The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission said it had scheduled a conversation with presidential candidates of major political parties for November 2022 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
DAWN Commission, in a statement by its director-general, Mr Seye Oyeleye, said 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.
The statement reads: “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, the DAWN Commission is inviting the presidential candidates to outlay how they intend to incorporate the South West in their agenda for a united, peaceful, and prosperous Nigeria, with specific attention to the region’s peculiarities.
“DAWN Commission 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.”
DAWN added that the strategic intent of the invitation was to gather and dissect the candidates’ agendas and seek a cohesive, coherent, and balanced approach to fast-tracking Nigeria’s development as a strategic nation-state for the development of the African continent.
“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,” the statement added.
