Southern govs unveil five-point agenda for region’s development

Abiodun emerges forum’s chairman, Soludo vice chairman

by Olayinka Olukoya and Wale Akinselure
June 25, 2024

The newly elected chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Governor Dapo Abiodun, has unveiled a five-point agenda of the forum under his leadership.

While the governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, became the vice chairman, Abiodun emerged as chairman to succeed Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who died last December after s protracted illness.

Issues on the agenda, according to Abiodun, include Security, Infrastructure, Food Security and Agriculture, Transportation and Devolution of Powers.

Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today Monday evening, Abiodun said the focus of the governors is socio-economic development of the Southern zone, which he said would be pushed under the ‘Southern States Development Agenda.’

Mentioning security as first priority, Abiodun said the governors are in support of state policing such that governors are indeed chief security officers of their states, adding that the zone is resolute about establishment of a regional security outfit.


He said that the governors remained keen on state police and community policing, having discovered that the federal police lacked the manpower, resources and understanding of the terrains so as to quickly detect and arrest acts of criminality.

The forum’s chairman said that southern governors were also keen on regional integration through infrastructure.

He said the zone was intent on having a multi-modal transport infrastructure to connect road, air, rail, water transportation to aid the movement of foods and services and investment.

He particularly lauded the administration of President Bola Tinubu for initiating the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, which he said epitomized the intended infrastructure drive of the forum.

While acknowledging the current high cost of food items in the country, Abiodun said that the governors resolved to be more deliberate about promoting agriculture and food security in their various states.

He noted that the Southern region had millions of hectares of arable land, adding that the zone had no reason not to grow what it eats as well as export its cash crops.

He said the states resolved to really key into their competitive and comparative advantages in the overall interest of the zone.

Abiodun also identified the push for devolution of powers as top on the priority of the Southern Governors, which he said would ensure that the states no longer rely on federal allocation.

Specifically, he said the Southern governors demanded that the Federal Government transfers to states some Trunk A roads, as well as grant the states more powers for exploitation and exploration of resources in their domains including Value Added Tax (VAT).

To achieve their goals, Abiodun said that the Southern governors would meet quarterly, while the meetings would rotate among the states of the zone.

Southern Nigeria Has No Business Not Growing What We Eat – Dapo Abiodun

He said Southern governors have decided to be more deliberate and intentional about promoting agriculture and ensuring food security in the region.

By Donatus Anichukwueze
Updated June 24, 2024

The newly-elected chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, says with over 8 million hectares of land, Southern Nigeria should be self-sufficient in food production.

Governor Abiodun, who emerged as the chairman of the Forum at their meeting in Abeokuta on Monday, said this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

He noted that the Forum made up of all the 17 governors in the Southern part of Nigeria has decided to be more deliberate about promoting agriculture and ensuring food security in the region.

“What we discussed as a region was to ensure that we become more deliberate and more intentional about food security and agriculture,” Governor Abiodun said.

“This is a region that has over 8 million hectares of land; we don’t have any business not growing what we eat and eating what we grow.

“So, governors resolved that going forward. We are going to be intentional and more deliberate about promoting agriculture and ensuring food security.”

The focus on food security and agriculture is only one of the many issues discussed by the governors in the meeting, according to the Ogun State governor.

He said that infrastructural development was also among the areas the governors resolved to look into, adding that they decided that the region must have a multi-modal transport master plan that will connect rail, road air, and water transportation.

The move, according to the governor, follows the realisation by the Forum that transportation is a key enabler in investment promotion, facilitation, and of course the general well-being of the people.

According to him, the governors spoke about insecurity in the region, backing state, community, and regional security outfits which he said almost all the zones in the region have set up.

With Governor Abiodun’s emergence on Monday as the new chairman of the Forum, he replaces the former governor of Ondo State, the late Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who held that position until his death in December 2023. The governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo will serve as his deputy.

Governor Abiodun assured that Nigerians will see a new, repositioned, refocused Southern Governors’ Forum going forward.

Southern Governors Back Fubara On Tenure Of Local Govt Chairmen In Rivers State

Speaking on behalf of other Governors from the region, Abiodun said if tenure extension is allowed, then it will become a reference point in the future and such is capable of truncating democracy in Nigeria.

Governors of the southern region of the country have thrown their weight behind Gov Siminalayi Fubara's position on the tenure of local government chairmen in Rivers State.

Speaking on the political upheaval in Rivers State based on the tenure of local government chairmen, the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, said it was unconstitutional for anybody to extend the tenure of constitutionally elected public servants.

He argued that the law is very clear on the tenure of elected officials, and when the tenure expires, there is no need to extend it by whatever means.

Speaking against the backdrop of the decision of the Rivers State House of Assembly to extend the tenure of the local government chairmen in the state, but which was refused by Governor Fubara, who then went ahead to appoint caretaker chairmen, Abiodun in an interview with a national television said it would be a dangerous precedent to extend the tenure of local government chairman.

Speaking on behalf of other Governors from the region, Abiodun said if tenure extension is allowed, then it will become a reference point in the future and such is capable of truncating democracy in Nigeria.

He said: “On local government administration, it is a constitutional issue that will be put to rest at a point in time.

“When your tenure has expired, it stands to reason that your tenure has expired.

“It is not up to the governor of that state or anybody else to extend the tenure of the local government chairmen.

“The collective position of the governors is that it would be a dangerous precedent and an abuse of the democratic ethos for the tenure of an elected local government chairman to expire and for anyone to imagine that their tenure can be extended by one day.

“I think that puts that matter to rest. If that is not the case, that becomes a precedent, a reference point, and the thing is that somebody will ask for a tenure extension.

“Our democracy has evolved and we should not do anything to truncate the process.”

Abiodun, who revealed that the forum also agreed on a modal transport master plan for the region as part of infrastructural development, noted that the governors were delighted with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the award of the coastal road project.

“We spoke about infrastructure. For us to be regionally integrated, we must have the infrastructure for investment facilitation, promotion, for enhancing movement of goods and services.

“On that note, we were unanimously appreciating President Tinubu for the construction of the coastal road.

“This road connects almost all southern states. It is a key enabler of economic development like no other. It will also create a lot of job opportunities.

“We also spoke of the need for the Federal Government to transfer some of the Trunk A roads to the states if a state government is prepared to take on such roads.

“We also agreed to have a modal transport master plan that allows us to connect rail, water and road transportation because we realised that transportation is key to enabling investment promotion, facilitation and the general wellbeing of our people.”

naptu2:
The first meeting of the southern governors in the 4th Republic was held in Lagos in October 2000. The Southern Governors Summit was used to coordinate the fight for resource control and more importantly, the fight against the onshore/offshore dichotomy. It was also used to demand for devolution of powers (state police, etc.).

Offshore/Onshore Dichotomy.

The 1999 constitution stated that a percentage of mineral revenue that was derived from a state should be given to that state. It also stated that the National Assembly should meet to determine what the percentage would be, but it must not be less than 13%.

The Federal Government led by President Olusegun Obasanjo paid the states 13% of the revenue derived from minerals in their states. This was because the National Assembly did not set any percentage, so the Federal Government simply used the percentage that was mentioned in the constitution.

However, there was a problem.

The Federal Government stated that any mineral (that is, crude oil) that was found in the ocean, off the continental shelf of a state, belonged to the Federal Government and it would not pay any derivation funds to any state for it.

The states argued that they must have a share of the revenue from such minerals, regardless of the fact that they are in the ocean.

The battle was waged in the National Assembly and in the courts. State governments sued the Federal Government. The state governors were meeting to coordinate their strategy, but then there was a division. A few northern state governments took the side of the Federal Government and so the Southern governors then decided to coordinate their strategy through the Southern Governors Forum.

Politics crept in ahead of the 2007 elections and the Southern Governors Forum did not meet between 2005 and 2017. Their wives continued to hold meetings, but the Southern Governors Forum did not meet.

Until recently, the host governor usually acted as chairman and spokesman of the forum.


List of Southern Governors Forum meetings

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, October 2000.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200010100252.html


Southern Governors Forum meeting, Enugu, January 2001.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101150174.html

Conclave of Governors (report of the Southern Governors Summit in Enugu)
https://allafrica.com/stories/200101150096.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Benin, March 2001.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200103190380.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Ibadan, September 2001.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200109110026.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Owerri, November 2001.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200111140102.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Port Harcourt, March 2002
https://allafrica.com/stories/200203110194.html

7th Southern Governors Forum meeting, Akure, July 2002.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200207120292.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, February 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200402060556.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Benin, December 2004
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060193.html

Nigeria: Southern Govs. Summit: Igbinedion Carpets FG Over Anambra Crisis
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060258.html

Nigeria: Deductions: Southern Govs Lash FG
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060349.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, February 2005
https://allafrica.com/stories/200503010200.html

Udenwa makes case for southern governors forum. March 2005.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503020368.html


Southern Governors Forum To Meet In Lagos 12 Years After Last Meeting (Lagos, 2017)
https://www.nairaland.com/4130625/southern-governors-forum-meet-lagos


Southern Governors Forum meeting, Asaba, May 2021
https://www.nairaland.com/6548268/insecurity-southern-governors-meet-asaba

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, July 2021
https://www.nairaland.com/6634966/southern-governors-meet-lagos-today

Specifically, the Southern governors demanded that the Federal Government transfers to..... grant the states more powers for exploitation and exploration of resources in their domains including Value Added Tax (VAT).

Nigeria: Lagos State Governor Justifies Meeting of Southern Governors

Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
By Segun Adeyemi

10 OCTOBER 2000


Lagos, Nigeria — Host Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu has justified Tuesday's maiden meeting of governors of the 17 states in southern Nigeria, saying such a gathering was necessary to strengthen the country's fledgling democracy.

In an apparent reference to criticism of such gathering as sectional and divisive, he said it should actually be encouraged and supported.

Nigeria: The Inside Story Of Southern Governors Parley In Enugu


14 JANUARY 2001

OPINION
By Jide Ajani

Lagos — It is not everyday that the executive governor of a state sits by his phone, calls his colleagues and extracts a commitment from them. But to host the Southern Governors Forum, it is increasingly becoming a ritual that every prospective host governor would have to go through.

It is necessary, and it will become more so as development gets stormier in the country. It was on the telephony note that the last lap of the preparations for the second in the series of the Southern governors' parley kicked off.

Nigeria: Conclave Of Governors


15 JANUARY 2001

The News (Lagos)
By Uba Aham

Lagos — When Senator Bola Tinubu, Lagos State Governor, strolled out of the conference hall of the Nike Lake Resort Hotel after the second summit of the Southern Governors, 10 January, he expressed his approval of the resolutions reached at the summit. "I am elated about our resolution to establish state police," he told this magazine. "Security," he asserted, "is a right, not a privilege for the people". The Governor who is an advocate of state police argued that the present situation whereby security of the masses is solely entrusted to the federal police gives room for fraud, irregularity and abuse of power. The governors, according to Tinubu, would not allow the issue of state police to be sabotaged by any act of omission or commission. He said they were determined to pursue it to a logical conclusion.

The summit had in its nine-point communique endorsed by all the 17 Southern governors, resolved that a constitutional amendment empowering states to establish the state police be pursued.

Nigeria: Southern Governors Meet Again In Benin City On March 26


19 MARCH 2001
Vanguard (Lagos)
By Jide Ajani, Political Editor

Lagos — Governors of the 17 southern states will between March 26 and 28 storm Benin City, the Edo State capital, for the third Southern Governors' Forum, Vanguard can reveal.

According to information available to Vanguard, the governors would, at the meeting, decide on how to tackle the federal government on the issue of revenue allocation.

Nigeria: Owerri to Host Next Southern Governors' Summit


11 SEPTEMBER 2001
The Guardian (Lagos)
By Tolu Olarewaju And Kola Alade

Ibadan — OWERRI, the Imo State capital is to host the fifth Southern Governors summit. The date, however, is yet to be determined

The two-day summit in Oyo State came to an end yesterday. Traditional drummers were on hand to bid state chief executives fare-well as they emerged from the council chambers, venue of the meeting.

Nigeria: Resource Control Tops Agenda of Southern Governors Summit

11 MARCH 2002
This Day (Lagos)
By Oma Djebah

Port Harcourt — The sixth quarterly summit of the 17 southern governors kicked off yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital with resource control and True Federalism topping the agenda.

By 7pm yesterday, no fewer than 10 of the 17 governors had arrived, throwing the oil city of Port-Harcourt into a carnival mood.

naptu2:


https://tribuneonlineng.com/southern-govs-unveil-five-point-agenda-for-regions-development/