By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission is to hold an interactive session with presidential candidates of major political parties in Nigeria next month, ahead of the 2023 polls.
Disclosing this on Wednesday in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, the DAWN Commission Director General, Mr Seye Oyeleye said the parley will build on a similar one organised by the Northern Nigerian leaders under the umbrella of Arewa Joint Committee.
He stressed that the interactive session will among others afford the Presidential candidates to articulate their agenda as it specifically relates to the South West as well as provide an opportunity for them to robustly engage critical stakeholders in South West Nigeria on how they intend to turn the country around if elected in 2023.
” The idea of the public interactive session with the presidential candidates of the major political parties in the 2023 general elections was informed by the need to allow the candidates’ engagement with critical segments of the South West public on their agenda, plans and programmes”, he said
The DG added, ” with a population of about 50 million, its historical trajectory as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, strategic importance and huge potentials for national growth and development, DAWN is inviting the presidential candidates to outlay how they intend to incorporate South West in their agenda for a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria with specific attention to the region’s peculiarities.
“DAWN is further moved by the need to prevent the seeming uncertainties in the Nigerian political environment as well as the constant proclivities of political changes, both within the region and the country in general, from getting in the way of sustainable development.
Mr Oyeleye maintained that “the strategic intent is to get and dissect the agenda of the candidates, and looking towards a cohesive, coherent and balanced approach to fast-track the development of Nigeria as a strategic nation state for the development of the African continent”.
According to the DG, “it will also be an opportunity for the candidates to articulate their plans in the face of the clamour by the people of the South West of Nigeria for an unhindered and unconstrained socio-economic development”.
“The DAWN commission convenes this event in recognition of its role as a strategic institution for pursuing the composite development interests of South West Nigeria, not as an exclusive territory, but as a region with her own unique orientation, challenges and development priorities within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
