Agriculture pivotal to development of South West region, says Ibikunle Amosun

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State says the time has come for the six states in South West geopolitical zone to “rekindle the spirit of the old Western Region” by depending solely on income from agriculture to develop themselves.

Besides, Amosun who spoke yesterday in Abeokuta at an economic integration conference organised by Dawn Commission, challenged the affected to invest heavily in youth education, noting such was inevitable for the development of any nation.

The four-day meeting, with the theme, “Innovative Governance and Effective Service Delivery “ and with participants from the six states in the zone, is to marshal out ways to robustly turn around the fortunes of the region.

The chief host assured all that his administration would implement the recommendations of the conference. His words: “We must not play with our development agenda, we must be steadfast in it. We must come together to discuss our progress. We must fashion out policies that will develop our zone. It is a must to look at where we have dropped the ball.

“Agriculture is important to us. It must be agriculture that will lead to industrialisation. We must be able to grow, process and package our agricultural produce.

“We have to make agriculture attractive to our youths. In the context of Nigeria, we are who we are. Lagos, Oyo are ready-made markets. I feel so sad that we cannot feed ourselves, yet we have fertile lands”.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mr. Abiodun Dabiri, said the state’s Urban Transport Project (LUTP) was a strategy of the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode cabinet to improve capacity for effective management of transportation statewide.

He noted that some African countries had begun understudying LAMATA, regretting that no state from the region had made move in that respect.