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THE launch of the national agenda by the National Prosperity Movement aimed at drumming support for the presidential ambition of Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi in 2023 suffered a major setback as prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in South West shunned the gathering held at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Ibadan.

Investigations by Vanguard revealed that the party leaders from the zone distanced themselves from the meeting in solidarity with the APC National leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, who has since signified interest to contest for the President in next year’s election.

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Some of the party chieftains, who spoke on why they stayed away from the event, described the aspiration of current Governors’ Forum Chairman, Fayemi, as dead on arrival.

The venue of the event, which was largely occupied by attendees mainly from Ekiti state, also had political aides of Governor Fayemi and some politicians from Osun state.

In his paper presentation at the event, the Director General, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN, Mr. Seye Oyeleye said the unity and progress of the Nigerian-Nation-State have been heavily marred by the systemic and structural deficiencies evident in Nigeria prior to independence which

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was subsequently worsened by the intervention of the military.

While explaining the need to establish a relationship between the Nigeria Agenda, Civic Nationalism, and Leadership, Oyeleye also harped on the need for a broad-based constitutional development process for the sustainable development of the country.

“The national question in this context simply refers to deliberating on the efforts that will accommodate the competing and often, diverse interests and ideologies

of several ethnicities, tribes, religions, cultures and some would say class, existing within

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one geographical entity. It is the debate as to the order of the relations between the different ethnic, linguistic and cultural groupings so that they have the same rights and freedoms, access to power, and an equitable share of resources.”

He noted that Nigeria’s present and future needed to be determined by the will of the people, saying Nigeria is currently being run against the will of the people, as the constitution serving as the social contract of the country is illegitimate without any input from Nigerians.

Addressing Nigeria’s constitutional deficiency, the DAWN boss said it was the first step to addressing the national question and consequently pursuing the Nigeria Agenda.

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“All other efforts aimed at solving our challenges are tantamount to putting the horse before the cart. The structural and systemic inefficiencies would continue to stall progress and breed disunity.” He stated

(Sun)