Taking advantage of regional development paradigm
August 10, 2026 12:10 am
Sheriffdeen Tella
One of the legacies that the Bola Tinubu administration will bequeath to future Nigerian governments as a development paradigm is the reintroduction of a regional economic model. But it is not enough to reintroduce it; it must start working by providing the policy framework for its continuous existence and sustainability. It is incumbent upon the model’s originator to provide this framework, which will clearly articulate the source’s intention.
We can say that there is nothing new about regional economic development to warrant special attention. After all, the country started with a regional political framework before moving toward a state structure. There is a big difference between the current structure and the old. There was one central government with no state elements within the regional structure of the past, while sub-regional governments exist now. That can compound governance issues, more so if the states’ leaderships are not homogeneous but comprise different political parties with different ideologies. Currently, we cannot see differences in the ideology of the different political parties in Nigeria, but the situation will not be the same forever.
However, the country can fall back on some of the structures of regional governance of the past. This is particularly true for the Western Region Development, where some of the structure still exists either on paper or physically. While modern-day leaders have virtually jettisoned the laudable idea and the evidence of successful regional development projects established by the Chief Obafemi Awolowo government before and during the First Republic, it is clear that the Tinubu government feels there are still some good aspects that cannot be thrown away, particularly some developmental issues requiring optimal input-output relationship on a large scale.
In fact, what is in existence in the Southwest today can still serve as the bedrock for restarting regional economic development. Virtually all the important sectors that mattered in those days still have standing projects. The structure of the education and health sectors; the agricultural sectors with agricultural settlements and corresponding infrastructure; the industrial sector with industrial and housing estates; the commerce with Odua Group of Companies as the anchor institution, et cetera.
We may not need to re-invent the wheel totally but rely on experience and achievements.
Financing the regional development paradigm needs to be based on a concrete structure of a long-term regional development plan. I have always advocated for a long-term economic development plan for all tiers of government, and bringing this to a regional model of development should not be a surprise. The saying that “he who fails to plan, plans to fail” is true in all circumstances. Each regional development committee or body should present a 25- to 50-year regional development plan with programmes and projects to be executed clearly spelt out with the costs, benefits and timelines. The plan would have received ideas and legislative inputs from the constituent states, such that the state governments know that they have to collaborate with the regional managers in promoting and achieving regional developmental goals.
The template provided by Awolowo’s government can be reviewed and adopted or adapted by the regional committees. An in-depth study of the model is imperative, but a report or document on it should be available in a library like the University of Ibadan, where there existed a professorial chair in the name of Awolowo in the recent past. Even if such a study does not exist, it should not take a long time and fortune to put together a blueprint for regional economic development based on the Awolowo model as a foundation for developing a new, modern model.
A kind of sequence of thoughts metamorphosed into the Awolowo model. The initial thought was to promote human capital development starting with free education and free health services. The education aspects spread among technical, science, and humanities. Thus, the structure of the education institution at the lower levels consists of primary and secondary schools, teacher training and technical schools. Before the children started finishing primary schools, technical colleges, secondary schools, and teacher training schools were established.
Thereafter, the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) was established to cater for those who would go that far. Development in the health sector started with the establishment of primary health centres, then General Hospitals and the medical school in UNIFE for training of medical doctors and treatment of complex health issues.
Envisaging that graduates from the various schools would start looking for jobs, the Awolowo government established Agricultural Farm Settlements for those who would go for farming; industrial estates with electricity and road networks to encourage localisation of industries; and housing estates organised near industrial estates to promote orderly growth in physical planning. The establishment of industrial and housing estates promoted employment in the construction industry as well as employment of graduates from the tertiary institutions and semi-skilled labour.
It also established its own Western Region industrial concerns covering agro-allied firms, wire and cable, cement, hospitality businesses, and consumer goods industries. Finally, the government established a mega industrial/commercial infrastructure, the O’dua Group of Companies, to warehouse all Western Region businesses. It was a well-organised arrangement for growth and development.
Each region must take advantage of existing development initiatives in member states to develop economic development plans. There is also the need for cross-fertilisation of ideas within and among regions. Some states are coming up with initiatives in various areas, ranging from economics to security, electricity or power, and transportation networks. Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, an economist, boasts of a debt-free economy which is responsible for the state’s rapid development; Enugu State’s security instruments and Kaduna State’s architecture are worth emulating, while Abia State’s electricity initiative should be adopted regionwide or nationwide. The development of the transportation network in Lagos State deserves adoption nationwide. What one is saying here is that states and regions should copy or emulate programmes and projects from each other for the benefit of the Nigerian state.
The regional structure being introduced by the Tinubu administration must be consolidated from now to avoid derailment when the campaign for the next elections takes precedence over other issues. Let each region present its long-term economic blueprint and appropriate allocation made in the next budget. It is an initiative that is worth executing.
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