THE South West typifies the challenges regionalisation poses and the fact that zest in pushing for it is not adequate for its realisation. With its Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN, it is clearer that regionalisation is not only about economic integration. Without political integration, the movers know DAWN is doomed.

DAWN is not the earliest document on economic integration; it is the most forceful though. The obstacle that the other five South West States face in not gaining the attention of Ondo State is both a statement on the doubts over DAWN as well as the unexplained place of political pluralism in regional integration.

Will regionalisation mean that only one political party, one political view would be permitted in the area? The movers may not firmly answer this, but obviously, regional economic integration requires political integration of the zone.

The South East Economic Commission, SEEC, concluded a report on the economy of the South East more than four years ago. It had the same objectives as DAWN, but shied away from pushing the political platform. The report no longer gets mention s – the South East straddles two political parties, and looks less agreeable on any matter.

BRACED, the proposed economic union of the South South is ahead of the other groups, being the only to have appointed a director-general, yet it is there by name. Politics, even in the once one-party South South (before Edo went its way), did not allow the union the expected growth. The South South has unique challenges, being the only grouping so far, that is not relying on former regional binding , cultural and ethnic affinities, which the South West and South East have.

Politics will always be at the centre of economic decisions, particularly when the decisions would include States devolving the economic, social, and parliamentary powers to a central body. Present constitutional constraints weaken prospects of regional governments.

Some consider regional powers too enormous to be handed to an individual or a group without profound pondering of the implications. Beyond mouthing the goodness of regional integration, do today’s politicians have the capacities that made the regions work? Regional advocates tend to forget that the former regions came through law, not integration of interests. How have they involved the people, who should be the beneficiaries of these decisions?

Ondo State’s position on regional integration (its askance) is a challenge as well as an opportunity that the South West should embrace less truculently. If Ondo State is raising questions, they should be answered. In those questions may be found some areas that the quest for regionalism has ignored; those questions are early tests of pluralism in regionalism.