Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has said that his administration will continue to give its best to the state’s people despite the challenging times.
The governor said this on Thursday during the presentation of 28 18-seater buses to tertiary institutions in the state at the car park of the Governor’s Office, State Secretariat, Agodi, in Ibadan.
While addressing the students, Governor Makinde, who noted that the country is going through a challenging period, assured them that the period would soon be over, adding that his administration would never relent in giving the best to the state and its people.
The governor expressed his sympathy for the hardships the students faced during the tough times and encouraged them to endure, as the hardships would soon be over.
He also noted that he had just signed the state scholarship and bursary awards for 2024, stressing that he would ensure that the disbursement was seamless and conducted with integrity.
While enjoining the students to cooperate with the leadership of their institutions, he also expressed his appreciation to them for the uncommon support he has been enjoying from them right from the inception of his administration.
Governor Makinde said ‘Omituntun’, which is the embodiment of his political philosophy, has become a movement and would transcend 2027.
His words: “When I started with Omituntun in 2015, it did not yield anything. In 2019, we had Omituntun 2019, then we won. So, we started Omituntun 1.0. In 2023, the student body came out to support this administration massively, and again, we won. That gave birth to Omituntun 2.0. In 2027, Omituntun 3.0 is coming because ‘Omituntun’ is not about Seyi Makinde anymore. It is now a movement, and at various times different people will come to lead that movement.”
The governor said, “I am restoring my own personal scholarship scheme. I stopped it after I became governor, but now I see the need to restore it because the government alone cannot do enough.
“So the Seyi Makinde Scholarship Scheme will be in the paper in the next four weeks and will be disbursed in the next eight weeks.”
Earlier in his speech, the senior special assistant to the governor on student affairs, Victor Olojede, commended Governor Makinde for donating the buses, describing it as unprecedented in Nigeria’s history.
He said that no governor has ever donated buses to all tertiary institutions and student bodies simultaneously in the country’s history.
Other leaders who spoke on behalf of the students also commended Governor Makinde’s magnanimity toward the state students and described him as the most student-friendly governor.
The event was attended by the Deputy Governor, Barr. Bayo Lawal; the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin; the Head of Service, Mrs Olubunmi Oni; commissioners; and other dignitaries.
