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CASE FOR INTEGRATED SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE YORUBA NATION : by Rauf Aregbesola
- By Naija ViewPoints
- Published 04/17/2008
- Business and Econony
- Unrated
 Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu |
 Chief Obafemi Awolowo |
 Bola Ige |
 Rauf Aregbesola |
 Adebisi Akande | |
 Chief Abraham Adesanya |
 Pa Adekunle Ajasin | |
|
CASE FOR INTEGRATED SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE YORUBA NATION SPEECH DELIVERED BY ENGR. RAUF AREGBESOLA, FORMER HON. COMMISSIONER FOR WORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE, LAGOS STATE AND ACTION CONGRESS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE FOR OSUN STATE IN THE APRIL 2007 ELECTIONS AT THE 15TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE EGBE OMO YORUBA OF NORTH AMERICA AT BALTIMORE, MARYLAND ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2007 | ||
INTRODUCTION
Permit me to begin by expressing my delight and appreciation for the honor of being invited to this gathering - in every sense. Please, accept my genuine commendation for the Egbe platform for consistent promotion of ideas and support for works directed at uplifiting Nigeria, most especially the Yoruba nation. I sincerely appreciate the honor and I am proud to be associated with such noble objectives.
BY WAY OF SUMMARY
The central position of this paper is the conclusion that for a genuine and sustainable social and economic development to be attained in the Yoruba nation, there has to be a visionary political platform that must, with the support and mandate of the people, and having control of government in the Yoruba state, implement an integrated economic plan, a unified development agenda with central consideration for Lagos economy and prospects as a driving force.
The population of Lagos, which is projected to be the third largest mega city by 2015 next to Bombay and Tokyo, its critical location; a fantastic habor and a former capital of the federation and the present economic and commercial nerve center of Nigeria makes it the engine room as well as a motive force for well-conceived economic projections of the Yoruba nation whose major cities enjoy the closest proximity to it--a proximity that can be turned into heavy economic and developmental advantage.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PARAMETERS
As is my style of presentation, I will refraim from loading the paper with numerous definitions and quotations. I will restrict myself to expressing what I believe are broad principles and ideas for development that can throw up challenges to be taken up at the level of deeper researches for the formulation of action plans and programs. I will illustrate with examples as I proceed and expect your contributions to make my presentation interactive.
Socio-economic activities embrace all ranges of productive and reproductive engagements and interactions targeted at ensuring the material and spiritual well-being of the populace. Man needs span, the most basic: food, water, shelter and clothing to the most complex and mystical, the pursuit of leisure and even a "personal" relationship with God.
In the course of pursuing the satisfaction of these needs, societies arose in which man mastered nature and its exploitation through labor to satisfy his needs. These societies passed through series of adjustments and modifications due to specific challenges to each epoch and the relations produced by human interaction as such. All of these consitute their historical experiences. The Yoruba people, having emerged as a distinct people, share similar experience with the rest of Africa in contemporary times, albeit with fine distinctions here and there. The summary of that experience consists in invasion by the Arabs and the Western world, conquest and slavery, colonialism and the struggle for independence, and now, independent self-government within a Nigerian federation. We are all familiar with the consequences of this historical journey in every ramification as well as the present location of neo-colonization wthin which we find ourselves.
The crux of the experience is the production of military, Para-military, and civilian despots who had no commitment to democracy, federalism, and human rights and have subjected our land and people to decades of dehumanization and under development, in the process reversing vividly all the gains made during the comparatively short period when Yoruba, under the leadership of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, sought and largely succeeded with a liberating development agenda for the region--an effort that, till date, remains the foundation of our development and progressive orientation in every facet.
WHAT IS OUR PRESENT STANDING
Permit me to begin by expressing my delight and appreciation for the honor of being invited to this gathering - in every sense. Please, accept my genuine commendation for the Egbe platform for consistent promotion of ideas and support for works directed at uplifiting Nigeria, most especially the Yoruba nation. I sincerely appreciate the honor and I am proud to be associated with such noble objectives.
BY WAY OF SUMMARY
The central position of this paper is the conclusion that for a genuine and sustainable social and economic development to be attained in the Yoruba nation, there has to be a visionary political platform that must, with the support and mandate of the people, and having control of government in the Yoruba state, implement an integrated economic plan, a unified development agenda with central consideration for Lagos economy and prospects as a driving force.
The population of Lagos, which is projected to be the third largest mega city by 2015 next to Bombay and Tokyo, its critical location; a fantastic habor and a former capital of the federation and the present economic and commercial nerve center of Nigeria makes it the engine room as well as a motive force for well-conceived economic projections of the Yoruba nation whose major cities enjoy the closest proximity to it--a proximity that can be turned into heavy economic and developmental advantage.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PARAMETERS
As is my style of presentation, I will refraim from loading the paper with numerous definitions and quotations. I will restrict myself to expressing what I believe are broad principles and ideas for development that can throw up challenges to be taken up at the level of deeper researches for the formulation of action plans and programs. I will illustrate with examples as I proceed and expect your contributions to make my presentation interactive.
Socio-economic activities embrace all ranges of productive and reproductive engagements and interactions targeted at ensuring the material and spiritual well-being of the populace. Man needs span, the most basic: food, water, shelter and clothing to the most complex and mystical, the pursuit of leisure and even a "personal" relationship with God.
In the course of pursuing the satisfaction of these needs, societies arose in which man mastered nature and its exploitation through labor to satisfy his needs. These societies passed through series of adjustments and modifications due to specific challenges to each epoch and the relations produced by human interaction as such. All of these consitute their historical experiences. The Yoruba people, having emerged as a distinct people, share similar experience with the rest of Africa in contemporary times, albeit with fine distinctions here and there. The summary of that experience consists in invasion by the Arabs and the Western world, conquest and slavery, colonialism and the struggle for independence, and now, independent self-government within a Nigerian federation. We are all familiar with the consequences of this historical journey in every ramification as well as the present location of neo-colonization wthin which we find ourselves.
The crux of the experience is the production of military, Para-military, and civilian despots who had no commitment to democracy, federalism, and human rights and have subjected our land and people to decades of dehumanization and under development, in the process reversing vividly all the gains made during the comparatively short period when Yoruba, under the leadership of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, sought and largely succeeded with a liberating development agenda for the region--an effort that, till date, remains the foundation of our development and progressive orientation in every facet.
WHAT IS OUR PRESENT STANDING
Echoing into the present are years of traumatic and dehumanizing military dictatorship tht foreshadowed the immediate past unbeneficial government of General Olusegun Obasanjo. We ae all witnesses to the corrupt, anti-constitutional, anti-federal, anti-democratic, and anti-people reformations of the eight years and the legacy of fraudulent and illegitimate government that is today bestowed on us.
The summary of the experience for the Yoruba is simply that, in that period, progressives in Yoruba politics lost ground, forcibly and otherwise, to an ascendant conservative class of politicians whose trademarks are violence, corruption, avarice, self-aggrandizement, hostility to the masses and the looting of collective wealth, in close assocition with their "mainstream" federal allies. Especially in the last 4 years, deliberate efforts were made to rubbish and reverse the gains of yesteryears and shove the Yoruba people along the road to semi-barbaric existence that had been the misfortune of others in the federation to whom the standards of the Yoruba had always been an envy.
All the the indices of development are today far below accepted civilized mark. From good governance, education, health, infrastructure, to employment, security, and cultural values. Every facet of life is in teh negative range; maternal mortality, infant mortality, crime rate, low life expentacy, fraud, moral deliquency, spiritual poverty, in short, hardship, misery, and a vast complex of disorder is the present reality. It must be pointed out that in Nigeria, even in the Yoruba land, it had not always been paradise, but never had we, especially, had it this bad, especially in human resources development and purposeful, dynamic governance.
THE STRATEGY FOR INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT
The summary of the experience for the Yoruba is simply that, in that period, progressives in Yoruba politics lost ground, forcibly and otherwise, to an ascendant conservative class of politicians whose trademarks are violence, corruption, avarice, self-aggrandizement, hostility to the masses and the looting of collective wealth, in close assocition with their "mainstream" federal allies. Especially in the last 4 years, deliberate efforts were made to rubbish and reverse the gains of yesteryears and shove the Yoruba people along the road to semi-barbaric existence that had been the misfortune of others in the federation to whom the standards of the Yoruba had always been an envy.
All the the indices of development are today far below accepted civilized mark. From good governance, education, health, infrastructure, to employment, security, and cultural values. Every facet of life is in teh negative range; maternal mortality, infant mortality, crime rate, low life expentacy, fraud, moral deliquency, spiritual poverty, in short, hardship, misery, and a vast complex of disorder is the present reality. It must be pointed out that in Nigeria, even in the Yoruba land, it had not always been paradise, but never had we, especially, had it this bad, especially in human resources development and purposeful, dynamic governance.
THE STRATEGY FOR INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT
Central to this proposal is the exchange of a vast array of goods and services possible among all of the Yoruba land and between all of Yoruba land (including its people in the fringe states of Kwara and Kogi) and Lagos state.
By merely considering agricultural produce, and the crafts and small agro-allied products that spring from them, there is a possibility of mass engagement and production which will make the prices of the products and services from Yorubaland to Lagos almost unbeatable. I do not want to go into a list of all these products and services or the consumption requirement of almost 17 million people resident in Lagos.
A researched and well documented database, updating all the facts already available concerning the economic potentials of all the states will have to be undertaken under a joint commission, and the findings made readily available to the governments of all the Yoruba states. A time-bound, periodic
target of goals, realistically conceived, and based on the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) projections of each state, combined with their federal allocations, outside all their funding commitment to recurrent matters, will have to be set.
MATTERS IMPERATIVE TO SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT
There are processes and foundations to be put in place before the objectives of an integral Yoruba Development Agenda can be translated into reality. Some of the factors ae almost, but not entirely beyond achievement at the state level, and there are those that can be definitely accomplished if we are unanimously focused on these objectives:
There are processes and foundations to be put in place before the objectives of an integral Yoruba Development Agenda can be translated into reality. Some of the factors ae almost, but not entirely beyond achievement at the state level, and there are those that can be definitely accomplished if we are unanimously focused on these objectives:
(A) A VISIONARY PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL PLATFORM IN POWER
We have to revive the large spirit that rallied all the progressive sons and daughters of Yorubaland home and abroad that eventually crystallized into the Action Group. We have to settle for nothing less than the discipline, dedication, lofty cardinal programs and loyalty to ideals and people that obtained in the Unity Party of Nigeria. We have made everything that came after these two platforms a poor imitation instead of excelling beyond those precedents. Perhaps that was the foundation of our present misfortune. No one can be singled out for blame however larger his responsiblity was. We have to collectively and individually accept the reality as our making and show genuine resolve to rebuild. And in rebuilding, we have to set principles as the benchmark, and goals as the rallying point. We have to assign responsibilities and play our parts, for our honor and for posterity.
Without such a platform that can rekindle the fire of enthusiasm for progressive advancement, without the full weight of an awakened an determined sovereign Yoruba electorate and mandate behind it, it will be impossible to displace the present conservative interlopers and marauders manning governments illegitimately in most of Yorubaland today. Progressive politics that is overwhelmingly strong and popular and the ensuing mandate to run government all over Yorubaland is a singular prerequisite for an integrated development plan under set cardinal objectives.
(B) ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION OF RESOURCES
I have mentioned this in part when hinting at documented and updated database on economic potentials. Also, the need to increase the IGR radically through the economic process itself is important. But additionally, the Yoruba Diaspora has to be mobilized, once and for all behind a jointly assessed vision and project of finally settling down with redeeming and uplifiting our land and people within or without the Nigerian federation.
We have to revive the large spirit that rallied all the progressive sons and daughters of Yorubaland home and abroad that eventually crystallized into the Action Group. We have to settle for nothing less than the discipline, dedication, lofty cardinal programs and loyalty to ideals and people that obtained in the Unity Party of Nigeria. We have made everything that came after these two platforms a poor imitation instead of excelling beyond those precedents. Perhaps that was the foundation of our present misfortune. No one can be singled out for blame however larger his responsiblity was. We have to collectively and individually accept the reality as our making and show genuine resolve to rebuild. And in rebuilding, we have to set principles as the benchmark, and goals as the rallying point. We have to assign responsibilities and play our parts, for our honor and for posterity.
Without such a platform that can rekindle the fire of enthusiasm for progressive advancement, without the full weight of an awakened an determined sovereign Yoruba electorate and mandate behind it, it will be impossible to displace the present conservative interlopers and marauders manning governments illegitimately in most of Yorubaland today. Progressive politics that is overwhelmingly strong and popular and the ensuing mandate to run government all over Yorubaland is a singular prerequisite for an integrated development plan under set cardinal objectives.
(B) ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION OF RESOURCES
I have mentioned this in part when hinting at documented and updated database on economic potentials. Also, the need to increase the IGR radically through the economic process itself is important. But additionally, the Yoruba Diaspora has to be mobilized, once and for all behind a jointly assessed vision and project of finally settling down with redeeming and uplifiting our land and people within or without the Nigerian federation.
We must strive to attain it in every way within, to start with; by creating a massively popular political platform that obtains the mandate of the people and by using government of the states, under the central direction of the party, to reclaim all our past achievements and progress.
Should the unitary system of government in Nigeria and failure to adhere to true federalism become a hindrance thereafter, we must be unanimous in our quest for self-determination rather than submit to eternal subjugation an dehumanization under a visionless, despotic and conservative "mainstream" Nigerian cabal.
(C) RADICAL TRANSPORTATION MEANS
(C) RADICAL TRANSPORTATION MEANS
The most critical of infrastructure is ensuring and providing for how people, goods and services move in Yorubaland and between it and Lagos. To this end, we must depart from tradition and embrace radical alternatives in rail transport, not to the neglect of roads and waterways, but relying on it in the long-term as the most effective and efficient means.
(D) A SERIOUS VIEW OF CULTURAL TOURISM
A master plan must emerge, based on researched data, to translate cultural tourism into a veritable source of foreign exchange earning for the Yoruba governments.
(E) A NEW AGRICULTURE AS CORE CONSIDERATION
Most Yorubaland, especially the large rurality is predominantly agrarian; this must be mechanized and reinvented to include all its diverse apsects. However, the focus must be on food production to feed the teeming population in Lagos, which is predominantly of Yoruba extraction.Suffice to say, that the daily food exchange value of Lagos is about N2 billion. Therefore, each of the five neighboring Yoruba states can each conveniently take 10% share of this enormous economic potential.
A master plan must emerge, based on researched data, to translate cultural tourism into a veritable source of foreign exchange earning for the Yoruba governments.
(E) A NEW AGRICULTURE AS CORE CONSIDERATION
Most Yorubaland, especially the large rurality is predominantly agrarian; this must be mechanized and reinvented to include all its diverse apsects. However, the focus must be on food production to feed the teeming population in Lagos, which is predominantly of Yoruba extraction.Suffice to say, that the daily food exchange value of Lagos is about N2 billion. Therefore, each of the five neighboring Yoruba states can each conveniently take 10% share of this enormous economic potential.
(F) RE-INVENTING HUMAN POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION
This is one area where we are the acknowledged masters. We must however, reform our education and training within a new concept of functionality and relevance to our survival in this world of infomation technology and globalized competition.
Now the factors which may not be immediately within the entire control of the states are:
(A) ENERGY AND STEEL
Now the factors which may not be immediately within the entire control of the states are:
(A) ENERGY AND STEEL
For serious industrialization, the energy needs, as well as steel for tools fabrication is so much in shortfall and with the federal government being substantially in control of all these factors calls for special consideration.
(B) THE FEDERATION AND "NATIONAL" SECURITY
(B) THE FEDERATION AND "NATIONAL" SECURITY
The ambiguity of the Nigerian constitution, the headstrong adherence of the conservatives to a unitary and one-party philosophy, as well as the wholesome manipulation of the political space to the adversity of oppositions and the progressives. If this continues, it constitutes a grave danger to independent self-development of the region. The Lagos experience and travails in the defense of federalism and constitutionalism is a case in point, but for the creativity at harnessing the potentials of Lagos, it is doubtful if any state without a radical leadership, popular support and ingenuous economic agenda could survive.
CONCLUSION
A time must come, and I believe that for the Yoruba nation, that time is now, when a people must rally its entire progressives, well meaning and resourceful sons and daughters to respond to the challenges of history. For us, the challenge today is an existence within a drifting and pretentious federation, whose conservative forces is parasitic and despotic working assiduously towards a one-party state and unitary system at whose mercy all the federating states and local govenment areas must depend. We have an almighty federal government and its vassals which personalizes the state, setting aside the rule of law for primitivity and the promotion of brigandage.
Our electoral process and the elections it produces fall below even the previously unenviable Nigerian standard, according to international observers were living witnesses to the unprecedented fraud and the usurpation of the people's sovereignty. Within this federation, we have so much to do to amend its nature and rules. However, the most important task, and the one that will give us space for the translation of the ideals espoused above, is to put our house in order.
CONCLUSION
A time must come, and I believe that for the Yoruba nation, that time is now, when a people must rally its entire progressives, well meaning and resourceful sons and daughters to respond to the challenges of history. For us, the challenge today is an existence within a drifting and pretentious federation, whose conservative forces is parasitic and despotic working assiduously towards a one-party state and unitary system at whose mercy all the federating states and local govenment areas must depend. We have an almighty federal government and its vassals which personalizes the state, setting aside the rule of law for primitivity and the promotion of brigandage.
Our electoral process and the elections it produces fall below even the previously unenviable Nigerian standard, according to international observers were living witnesses to the unprecedented fraud and the usurpation of the people's sovereignty. Within this federation, we have so much to do to amend its nature and rules. However, the most important task, and the one that will give us space for the translation of the ideals espoused above, is to put our house in order.
True, there will be no unity on the agenda. We in the Yorubaland have our fair share of a mixture of conservative, lawless and self-serving politicians who have influenced the people with their depravity and utter lack of committment to social causes. Yet, it is possible with concerted effort to reverse the trend in Yorubaland, precisely because that is not our heritage. We have a duty to work on it collectively and dispassionately.
We must shelve the idea tht one state can redeem Yorubaland and make it flourish. Rather, it must be a regional and concerted effort. We are a people and a nation--albeit within a nation that is failing. In order not to mark time or go down the drain with the drifting and failing Nigeria; indeed, in order to assist to arrest Nigeria's drift and collapse, we need to do what we are renowned for: provide exemplary leadership and advance our people and make them models for the black race.
The struggle for our redemption and upliftment must commence and proceed in league with the struggle for Nigeria's total redirection and progressive advancement.
Our success begins with recreating the type of platform that ensured our past glory. A progressive and visionary party with outstanding and purposeful cardinal programs for the land and people--leading to governments of action and development in all our states under the central co-ordination of the party, which guarantees freedom for all and life more abundant.
It is possible and it is about time we did it. I hope that my presentation has hinted at the acceptable road that can lead us back to where we are coming from and into surpassing it in the nearest future.
Thank you for your patience and once again, accept my gratitude for the honor of the invitation. Thank you.
Our success begins with recreating the type of platform that ensured our past glory. A progressive and visionary party with outstanding and purposeful cardinal programs for the land and people--leading to governments of action and development in all our states under the central co-ordination of the party, which guarantees freedom for all and life more abundant.
It is possible and it is about time we did it. I hope that my presentation has hinted at the acceptable road that can lead us back to where we are coming from and into surpassing it in the nearest future.
Thank you for your patience and once again, accept my gratitude for the honor of the invitation. Thank you.
