The Executive Assistant to the administration of Governor Seyi Makinde, Reverend Idowu Ogedengbe said the administration of Seyi Makinde is set to start building on the solid foundation that has been laid over the last 365 days. He stated this while speaking with journalists in Ibadan in commemoration of Makinde’s first year anniversary in office. Ogedengbe said, “I have said it on many occasions that what we met on ground when we came in was an environment that was in disarray, we didn’t really meet much structure or order on ground. There wasn’t even any well collated hand over note that could help us to navigate our way as a new government in order to be able to understand how things were done in the immediate past administration so that we could build on that as a starting point; so that we could have a template to guide our initial administrative decisions and actions. However, we didn’t have any such thing.”
“So we have to learn the ropes on our own ,we had to bring in our knowledge, skill, particularly considering the fact that our Governor has been a major player in the private sector, he obviously understands structures, we came in and we started navigating and trying to build a lasting and formidable structure for governance in Oyo State and we believe that by the time we will be handing over to the next government, they will have a solid blueprint to build on and to guide their activities.”
Ogedengbe however said one of the things Makinde made a commitment to is transparency in governance, “good governance is all about transparency and accountability and since he sees himself as a servant leader, he believes so strongly that the electorates, the good people of Oyo State, that voted for him had yearnings and expectations that they wanted him to fulfill. The level of oppression prior to the coming of Governor Makinde was obviously telling on the welfare of the people and they needed somebody who is humane and kind hearted.”
“One of the things we do is to ensure that we take decision in the best Interest of the people and sometimes as the Governor recently said, we are not perfect, there are times we take a decision based on the available information, which with benefit of hindsight, we have had to review. One good thing about our Governor is that he listens to the people, he wants to feel the pulse of the people, to get their assessment of our policies and programmes, to hear what the masses of the people in Oyo State have to say.”
“By and large, most of the decisions the government has taken so far have been to the benefit of the people, do you want to talk about our free education policy, some people believed that Oyo State doesn’t have the resources required to guarantee free education. The truth however is that many parents still find it difficult to send their children and wards to school even with the school fees at N3000, which was why we have a high number of out of school children in the State prior to our assumption of office. However, since the advent of the GSM administration, the number of pupils enrolment increased from 383,581 to 417,913 as at November 2019.
Speaking on what Oyo residents should anticipate in the coming years, the Executive Assistant said government is all about doing what will be beneficial to the people and what will bring greater prosperity by ensuring that people live well, making policies that will create opportunities and conducive investment climate in a secured environment. “our first year was used to lay a solid foundation by attending to the areas where we made promises to the people as contained in our roadmap for accelerated development 2019-2023, we saw the promises, we made to the people and we are monitoring them one after the other to ensure that we deliver on those promises.”
“The government is striving to generate more revenues to drive our prospects. We don’t have to wait to have money before executing a project, that’s why we are engaging more private sector participation through PPP arrangements. Our Agribusiness policy is such that we would not only be food sufficient in the nearest future, we would be exporting food items to other states.
“We are set to start firing full blast on all cylinders, we are ready to deliver much more than people saw in the first year. If we could do all what we did within just one year, despite the constraints, then imagine what will be able to do if we have access to more resources. The number of paved roads in our State is set to increase with the commencement of production at our Pacesetter Asphalt and Quarry Company and very soon, other states will be coming to Oyo State to buy asphalt.” Ogedengbe concludes.