The South West Development Stakeholders Forum (SWDSF) is set to engage with the leading presidential candidates to explain their security and development plans for the southwest region ahead of the February 25 presidential election.
The SWDSF, representing 30 grassroots southwest interests and associations across party, religious and ethnic affiliations, said it has invited Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar, of the People’s Democratic Party, and Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP).
Also invited are Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress(AAC); Kolawole Abiola, of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); Rabiu Kwankwaso, of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), and Adewole Adebayo, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The SWDS consists of the Yoruba World Centre, ODUACCIMA, Egbe Omo Yoruba in North America, professional women’s group, Yoruba Ko’ya Leadership & Training Foundation, Majeobaje, Oranmiyan Hunters Association, farmer groups, town development unions, the academia, the chambers of commerce and diaspora associations.
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The parley which will hold at Jogor Centre, Ibadan, on January 17 and 18, 2023, according to the organisers is to find common grounds between presidential manifestoes and the aspirations and development plans of the southwest people of Nigeria as spelt out in the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN). DAWN is a non-partisan blueprint prepared jointly by the six Yoruba states, for the region’s security and socio-economic development.
The group also stated that the parley will increase voters’ understanding and turnout in the southwest in the 2023 elections.
Despite its historical trajectory as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, its strategic political importance for a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria, and huge potential in driving national growth and development, the southwest has received little or no strategic consideration in the manifestos of the various presidential candidates.
Beyond party affiliations, religious and ethnic disparities, the over 50 million people of the southwest of Nigeria need to hear directly from the presidential candidates, how they will work with Yoruba people, and indeed all Nigerians living in the southwest, to address issues of insecurity and worsening quality of life in the region,” the group said.
