The 24-man committee has the following as its terms of reference: designing of a road-map for the economic and development recovery of the south-west geopolitical zone; examining areas of comparative advantage and areas of likely cooperation that is amenable to economic growth by the constituent States in the South-West and entrenching a robust legal framework for the operative mechanism of the regional integration of the South-West, among others.

Member States of the Western Region Integration Agenda include Lagos, Ogun, Oyo Osun, Ondo,Ekiti, and Edo. Recalling the feats of the region in the 50s, Fayemi said the region had pursued a “populist yet quality education policy” which resulted in its growth, had the highest GDP among the regions in Nigeria and produced a civil service which was reckoned as the best in Africa at the time.

Fayemi identified the long military era and deliberate policies of the Gederal Government as responsible for the regression and current slow pace of development in the region.  “This can be seen in the deterioration in the quality of education in the Region, infrastructural decay and the inability of the Region to re-invent itself.

  The situation became further compounded by the emergence of core reactionaries on the corridors of power, he said.