Funminiyi Afuye is the Commissioner for Integration and Intergovernmental Affairs in Ekiti State. In this exclusive interview with CORRESPONDENT Yaqoub Popoola in Ado-Ekiti, the barrister laments what he describes as the criminal neglect of Federal Government-initiated projects in the state, calling for urgent redress. The former Majority Leader in Ekiti State House of Assembly also lauds the ongoing regional integration drive in the South West geopolitical zone. Excerpts…
Some people have alleged that the South West integration is a ploy to foist a certain political ideology on member states. How would you react to this?
No, that is a very wrong impression; the primary goal of the integration is purely economic. Those who are spreading or holding such notion are only trying to divide our people. For instance, we have the Europe Union; though they all are Europeans, but are they maintaining same political system? Yet they are coordinating effective economies of the various member states. The member states have been cooperating essentially on the level of economic development. This is because development has no colouration. When a government is building roads in Ekiti and links these to neighbouring states, we can say it is a political decision but essentially, it is for economic benefits of our people. We are emphasizing the benefits rather than the political consideration. We are only trying to bring our people together at the platform of DAWN. You don’t need to belong to a political party before you can function. We could wish that we all belonged in the same political party, but the reality is that we don’t belong yet we still work together.
So, what is it all about?
Well, as the name integration depicts, we are integrating the states, that is at the level of government, from federal to the local government. We are interfacing with Ekiti people wherever they are, in terms of time and space. We are concerned with anything that has to do with the progress of Ekiti State within and outside in terms of coordinating all the activities, and as to what belongs to the state in the Federal Budget. We just addressed the press with my colleague in the Ministry of Information, drawing the attention of the people to the total neglect of Ekiti State in terms of what should come to them, which would impact on the lives of the people. It appears as if all projects in the state have been left to the state government alone to tackle, without any presence of the Federal Government. It is the duty of my Ministry to map out the Federal Government presence in Ekiti State with a view to either ensuring that projects that belong to the state within the common wealth of the Federal Budget is properly implemented. Not only that, but also to ensure that these projects are not abandoned. Instead, you find out that most of the projects earmarked for Ekiti in the federal budget have been abandoned, neglected or are non-existent.
In other to facilitate a good relationship between the federal and the state government, Governor Kayode Fayemi at the inception of his administration visited all the federal parastatals and agencies in Abuja. This was to let them know that Ekiti is indeed part of Nigeria. The governor did that with the expectation that whatever would make life more meaningful to Ekiti people from the federal is given to them.
Can you tell us more, especially as to all it entails?
Of course, we are talking about the second aspect, which is the Regional Integration. This Ministry coordinates that policy, as regards all the states in the South West (often referred to as western region) with a view to having economic benefit and any other benefit that can improve the lots of our people. You are aware that we were one region before the partitioning. Looking at the past, you realize that the achievements of that era is far reaching that what we have today. The policies that were coordinated at the Centre in that regional government resonated in every nook and cranny of the Western region, and infrastructural development did not have a boundary as we have it today. The revolution that we are talking about today, that was how late Chief Obafemi Awolowo networked every nook and cranny of the Southwest which was bounded in the south by Idioro and extended to Asaba, before the creation of Midwestern Region. People were able to move around freely then. Also, there was free education, free medical services and integrated rural development was common to all.
Are you implying that the division of the old Western region into six states came with some negatives?
The artificial division of the old western region into six states deprived us of the advantages of the economies of scale that ought to have been the lot of our people.
Indeed our culture has been divided into six. Whereas in the past, we looked at ourselves as strictly Yoruba, now we have carried the toga of statism.
However the most important thing is that integration is focusing on the economic development of our people. and that leads to the question: What can the strengthening of our cultural heritage benefit us? Therein came what we call the Development Agenda of Western Nigerian (DAWN) Commission which is situated in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
You are the state’s representative to the mini-Yoruba Conference held in Ibadan on the proposed National Conference. What informed the sudden change of mind because your party had vowed to boycott the conference?
I don’t think there is any change of mind; APC is a political party, and the governors represent all the people in their respective states, regardless of political party or religious belief. I think it would be impolitic of them not to consider their roles as a father figure of a state and not to allow their people to participate in the conference. The moment anybody becomes a governor, he or she becomes governor to all. We are talking about the people now and not the political party. A political party may be right to say we are not doing this or that, but that must not deprive the people.
What people are saying is that even if APC is to participate, the governor would still be the one to nominate members as the leader of that political party in the state. Does that not amount to double standard?
The governor is having dual role as the leader of the party in that state and the leader of the state. This is not contradictory and we must get this right. The moment you turn a governor to be a governor of his own political party, then you are reducing or underestimating the importance of that office. If roads are tarred, is it only the members of a political party that would use them? No.
All the facilities provided by the present government is for all the people of the state and nobody would ask for political identity cards before you access them.
Was the decision not taken out the fear that the President might choose representatives for any unwilling state?
That is Mr President’s judgment. The issue here is that we have addressed the issue that the governor is the governor of all the people of the state.
Don’t you think the governor might still influence some of the representatives, since he is the one nominating them?
Well, if you check the list submitted by the governor, you will find that it consists of eminent members of the state, people you can be proud of, as good representatives of the state. We refer to them as Ekiti First Eleven. In any case, there are other platforms where all Yoruba people are meeting to articulate their positions. It is not as if anyone is going there for personal adventure. It is a corporate enterprise.
Source: Daily Independent
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