We already have template to aid our success —Seye Oyeleye, DG DAWN Commission

Seye Oyeleye

Mr. Seye Oyeleye is the Director General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, a think-tank for the development of South West states. In this interview with TAIWO ADISA, he speaks on the drive by the commission to engineer growth in the region in the last 10 years and what he regarded the unprecedented desire among the governors for development. He also speaks on the South West Development Commission, soon to be inaugurated by the Federal Government, adding that with DAWN on ground, the agency would not need to grope around upon its formation. Excerpts:

As the DG of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, otherwise known as DAWN, I know that not many people are conversant with activities of your commission, except for those around government. So, to the layman out there, what do you do?

DAWN Commission stands for Development Agenda for Western Nigeria. It is a creation of the six South West states And I like to always emphasize when you say six South West states, you mean Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti. The commission’s job is basically to engender regional cooperation and foster integration. People say, ‘oh, regional integration’, and I said no. We normally emphasize regional cooperation. You see, when you cooperate, then you can then go to the integration stage. We normally say that our work is divided into what we call the Dawn Pillars. So we have what you call the Economic Development Pillar, where we, on Economic Development, we talk of agriculture, tourism. We have what we call the Social and Human Development Pillar. Again, it has education, health, youth development. Then we also have the infrastructure pillars. We have building institutions, which is very important to us. Now, under building institutions, you have the continuous development of civil service and also engendering open governance among our states. We realise that without an efficient and effective civil service there can be no good governance because they are the actual engine room that drives the political space. We’ve been able to work with several states in setting up institutions so in Ogun State as an example, we have the what we call the Ogun State reform institution, which was set up basically to ensure that no matter the government that comes in any reforms that goes into the civil service is sustained We have it in Lagos. We have it in Oyo. We have it in Ekiti. You see, the fact that we have the convening powers to bring six states together, we are able to ensure that good practices are copied or replicated across the states. So you find out that as an example, we have what we call the Committee of Practice, COP’s, for the Budget and Planning Commissioners as an example. So what you find out is in the six states, their budgeting practices are more or less the same because they tend to copy each other. The commissioners meet regularly, and through their meetings, they’re able to replicate the best practices among them. In the area of agriculture, we realised that for commodity prices, states were charging differently. So if you go and take your cocoa from Ondo State, the levy was different from what you were paying in Ogun or in Oyo. That disparity we realized was causing a bit of friction. So as DAWN Commission, we ere able to bring them together. And we all agreed on a uniform price. Through regional cooperation, we have dabbled into security issues as you know.

So you played a role in the setting up of Amotekun Corps?

Absolutely. Amotekun is the baby of the DAWN Commission. We are proud to say that. Yes, I remember that it was in 2019 that we were mandated to come up with solutions and ideas on how we can have effective security. And, you know, we are glad now that five years down the line, Amotekun is growing stronger. Yes, there are challenges here and there, but you should be wondering that what if we didn’t have Amotekun. You see, I’ve heard people ask me, what’s Amotekun doing? And I will say that it’s because you have them, that’s why you’re talking, I can tell you today that the security situation in South West would have been totally different. And thankfully the governors are cooperating. It is understandable if they have challenges, no society is 100% crime-free. So we are proud here at DAWN Commission to say that we were instrumental to the taking off of Western Nigeria Security Network, called Amotekun, and it can only get better.

On the issue of agriculture, it seems what we hear from meetings of the South-West governors are only communiqués and less practical outcome. What is being done?

You see, on agriculture, and I will try to restrict my answer here to probably the last 24 months. There’s been a change in the attitude of our political leaders here in South West to agriculture. I know we tend to compare what goes on in the north, agricultural-wise, with the situation here in South-West in particular. But I will say that in the last two years, there’s been a change because they’ve realized that, look, we cannot keep living on excuses. So what we have been able to do as a commission in the last two years is to do what we call a more focused research into agriculture so that the investments from the states are targeted investments. So if you look at what’s happening in Ekiti as an example now, today it is said that Ekiti now has the highest number of under-30s in agriculture, because of the different schemes that Ekiti State government has brought. In Oyo State, if you want to cultivate 10 acres, what the government has been doing is that they will then come and say okay rather than do 10 acres do 20 we will pay for 10 and that scheme has really worked. There’s a lot of money that has gone from Federal Government into irrigation to the neglect of what is happening in the south. Forgetting that our own irrigation problem is the issue of land clearing. It costs close to 700,000 or 800,000 to clear an acre of land here. Yes, I will say that the quantum of work that has gone into agriculture, but I can then assure you that this year they will see that noticeable difference in the market because okay, look at Governor Makinde as an example. He’s invested a lot of money in trying to resuscitate these farm settlements. So you need to take a trip down to Fashola, farm settlement as an example. States are coming up with idea of cluster farming. And this year, they are also trying to curb activities of middlemen, so that there will be noticeable difference in the market. People now are investing their money in livestock trying. Just a few days ago, a group of Brazilians came to Ogun State and said that they were going to invest $2.5 billion in livestock. And why did I even mention livestock? We are the biggest consumers of livestock in Nigeria. In the South West alone, an average of about 9,000 cows are slaughtered daily. At an average price of N400,000 per cow. That’s huge. So we are happy that President Bola Tinubu set up the Ministry of Livestock. As a pre-emptive strike to ensure the ministry works for everybody, we visited, officials of the ministry, What we’re doing are targeted things. We at DAWN Commission have identified 44 dams that are moribund in the South West. Our target is that even if you resuscitate just 20 out of that 44 the food that will come out of here will increase by over 200 per cent.

The South West Development Commission is coming, are you entertaining any fears as per its likely focus on development, going by the examples of NDDC and other federal agencies?

Thankfully, Mr. President has been setting up all these development commissions. The South West Development Commission is going to take off soon, Once Mr. President signs the bill for us at DAWN Commission, our job will be to hold them accountable and let them know that their duty is not to be digging boreholes or roofing classrooms. We are going to let them know that the templates for development of the zone is in place and since we have done the hardwork as the think-tank for the region, their assignment is to take up the major developmental objectives. We’ve worked on it over the last 10 years. So, we will say, in agriculture, just bring your money. Start resuscitating our dams. Focus on rail. Focus on power. If that’s the only three things they will do, transportation, agriculture, and power, that would mean a lot. Some have said, oh, won’t it be another NDDC? And we said, you see, it should be an abject failure on the part of the South West if when that development commission comes in and it goes down the way of just doing projects that have no resonance with the people. Because if a body like DAWN Commission has worked as a think tank for 10 years with templates for development, It behoves SWDC to now work with us.

That means you have sort of laid the foundation for its takeoff?

They don’t have to start whistling in the dark or in the wind. Because the foundation is there. If they want to spend money on rail today, all we need to do is give them the master plan. They can tweak it, but it means you are not starting from ground zero. If they want to do power, we already have the power master plan designed by experts. In agriculture I just told you we have what’s to be done.

The master plan that we designed links 44 towns and cities in South-West by rail. The good thing about rail is that the best way to fast track your development is rail transportation. You can move goods and people so easily. Look at what Lagos wants to do. Lagos is doing a rail line, the purple line from Redemption Camp to Volkswagen. That’s almost half of Lagos, it means that Oyo State at some point will connect and join. Because, you see, when I was at a meeting about three months ago, and I was talking about this rail thing, somebody said, ah, that’s a good idea. That’s very futuristic. And I said, no, sir, it is not futuristic. If 70 years ago, a group of men sat down in Western region and conceptualized Cocoa House. The construction started in 1957 and finished in 1964. It is 60 years this year because it was commissioned in 1965 by the late Chief SL Akintola. You understand? So what I’m saying is that if in western Nigeria 70 years ago some people sat in the room and thought of a Cocoa House, then why 70 years later, we are calling rail futuristic when in countries like UK, they’ve been traveling by rail for over 150 years so we’re already late and records tell us that in 1953 the Action Group government of Chief Awolowo/Akintola, set up a committee to look at rail in Western Nigeria. That was 1953..That is 72. years ago.

So you don’t see the commission as a threat to the balance in the South West?

You see, we want to count on something and it’s what we call the Omoluabi ethos of the Yoruba. And this is where I’m going. Well, of course, it’s going to be headed by somebody from the South West. There’s something we call Omoluabi. Omoluabi that begets rationality. There is no person that will be brought to head the place who will not be rational enough to know that I’ve been brought here to do a job, to serve the people. He would see how the DAWN Commission has been running with the governors. That when they come together, , they drop their partisan hats in their offices, they only think of South West development. The MD and Executive directors will understand that there is a reason it is called Development Commission. That Mr. President has his ideas why these things are being created. He said he wants to fast-track development. He wants development to come in clusters, not in silos. So, whoever is going to head this should not see himself as a parallel government, but they must work in tandem with the governors.

Maybe they would need to borrow a leaf from the governors, how they have been managing the DAWN Commission?

And moreover, whoever is appointed should also understand that, if the governors are having a say or trying to advise, they are not interfering in that sense. They are saying that, sir, ma, our money is also here. Let us collaborate. And you see, the crop of governors we have now in the South West, they too want development. They want to develop quickly. And i want to add that one of the most exciting things to happen in recent times is that Lagos to Calabar Road. And I will tell you why.

But It’s not going to cut across many South West states, whats the excitement?

Oh, no. This is the mistake we are making. The road is going to start from Lagos.. Yes. It’s going to drive through Ogun State to Ondo State and go further down south. Now, let me tell you this. If you leave Ahmadu Bello Way, once the road is done, in about one hour, or just over an hour, you are likely going to be at the Ondo State border. Now, one of the things we have been working on is trying to see how Ondo State and Ekiti, as an example, will now have to come together, maybe via an SPV to prioritize constructing a road that will link Ekiti, Ondo, to that road. it is not rocket science. From the northern road part of Ekiti, in Ikere, to the coast, that Araromi area, it’s about 240 kilometres. The majority of the road will pass through Ondo State. The goal is that it’s going to pass through the greenbelt, which means minimal demolition. So, if that Lagos to Calabar Road gets to Ondo, the pressure will now be on our governors in the hinterlander to do a link road. So that if that investor that you want to bring to your state is thinking, how do I get to your state. You can confidently say that in three hours if you leave Lagos you get to my state in the Ekiti. Or in two hours, you are in the hinterland of Ondo state. So the commercial benefits of that road is enomous for the South West.