The president of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Alhaji Lukman Dauda, has praised Oyo State governor Seyi Makinde for making the state conducive to businesses.
Dauda, who also serves as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) Ltd, praised the governor for his free education policy, which he noted has enabled many poor parents to enroll their wards in schools.
He said, “The governor is doing his best to ensure that the standard of education in Oyo State is upgraded from where he met it.”
The NPA president added, “His interest in making education free at the basic level is laudable because of the low financial capability of many people in the state, but with the free education policy, they are able to send their children to school.”
Dauda noted that the state government’s free education policy would achieve the desired result, with the government providing books and improving the learning environment.
The Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) boss, who spoke in an interview, said, “One of the things investors look out for is security, which has been improved upon. At least we do our business without fear of anybody attacking us anyhow. We don’t approach sleep with one eye open and the other closed.
“Such things help in our business development; it even helps our pricing to make books affordable to the populace. Relatively, the atmosphere is conducive for business.”
Alhaji Dauda expressed the publisher association’s appreciation to the governor for making the cost of book reviews in the state very modest.
He said, “We thank the governor for ensuring that the book review process is not turned into an income-generating venture. We want to thank the government for being very modest in its approach towards book reviews.”
The NPA president called for collaboration with the state government, saying it would benefit the state and the populace.
According to him, “We can collaborate with the government. We know that the government’s purse is very lean, not just the Oyo State Government, but all governments. But we can see how we work together to get things done with that lean purse. We have done it before in other places; why not here also? Our NPA headquarters is in Ibadan, Oyo State, and we should be able to take advantage of that. And we have the president of the NPA here in Ibadan, too. Therefore, the state should prepare to leverage this opportunity to benefit its citizens.”
Dauda also praised Governor Makinde for doing his best to ensure that he leaves a lasting legacy in the state.
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