South West Development Commission Should Be Established – Ibikunle Amosun

Posted by: Folamidavid in Politics, News Nov 15, 2019

Nigerian senator, Ibikunle Amosun has revealed why he is sponsoring a bill seeking the establishment of South West Development Commission.

According to him, it is for the development of the people and the South West region.

The bill “South West Development Commission (Est, etc) Bill, 2019” was read for the first time during plenary on Thursday.

Mr. Amosun added that the bill is co-sponsored by other lawmakers from the South West.

His words, “But of course you will notice that there is no way the Nigerian nation can be described without some kind of prominent mention to those from the South West and what we contribute to Nigeria as a nation,”

“Look at just the contribution of Lagos State to Nigeria as a nation. So I think there should be some kind of special status but not just for Lagos alone now.

“Of course we are saying whatever happens in Lagos happens in Ogun State. For me, Ogun State is the industrial hub of Nigeria. See the population that we have and what we are contributing to Nigeria,”

“But in doing that we should not be oblivious of the fact that we need to continue to develop too and that is why we are bringing this Bill.”

Do you agree?

Ibikunle Amosun (born 25 January 1958) is a Nigerian politician who was elected senator for the Ogun Central district of Ogun State, Nigeria in April 2003. In April 2007 he made an unsuccessful bid to be elected governor of Ogun State. He ran for governor again on 2011, and this time was elected on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform. He ran for office for the 2nd Term under the All Progressives Congress in 2015 and was re-elected and sworn into office May 29, 2015.

Amosun was born on 25 January 1958 to a Muslim family. He attended primary school at African Church Primary school in Abeokuta (1965–1970), and then African Church Grammar school, Abeokuta (1971 – 1977). He then went to Ogun State Polytechnic, graduating with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in 1983. Amosun gained an Associate membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in 1990. He became a fellow of the Institute in 1996. He also became an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (1998).

Amosun began his career as an audit trainee with Lanre Aremu & Co. (Chartered Accountants) 1984. Later he joined XtraEdge Consulting as a managing consultant. From 1990 he was Principal partner of Ibikunle Amosun & Co. (Chartered Accountants) in Lagos. Amosun went to the University of Westminster in London, United Kingdom, where he acquired a Master of Arts in International Finance in 2000.

In 2015 Amosun stood for a second term as governor. He chose, Yetunde Onanuga, as his running mate of the state governor. He had to find a new running mate as his previous deputy governor had defected to an opposition party. Amosun chose Onanuga who had been working in the Lagos State Ministry of Environment over three other possible candidates. On the 29th of May 2019, Amosun handed over to his successor, Dapo Abiodun after completing the constitutional maximum two terms of eight years as a governor. However he was elected as the senator for the Ogun central senatorial district at the National Assembly.