more than 24 years of extensive and high-profile professional experience serving various sectors within the Nigerian and multi-national markets. He had led successful missions in the provision of management services to clients in financial services, aviation, retail, oil and gas, among others, and had also managed diverse talents and teams across functional areas.

    Among others, he worked at senior levels at Landover Aviation Company Limited (Business Manager) and Vigeo Oil and Gas Limited (Group Head/Regional Manager, Niger Delta).

    In 2006, Dipo founded Famedge Travel and Logistics Services Limited, a management services company providing air travel and logistics support to middle market and high-end clients, and later, from 2008, worked as Head Consultant/CEO of Bluehall Advisory Services, a leading-edge firm of consultants in management, capacity building and strategy consulting.

    Dipo was a member of the Oyo State Social and Economic Management Team (OSSEMAT), he was also on the Osun State Public Service Reform Committee, and led the consulting team that developed the Ekiti State Service Compact and Citizens’ Charter.

    Dipo was also involved with the KPMG/Bluehall team that conducted the Strategic Health-Check Review on all the companies under Odua Investment Company Limited.

    A certified quality auditor, Dipo was an alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University, the Lagos Business School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

  • Southwest governors, ARG, others pay tributes to DAWN Chief Famakinwa

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his Ogun State counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, led dignitaries yesterday in paying tributes to the late Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Mr Dipo Famakinwa.
    Famakinwa died on April 21 after a brief illness.
    He was 49.
    At the Day of Tributes organised for the deceased in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, Ajimobi described Famakinwa as a diligent man who understood and delivered on his mandate with a great passion.
    The programme was organised by Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), the DAWN Commission and the Yoruba Academy.
    The governor said the deceased made outstanding impact on the Yoruba nation.
    He said the diligence and passion with which he worked for the development of Yoruba land and Nigeria stood him out as one who took his duty as a divine assignment for his generation.
    Ajimobi said: “Famakinwa lived a short but remarkable life… He understood his assignment as a divine duty unto his generation. He not only took the job seriously but put his whole heart into it.”
    Ajimobi, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Olalekan Ali, promised that the Oyo State Government and its good people would remain faithful to his “fervent desires for a rapidly transformed Yorubaland.”
    He added: “We shall follow through on our agreed roadmap and by building the DAWN Commission into a truly empowered think-tank and regional development powerhouse. With the support of my brother governors in the Southwest of Nigeria, your visionary spirit shall be kept alive as a guide post on our journey into freedom and prosperity.”
    Amosun, who was also represented by his Commissioner for Integration, Mr Adeife, extolled Famakinwa’s virtues. He said the deceased used everything in him to sell the DAWN idea to everyone that cared to listen, adding that succeeded in introducing programmes that help the development of the Southwest region.
    Amosun also hailed his doggedness and dedication to the assignment of regional integration, which he said he did until death came visiting.
    The Chairman, ARG, Hon. Olawale Oshun, who traced the origin of the commission and how Famakinwa was chosen to lead it as the first DG said: “The main story was that the governors at inception allowed the dreamers and the fashioners of the Integration vision to nominate a suitable person to fill the all important position of the first Director General of the Commission. Afenifere Renewal Group had no difficulty in settling for Dipo Famakinwa, for he and one other member availed us of their immense brain boxes, and minded no deprivation as too enormous to suffer in the processes leading to the crafting and marketing of what later turned out to be christened the Integration Commission.
    “As soon as the Southwest governors (including Olusegun Mimiko, Kayode Fayemi and Babatunde Fashola) bought into the project and ultimately authorized one of them, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to inaugurate on their behalf the DAWN Technical Committee on June 21, 2012, Dipo hit the ground running. The Technical Committee which was to serve as the Board for the Commission comprised of one representative from each of the six states and three nominees from Afenifere Renewal Group, one of whom was Dipo Famakinwa as the Director General. He established within a short while the required bureaucracy and facilitated an enduring relationship with national and international agencies all in the pursuit of the development agenda of Yoruba people within and without Nigeria.
    “I have had no doubt in my mind that Dipo had only one mission, which was to deliver a developed and integrated Western Nigeria, totally focused on deepening the economic indices of growth, while engaging to advantage the diversities that bestride culture and socio-political differences of his Yoruba people. I have seen him at work, and I have had cause to suggest to him to slow down a bit. It is as if he knew his time would be short.
    “We in Afenifere Renewal Group thank God for his life, even if we had wondered loudly now, why God had let it be this short. Only the Almighty God has the answer to that. We pledge however that we will support the various state governments in all they need to do to ensure that the integration commission in Western Nigeria moves from strength to strength. No price will be too high for us to pay to ensure that Dipo’s work and legacy would not be wasted. That much we owe him.
    Sleep well, Dipo and goodnight.”

    In his tribute, the Executive Director of the Yoruba Academy, Dr Ade Adeagbo, said there are four ways to find Famakinwa, who he emphasized was not death but lost.
    According to him, the ways are to continue the agitation for true federalism, sustain the drive for integration, develop the Yorubaness (the identity of Yoruba as a people) to become an international philosophy of human nature and also continue to promote the concept of ‘omoluabi’ which he says must be the “fundamental value that defines essence of humanity.”
    Adeagbo emphasized that in pursuing the four goals, Famakinwa would always be found.
    The representative of the Department for International Development (DFID), Mr Ifeanyi Peters-Ugwokwe, hailed Famakinwa’s passion, dedication and zeal for regional development. Describing him as a strategic thinker, Peters-Ugwokwe said there would not have been a better person to lead the commission.
    The Group Managing Director, Odu’a Investments Ltd, Mr Adewale Raji, commended Famakinwa for personally working hard to make the dream of accommodating Lagos as a co-owner of Odu’a a reality. He described him as a dogged fighter and visionary leader.
    His deputy at DAWN, Mr Seye Oyeleye, said “Famakinwa loved his job passionately, the socio economic development of our Region was his life, and he felt that he owed it a duty to make sure that the team at DAWN delivers on what we termed Brand New West.”
    Reflecting on his leadership acumen, Oyeleye said: “As the team leader at DAWN, he was not your typical boss, far from it. His office doors were permanently open and anyone, including our cleaners, will walk up to him on one issue or another. Dipo was the boss who will have his boli and epa on his table and some of our young staff will go and share it with him. He was the leader who will come to your desk no matter your position and ask for your views on any particular matter. Dipo will call me at extremely odd hours constantly asking for opinion before taking decisions and even when I tell him you are the DG you sort it out, he will say I didn’t make a mistake when I asked you to join me at DAWN( I joined a few months before it took off ). That was Dipo, the quintessential team player. He successfully created a family atmosphere at the office and this bond was extremely crucial when in 2015 and part of 2016 we went through financially challenging times, he successfully planted the passion for change in SW Nigeria in all the staff through his transparency, forthrightness and empathy, with Dipo what you see is what you get.”
    The deceased daughter, Miss Abisola Famakinwa, moved guests into tears as she gave the vote of thanks.
    She described her father as a hardworking man who also spared a good time for his family. Seeing her father in photographs with top men and women in the society, Abisola said his life confirmed the biblical statement that diligentbpeople stand before king’s and not before mean men.

    She said she was overwhelmed by the tributes to her father and declared: “I know my dad was great but I did not know he was this great. I am really proud of him. He was very hard working and determined.”
    At the programme were others members of the ARG family including Mr Kunle Famoriyo and Mr Ayo Afolabi. Others are commissioners from Oyo, Ogun and Osun states, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), Dr Tunji Olaopa, Otunba Deji Osibogun, Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin and Mr Taiwo Obe.

  • DAWN holds ‘day of tributes’ for Famakinwa

    DAWN holds ‘day of tributes’ for Famakinwa

    The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission will hold a ‘Day of Tributes’ for its latebDirector General, Mr Dipo Famakinwa, on Monday.

    Famakinwa died in a Lagos hospital on April 21 after a brief illness.

    The funeral service will hold at the Chapel of Christ the Light in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State capital, on May 5. He will be buried at Ikoyi Vaults and Gardens in Ikoyi, Lagos.

    The day of tributes, which will hold at the Civic Centre at Agodi in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, is being organised in conjunction with the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) and the Yoruba Academy.

    The commission, in a statement yesterday in Ibadan, recalled that Famakinwa directed activities of the technical group, which put together the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Strategy Document.

    The statement added: “…On the back of that, he led and coordinated the processes that culminated in the setting up of the DAWN Commission.”

    Famakinwa provided strategic insight and leadership towards delivering on the vision and mission of the Southwest Development Agenda.

    A certified auditor, the late Famakinwa was an alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife (OAU), the Lagos Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

    “He had more than 24 years of extensive and high-profile professional experience, serving various sectors within the Nigerian and multinational markets. He led successful missions in the provision of management services to clients in financial services, aviation, retail, oil and gas, among others, and had also managed diverse talents and teams across functional areas,” the statement added.

  • Famakinwa, DAWN and S/West renaissance

    The death of Dipo Famakinwa is a very sad one. I have known the Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) for a few years now and I have come to respect not only his maturity, quiet personality, relational skills, solid professionalism, but also his sound credentials as a development expert with commendable entrepreneurial intelligence. Famakinwa did not become the DG of DAWN by some kind of lucky coincidence. On the contrary, he came to that multidisciplinary organisation in 2013 with a solid educational background, business acumen and an enviable professional experience at both the public and private sectors, as well as at home and abroad. He was a consummate administrator, able to motivate and inspire.

    We became very good friends because after my retirement in 2015 when it became clear to us that we share some commonalities that border on ideas about federalism, development in general, regionalism, but most especially the significance of the Southwest as a development signpost for Nigeria’s federal framework. Recently, Famakinwa’s DAWN and the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) have been looking for a unique joint project around which these shared ideas could translate to active proposals that would further the objectives of the two organisations. No one can doubt Famakinwa’s concern for the development of Nigeria through a constant reassessment of the mechanics for structurally recreating Nigeria’s federalism. A critical opponent of platitudinous rhetoric about reform, he was concerned with a deep and operationalized rehabilitation of the Nigerian project that goes beyond mere constitutional exercise. For instance, he was very critical of recent confabulation experiment like the National Conference of 2014 and all its internal inconsistencies, contradictions and lack of solid understanding of what ails Nigeria. For him, the renegotiation of Nigerian federal experiment must commence from an unbiased diagnosis of where we are presently. For instance, we will all be playing the ostrich and hiding our heads from our geopolitical reality if we think that, say, the creation of more states has the capacity to rejuvenate federalism.

    Now, Dipo Famakinwa has been snatched by death at the prime of his life. This ought to be the time when DAWN blueprint for strategic integration of the Southwest into a large context of good governance and infrastructural development should be going into implementation. He ought to have been present to add his administrative and coordinating skills to the complex implementation exercise simply because the blueprint was articulated by his team. It derives from a vision which he himself had carried for five years since he became the director general at DAWN. Death has been said to bring finality to all things, to aspirations and to dreams and to hope. For Malene Dietrich, “When you are dead, you are dead. That’s it.” Final. Finality.The end.

    But not this time. This is because even death does not have any power over any combustible idea. Death itself can be the route to immortality. “Between our birth and death,” says Christopher Fry, “we may touch understanding.” This is not an automatic achievement. Many came into the world and died without achieving significant understanding, especially of the roles they are expected to play and the duties they owe mankind. Dipo Famakinwa was not that kind of man. For 50 years of his life, he was a leader. But leading was not just enough for him; legacy was. With DAWN, he was read to take his credentials and reputation that regionalization for development is the path for Nigeria’s progress. How then can we make his death the platform for the establishment of his legacy, DAWN?

    DAWN has strategic reform significance. This is the understanding that Famakinwa committed his professionalism, intelligence and development expertise to. DAWN possesses the operational capability to conceptualise, negotiate and implement the renaissance of socio-economic well-being for Southwestern citizens of Nigeria. In fact, at a deeper level, through DAWN, we can achieve the ignition of a national revolution in development.The DAWN vision and mission is grand and beautiful. But far more significant are the five development pillars around which the vision and mission are woven—economic development (around agriculture, tourism, solid minerals and applied science and innovation), social and human development (health, wellness, education and workforce development), infrastructural development (transportation, power, energy, science and technology), building inclusive institutions (civil society, civil service), and homeland affairs (security, cultural preservation, promotion of excellence).

    This, for me, constitutes a complete reform agenda for the South-west. It is to the commendation of Famakinwa that there is in place already a strategic roadmapfor bringing to birth the blueprint for the regional development of the South-west. But this does not abate my professional fear. I have, in my short years as a reformer, seen the death of so many beautiful strategic plans and roadmaps. Ideas and ideals die easily on the platform of good intentions. And yet, even the readiness to implement is also fraught with terrible foreboding. However, Famakinwa was never afraid of implementing the roadmap. The challenges he faced went beyond just the roadmap itself. Would his death signal the end of his vision and his staunch belief in their implementability? Very soon, encomiums will start pouring in. Many people will reflect on his life time and achievements. Others will make many promises to his left behind family. Some portion of DAWN building may even be named after him. And a picture will remain at the DAWN headquarters as a memorial. Famakinwa will then be buried, and silence will threaten to obliterate his development efforts. The strategic roadmap will still be dogged by political and administrative impediments.

    The best memory we can inscribe to his legacy of courageous development thinking and administrative perspicacity is to commence the implementation of the roadmap he staked his professional credentials on. Specific issues are at stake in implementing the DAWN strategic roadmap. The most important, I think, is contained in the DAWN’s 10 operating principles. Underlying all these principles is a solid orientation towards policy implications of DAWN’s development pillars. Converting these pillars into significant policies in the South-west is the most important challenge DAWN has to face after the demise of Famakinwa.

    As things stand, Nigeria’s economic profile still ensures that state governments are held captive by a crippling fiscal framework, founded on what I have called the “bail-out” monthly allocation mentality, which limits governance responsibility. How then can implementation of the roadmap take off if the wherewithal to achieve its implementation and critical sustainability is missing? The most immediate challenge therefore is two-pronged. On the one hand, to significantly deal with the cost of governance issue by downsizing/rightsizing government institutional expenses in a way that will free up funds for efficient investment in infrastructural development. And on the other hand, there is the urgent need to invest in the active cultivation of internally generated revenue, beginning, for instance, with adequate tax payment enforcement matched with strong culture of performance and democratic accountability.

    There is no other way, therefore, to keep the legacies of Famakinwa alive than for the six governors of the Southwest states to not only renew their commitment to an operationally sound organisation they jointly set up, demonstrate shared ideological commitment that transcends party differences and dichotomies for the sake of the Southwest people, but to also use the former DG’s death as a clarion call to no longer waste development time through paying mere lip service to South-west agenda. This must be the time to bring the governance blueprint alive, together with the cultivation of critical synergies and partnership that could assist in bringing alive the blueprint for South-west strategic integration and governance thus reliving the great Awo legacy. That is what would make Dipo Famakinwa’s untimely death a timely intervention in the trajectory of what he stood for.

     

    • Olaopa is Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government & Public Policy (ISGPP).
  • Famakinwa, an asset to Southwest, says Adams

    Famakinwa, an asset to Southwest, says Adams

    The death of Dipo Famakinwa, Director – General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), has been described as a tragedy for the Yoruba race and the country.

    The Coordinator of Oodua  Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, said Famakinwa was a great asset to the Southwest and Nigeria. In a statement in Lagos, the OPC leader said: “It is heart breaking to learn about the exit of a special breed Yoruba man who displayed unalloyed personal commitment to integrative development initiative of Yoruba land . It is a tragedy not only for his family but the Yoruba race in particular”

    Adams, the convener Oodua Progressive Union (OPU), added: “It is a tragedy .It is sad that death has removed and cut down one of the most deeply intelligent and sound Yoruba young turks from our midst. Dipo Famakinwa was a prominent and accomplished Yoruba ICON who was diligent and thorough at his duty post. A wonderful son of Oduduwa who was blessed with a prodigious native intelligent laced with intellectual soundness. He was a man of yesterday, today and tomorrow combined. Honestly, death has not been fair to the Yoruba race’

    Adams said: “Mr Famakinwa was unique in deeds, acts and personal relations. He has this special interest in the development and unity of the Yoruba race and spent most of his life engaging in pro Yoruba development ventures without pecuniary consideration. Honestly, death has not been fair to the race”

    He sympathised with the family of the deceased and prayed to God to give them the fortitude to bear the loss of ‘one of the most vibrant Yoruba cultural developers”

    Adams called on the governors of the Southwest to immortalise the late Famakinwa who has quietly done a lot of work on the integration of Yoruba state.

    He said: “I am using this opportunity to call on the governors of the South West not to let his death being the demise of his persons and works on the face of the Earth. Mr Famakinwa did his best for the region; we should immortalize him, not only for his person but to encourage others. We are missing him. May the Lord grant him eternal Rest! He was a useful personality for the West”