EKITI State Governor Kayode Fayemi Friday called for regionalism as a tool for national development and integration, just as he said the national question surfaced as a result of the faulty political design of the country as passed down from the period of colonial rule.
He made the call while presenting a lecture titled, 'Towards the resolution of the National Question: A Regional Response' at the 10th convocation ceremony of Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State.
The governor, who lamented that the problem facing the country were multi-faceted, noted that issues of marginalisation were matters that ought to be phased out in the quest for true federalism, adding that any prospect for genuine democratisation and development in Nigeria needed to be anchored on regionalism to succeed. Fayemi said the need to embrace regionalism remains a means of transcending the structure imposed by the "localisation of conflicts, while responding to the force-field of the nationalisation of political and economic realities."
According to him: "The challenges facing the state are regional, and possibly global, in scope, as they involve a range of national, sub-national, and trans-national actors, then their resolution would have to involve options that include regional ones."
He said the solutions to territorial boundaries in a country where power is located in sub-national and supra-national political, economic and social networks weaken the envisaged results of development.
Fayemi added: "The recognition of a multi-dimensional approach to development without a re-conceptualisation of delimiting state boundaries will undermine the quest for a holistic developmental agenda.
"This is apparent in the creation and enlargement of regional bodies in the past decade, such as the South-South's BRACED Commission, the Northern States Governor's Forum and the Southeast Governor's Forum."
