2023: DAWN Commission to Hold Interactive Session with Presidential Candidates in Ibadan

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

A technocratic institution for the sustainable development of the South-west region, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, yesterday said it would hold an interactive session with the presidential candidates of major political parties for the 2023 general election in the country.

The Director-General of the commission, Mr. Seye Oyeleye, who made the disclosure in a statement yesterday, said the interactive session will hold in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in November.

He added that it would afford the presidential hopefuls the opportunity to articulate their agenda as it specifically relates to South-west presidential hopeful, stating that the parley will provide an opportunity for the politicians to robustly engage critical stakeholders in Southwest and Nigeria on how they intend to turn the country around if elected in 2023.

According to him, “The idea of the public interactive session with the presidential candidates of the major political parties in the 2023 general election was informed by the need to allow the candidates’ engagement with critical segments of the South-west public on their agenda, plans and programmes.

“With a population of about 50 million, its historical trajectory as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, strategic importance and huge potential for national growth and development, DAWN is inviting the presidential candidates to outlay how they intend to incorporate South-west region in their agenda for a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria with specific attention to the region’s peculiarities.

“DAWN is further moved by the need to prevent the seeming uncertainties in the Nigerian political environment as well as the constant proclivities of political changes, both within the region and the country in general, from getting in the way of sustainable development.

“The strategic intent is to get and dissect the agenda of the candidates,  and looking towards a cohesive, coherent and balanced approach to fast-track the development of Nigeria as a strategic nation-state for the development of the African continent.

“It will also be an opportunity for the candidates to articulate their plans in the face of the clamour by the people of the Southwest for an unhindered and unconstrained socio-economic development.

“The DAWN commission convenes this event in recognition of its role as a strategic institution to pursue the composite development interests of Southwest, not as an exclusive territory, but as a region with her own unique orientation, challenges and development priorities within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Oyeleye stated that the parley would build on a similar one organised by the Northern Nigerian leaders under the umbrella of Arewa Joint Committee.