Oyogist.com has gathered Governor Seyi Makinde’s quarterly media chat on Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo state, BCOS TV, in Ibadan.
When asked: “Are you thinking of cabinet reshuffle?
He said: “We only do things that can add value. I won’t say we will reshuffle just because it’s been 2 years. By May 29, 2021 when we have clocked 2 years in office, we will assess the performance of the cabinet.”
“If you are doing well you will continue, if not I will do the right thing. I have reshuffled in the past. So, if I see what needs to be acted on, I will take the right action after doing internal checks to ensure the people of Oyo State are given the best.”
“Even the Permanent Secretaries; just recently I moved a PS , who even goes to same church as my father because they were not doing a good job.”
“Recently, there was fake news in the papers about the IUFMP World Bank project. When we came in, we discovered that the contractors were mostly Lebanese and the jobs were not even properly done. So I moved to put a stop to awarding more contracts to them.”
“I made a promise to the people of Oyo State that even though I may not be right all the time because I am human and can make mistakes with the decisions we are taking, I will be honest with them all the time.
Question on the Park Manager’s court case:
He said: “Yes, the judgement was given and I acknowledge that we were wrong and we have told the LGAs to go and do what they have to do. If anyone is planning anything bad, I’m appealing to them not to carry it out.”
Question about land given to Fulani herdsmen to Arapaja Odo Ona:
He said: “This is falsehood. I have not seen, heard or signed anything to give any land away to Fulani herdsmen in Oyo State.”
“At the Governors’ forum this week, I said the rearing of cow or any animal is a private business and private persons can decide to do what they want, buy land and start their business. The government should not champion it , and that’s my position.”
On Education:
He said: “I promised the people of Oyo State that we must meet up with UNESCO recommendation of at least 15-20% of the total budget should be committed to education. In 2019, budget performance was 60%. Under the previous admin, the highest was 37%.”
“Despite the pandemic and economic melt down in 2020, we still thrived in our state. This was achieved by blocking loop holes and leakages in our expenditure. In Ibadan Polytechnic, they have saved N1 billion, I have told them they should invest it in capital projects.”
“We all have to make a decision on how to create prosperity in our state. I always put how people first. Even before I called the Sasa curfew, I knew it won’t be easy because the livelihoods of people depend on this.”
“That’s why I put out the statement that people should come together and maintain peace so we can reopen the market because people have to eat.”
“In the past we have had a trust deficit between the people and government. The Head of Service confirmed that the number of petitions have reduced. We are here to listen to the people because we are accountable to them. We want to rebuild trust between the people and the govt.”
“On civil servants that forged certificates, were fired or suspended:
We are looking at the cases. Some people went to court and won, I directed that they should reinstate them. We are still looking into the rest of cases.”
“On civil servants that forged certificates, were fired or suspended:
We are looking at the cases. Some people went to court and won, I directed that they should reinstate them. We are still looking into the rest of cases.”
Q -Some teachers wrote, they were seconded from primary to secondary school:
He said: “Some of these issue have been around since 2011. I’m aware of their case and we have engaged SUBEB and TESCOM to look at it. These people are still being paid. Give us time and all will resolved.”
Q- Position of the government on LAUTECH:
He said: “LAUTECH is meant to be a citadel of learning. Now that the ownership is resolved, we can focus on making it one so it can also contribute to the economy. We have achieved what could not be achieved by previous admins from the same party.”
“The Governing Council of LAUTECH will be in place in the next one week. I believe that very soon they will be up and running. The current VC instigated the union that if Oyo State has N8 billion, they should have used the money to pay outstanding salaries.”
“If this was a military regime, he would have been fired. But we run a government based on the rule of law. I said let the new governing council come in and let them do their job and they will investigate and do the right thing.”
“I came in 2019, there have been issues since 2015. Some of the issues are linked to the ownership issue. I appeal to people to be patient, we have been in this struggle for years. They haven’t done 2-3 convocations at LAUTECH, so give the new governing council time to work.”
Q- On Waste Disposal:
He said: “Awotan dumpsite was an eyesore when we assumed office. The area was smelling and ground water was contaminated. When we came in we cleaned things up, I will commission the new dumpsite on Feb 25, 2021. It’s ready. They are doing remedial work in Apete now. Under the new architecture which we put in place, the PSPs are paid based on the refuse they bring into the dumpsite.”
On roadside trading:
“I said this before, the law against this is even for their own safety. It’s not right. We have designated a place where people can trade (neighborhood market). To remove people from the road side, we have to enlighten people not to patronise roadside hawkers.”
“At the Scout Camp market, I told them not to pay in 2020. Now, I said they shouldn’t pay in 2021. We have to ensure that we let people know the danger involved in roadside trade and also people patronising them. We are making effort but we still haven’t solved it.”
“If people take ownership, the government won’t even have to enforce it. It is a combination of engaging the sellers and buyers. Force cannot solve it. It hasn’t resolved it in the past and it wont solve it now.”
“I don’t support the idea the enforcement of environmental sanitation/restriction of movement on the last Sat of every month. It’s a carry over from military era. I advised the commissioner that we should try a different approach, to let people know that everyday is environmental. We have bins now at strategic places and if people are doing regular daily sanitation, things will improve.”
Q- Cultural centre
“We will continue with the effort to ensure that we engage people that we can concession it to. We’ve done this successfully at Agbowo Shopping Complex. The government cannot do all these alone. We are open to PPP arrangements for it.”
Q -Secondary School first aid boxes:
“This shouldn’t be something that we should bring to the governor. The people in charge should step up to their responsibilities.
Tutor Generals (like PS) will be appointed soon and we will hold them responsible, I signed this yesterday.”
On LAUTECH multi-campus:
He said: “Re asking NUC to convert LAUTECH to conventional university. I promised that I will give Iseyin a higher institution. The College of Agric and Natural Sciences will be situated there. We will fix the Iseyin-Ogbomoso road so that the link is easy. (Iseyin- Ogbomoso is a federal road). All our achievements are based on proper planning, data and logic.”
Social media posts:
“I think there is deliberate attempt to draw us out in Oyo State. Yes, I left a WhatsApp group, because I don’t want to spend my time on rumours and unfounded things.
Even on the PDP forum, I can see numbers of people that are not PDP.”
“I told the admin if you want to form PDP group it should consist of only PDP members.”
“They spoke about me standing behind in the picture in Sasa. The Seriki can’t stand properly, so I stood behind to support him when the picture were taken. The complaints about my position by people who don’t even know what happened were unnecessary.”
“They complained about me standing up to address the Seriki too. As for me Seyi Makinde, if you know any one I have to prostate to to stop loss of lives let me know know I will do it. I don’t want needless deaths or killing in Oyo State.”
On Education:
“For JAMB Oyo State has the highest enrollment in Nigeria according to data, it shows how our education policies make sense.”
On TESCOM recruitment:
He said: “his is the first time that people that getting employment don’t know anyone. When they brought the report, I asked them to go and recheck the scores. They discovered that out of the first 5,000, for about 700 they didn’t have the data.”
“So, I stopped the process. So one of my aides said that we should not jeopardize the rest because of 700 people. So, I gave the go ahead. Yesterday, I gave approval for another 30. People should be patient so we can do the right thing and not let corrupt people win.”
“Our effort to expand our economy using agriculture and agro processing. The corn we are producing here is not acceptable in the international community. That is why we moved towards cassava. So, I appeal to people to support our effort.”
“If they are not sure, they should come to us and we will explain. We are not taking our people for granted, we will tell them how things are. They shouldn’t allow themselves to be used.”
On security:
He said: “Traditional rulers, elders, stakeholders etc. should all participate. Don’t leave all to the governor. When you see a new face or faces (the Okeho robbery- the robbers were in the town for a while planning)… when you see something call the attention of govt to it.”
Thank you for joining me.
