Yoruba groups absent from hearing on South-West, S’South commissions
Yoruba socio-political and cultural groups were absent from the public hearing organized by the House of Representatives on bills seeing to establish South-West and South-South Development Commission.
Afenifere and other stakeholders in the South-West were said to have been invited to make their inputs at the event.
However, stakeholders from the South-South region such as Pan Niger Delta Forum and Oil Minerals Producing Areas Stakeholders Forum were present at the hearing.
Leaders of the South-West caucus in the House, Femi Fakeye, said stakeholders from Yorubaland were not represented due to late invitation to them.
Fakeye decried that the South-West had been short-changed in the affairs of the country, adding that this had contributed to the reversed fortune in the region.
The lawmaker stated that most of the enduring infrastructures in the region was facilitated by former Premier of the Western Region, the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, adding that money made from the region had not been beneficial to the people.
Fakeye said, “During the #EndSARS protests, the South-West, especially Lagos, was the epicentre and it bears the brunt of the wanton destruction of lives and properties”.
The lawmaker said the county needed a lot of reconfiguration when it comes to infrastructure, adding that the people of the region would prefer Ibadan, the Oyo State capital as the headquarters of the commission when established.
A member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Mr Solomon Osho, agreed with Fakeye that the headquarters of the commission should be sited in Ibadan.
Osho also said the bill should be passed so effect the rapid development of the South-West region, adding that if restructuring was not forthcoming, the commission could serve the purpose.
The National Chairman of PANDEF, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (retd), said the South-South remained one of the least developed regions in the country.
He said, “But we are not under any illusion that commission without devolution of power to federating units would fast track development across Nigeria. For us in the South-South, what is most important to us at this point is the restructuring of the country to attain true federalism viz devolution of power and fiscal federal”.
The National Coordinator, OMPSTAFOR, Maikpobi Okaremi, noted that irregular and non-release of funds by the federal government remained the major problem of development agencies.
The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, while declaring the event open noted that the House Committee on Justice had convened the public hearing as an avenue to engage with stakeholders, citizens and institutions of government to collect, analyse and aggregate views and recommendations that, taken together would guide the decisions of the House.