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.
