National Vice-Chairman, South-West of Accord, Chief Paul Igbinsola, on Monday, ex-rayed the performance of Gov. Seyi Makinde’s administration in the last year, saying that it falls below the expectations of the people of Oyo State.
Igbinsola told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that his party and the people of the state had not seen any meaningful development since the commencement of Makinde’s second term on May 29, 2023.
According to him, the state has been struggling with security challenges within the period under review, adding that the impacts of the money claimed to have been expended on security agencies had yet to be felt.
“The economic situation across the state is also at its worst stage due to the failure of the Makinde-led administration to lift the hope of the people despite the increase in revenue allocation from the Federal Government.
“Majority of small-scale business owners and farmers are not allowed to benefit from the low interest credit facilities and inputs from the state government because they are not members of the ruling party,” he said.
Igbinsola also criticised the state government for engaging in sales of lands in some Government Reservation Areas (GRAs) and those already occupied by professional groups to estate developers indiscriminately.
“In the last one year, we have witnessed a series of handing over of public and private lands to the so-called investors, all in the name of public-private partnership (PPP) initiative.
“Through this initiative, lots of the farmlands hitherto reserved for agricultural purposes have been converted to residential estates, with prices going beyond the reach of the masses,” he stated.
The party chieftain called for a reversal of some of the Makinde-led administration’s policies and programmes, which he described as anti-people.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, however, countered Igbinsola, insisting that his principal had recorded tremendous achievements in terms of development in all sectors.
According to Olanrewaju, the governor has been working day and night since the beginning of his second term in office by either flagging off-road construction or inaugurating the completed ones.
He said that about 170 kilometres of roads had been completed and inaugurated across the state within the last one year, adding that the 76.67-kilometre Ogbomoso- Iseyin road had been completed and would be inaugurated soon.
The governor’s spokesman listed the roads whose contracts had been awarded in the last one year to include: Ido-Eruwa road (48 kilometres), Ibadan circular road (32.2 kilometres) and inner roads within the Ibadan metropolis (84.75 kilometres).
He also mentioned the bush clearing of the 34-kilometre Northeast wing of Ibadan circular road as part of the ongoing projects in the state. In the area of education, Olanrewaju said that the rehabilitation and renovation of many school structures and provision of learning equipment had been done while the process of recruiting 7,000 primary school teachers had commenced.
He said that the agricultural sector was not left out, as the state government had supported farmers with seedlings and other inputs, while access to credit facilities had been provided to farmers and small business owners at single-digit interest rates.
This, he said, was aside from the provision of tractors at subsidised rates to farmers in the state. On workers’ welfare, the special adviser said the state was the first to announce the payment of wage awards to its workers and pensioners to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
He added that the governor had even extended the wage award payment beyond March, even when the Federal Government that introduced it had stopped paying its workers.
“We shouldn’t forget that backlogs of gratuities of retired civil servants have been cleared and that monthly pensions of retirees are now being paid promptly.
“Omituntun commuters buses are also everywhere across the state providing services to residents at cheaper fares.
“We have many other laudable achievements across all sectors that have been recorded under this administration in the last one year, while our people should be expecting more dividends of democracy,” he added.
