- Dr. Fayemi
By Anthony Nwachukwu
Former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi and Dr. Charles Akinola, who were recently appointed Chairman and Managing Director of the South West Development Commission (SWDC) respectively as primed for success.
Fayemi told newsmen that both men are intellectually prepared for the appointments, and that President Bola Tinubu’s decision was simply putting round pegs in round holes. According to former minister of Mines and Steel, their “appointment was an inspired decision.”
“They are intellectually prepared as development economists, policy advocates and operations experts,” he stated. “Both had been involved in the development trajectory that we started at the Afenifere Renewal Group through the Yoruba Academy to the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), which commenced activities in 2013 with all the governments of the South-West fully subscribed to it.
“When we included the establishment of regional development commissions in the APC manifesto in 2015 as APC Director of Policy and Strategy, the vision was to provide alternative but complementary vehicles for accelerating sustainable development without undermining sub-national and national vehicles.
“Unfortunately, President (Muhammadu) Buhari’s government was only able to achieve the North-East and the North-West Development Commissions, signed into law before his exit. President Tinubu has accelerated that vision by signing into law and establishing the remaining four commissions.”
He further expressed optimism that the SWDC would not be another layer of bureaucracy without tangible developmental outcomes, saying the South West Governors Forum had set up a technical committee in 2020 to focus on initiatives that will deepen regional integration.
He disclosed that the technical committee, chaired by Akinola in 2020, was to focus on regional energy and transportation infrastructure projects, as well as regional digital economy initiatives, not cosmetic initiatives called empowerments or constituency projects that will not produce tangible benefits to the population.
Therefore, with an “enabling environment and his institutional memory on where this laudable initiative came from, I have no doubt that Senator Adetunmbi, Dr. Akinola and the team are primed for success and I wish them well.
