By Seyifunmi Odunuga
A gubernatorial aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, has raised an alarm that the state would soon be bankrupt under the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde.
Alao in a statement by his Media Office in Ibadan titled, “Makinde a complete failure, disaster and mistake in governance”, said since the governor came into office in 2019, his administration has been synonymous with betrayal, corruption, thuggery, laziness in management, poor governance and investing in infrastructure development that is not going to recruit the teaming young graduates.
According to him, Makinde is deceitful with his look and demeanor and has taken the people for a ride, stating that his government is the most corrupt one in the history of the pacesetter state with unscrupulous projects designed to milk the state dry.
He maintained that the recent revelation by Dataphyte of the award of contract for school notebooks at N998m with each copy of 60 leaves costing N2,100, was an icing on the cake of the corruption going on in the state, stating that in every sector be it agriculture, health, road construction and infrastructural development the governor is out to destroy the state.
The Oman-based Project and Contract Management Specialist, added that after the arrest of the state Accountant-General, Alhaji Gafar Bello, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over N9 billion was allegedly deducted from the local government funds for the re-election of the governor in 2023 showed that he did not mean well for the state, insisting that the anti-graft agency created by Makinde was to divert attention from his atrocities.
While challenging Governor Makinde to come clean on the various projects with bogus budgets embarked upon by his administration, he said the N7 billon Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan to boost farm settlements in Akufo in Ido local government area and Eruwa in Ibarapa which he wrote the state House of Assembly in October 2019 to access has gone down the drain, noting that as at today no meaningful thing is going on in the two farm settlements in Akufo and Eruwa.
According to him, “Since Governor Makinde came on board it has been a litany of deceits with the administration taking delight in deceiving the people and mortgaging the future of the younger generation. At his inauguration in 2019, the governor promised a turn around in the agriculture sector such that the state would be exporting maize to Botswana to attract foreign exchange to boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), where is the maize?
“The governor similarly promised not to add to the debt profile of the state. This promise is nothing but a ruse as the latest data released by the Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed that the state’s total public debt increased to N178 billion as of December 31, 2021. It showed that Oyo State’s foreign debt stood at $85.27 million (N35.46 billion) and N142.56 billion for domestic debt. In 2020, Oyo State’s debt was N129.94 billion showing that each year it keeps increasing.
“Also, the education sector is nothing to write home about with many students in the public schools still sitting on the floor due to poor infrastructure.
“While the essence of any government is the protection of lives and property this is not the case in our state as the administration of Governor Makinde has elevated hooliganism to the highest level thereby impacting negatively on the image of the state.
“As of today, hoodlums have continued to reign terror in most parts of Ibadan, the state capital and other parts of the state causing deaths of many innocent people. For instance, Rahman Azeez was killed when members of the Park Manager System (PMS) unleashed terror on phone sellers in Iwo Road while many innocent others have also been killed in a similar situation.”
The APC gubernatorial aspirant insisted that rather than investing positively in the education sector, Governor Makinde has turned the pace setter state into a breeding school for hooligans and thugs, lamenting that he is more interested in youths of the state working in garages and motor parks that he is constructing with huge resources of the state.
