BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN—MANY Yoruba sons and daughters under the aegis of the Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, brainstormed in Ibadan, weekend on how the South West geopolitical zone can wake up from its slumber and be a beacon of hope for the younger generations.

The group, at a three-day retreat at University of Ibadan lamented that the zone suffered in the hands of political hawks and proponents of mainstream politics.

Led by its Chairman, Mr. Wale Oshun, the group said: “The mainstreams had always contended that mainstreaming would enhance the growth of our region, it perhaps, enhanced the growth of their pockets. What mainstreaming has done for the people of the Western region is to stagnate their growth. Please look around you, broken down infrastructure, falling standards, and a dispirited people”.

Still itemizing the scars and bad legacies that bad leadership had left in the zone, the Yoruba leader stated that in recent times our people had spoken of the cyclical governance model “that sees us through a short spell of growth under progressive regimes and a very long spell of retrogression under manipulative and retrogressive regimes. The sum total is that of negative growth and this we see all around us”.

“We seek to reverse this trend. We can only do this if we continuouslyremind and encourage the mandate holders, the office holders that our people deserve the best. Those who held office before them in the Western region of old, the Western region of Chief Obafemi Awolowo did their best, and some of us here seated are the products of those
efforts,” the group said.

In attendance at the all-important retreat were former Minister, commissioners and many other important dignitaries.
Among them are Dr. Olu Agunloye, Mr Femi Orebe, Mr. Tokunbo Ajasin, Prof. Kunle Lawal and Mr Kunle Fagbenle and others.

The Secretary, Governing Board of the Yoruba Academy, Mr.  Dipo Famakinwa, “We are working out how people in the region can synergize to make regional development work.”