Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Saturday warned politicians and others bent on creating chaos in the state in order to have an undue advantage to rule the state, calling on them to have a rethink.
Speaking at the quarterly broadcast on the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), monitored by GOALPOACHER NEWS, Makinde noted that government would come and go but the state will remain.
The governor urged the residents of the state to do everything possible not to destroy the state for the present and next generations.
Makinde said:”So many people have come to meet me that the people of Ibadan are not easy to govern. For me, I look at logic for whatever I have to do but if the problem is not solved, it will keep coming back. I believe we have to govern by consensus, consultation and by seeking alignment. If all of us agree on what to do, we are likely to succeed rather than coercing people. If we have that alignment on what we have to do and we are all pulling in that direction, then we will succeed.
“Quite frankly, some people might be confused. Some might have something else in mind. I believe we are moving somewhere, because people have input in most of the policies and projects we are doing. As a result of that, we have had tremendous support from the people of Oyo State and that is the way we intend to keep it.
“Some people may say governing Oyo State is difficult because it is a big state. But I will say governing Oyo State is quite simple. Yes, all the things we are going through as challenges, some of them could be complex but solutions to them are very simple. For me, I sleep well, follow my routine; play tennis, jog and I still take care of business for the state.
“There are people that what can make them get to the seat is to create chaos every now. But I have news for them. For you to want to govern Oyo State, there must first of all be a state for you to govern. If you destroy our state, what are you coming back to govern? So, we do everything possible to let the people know that this is our state. The government will come and go but the state will remain. We have to be mindful of that and do everything possible not to destroy the state for ourselves and the next generation”.
Speaking on Akufo, Eruwa farm estates and Botswana project, Makinde admitted that some of the things his government set out to do on agriculture have been delayed a little bit as a result of the outbreak of the dreaded coronavirus. He however said Akufo and Eruwa farm Estates are in the process where they should break grounds.
He said : “Yes, things move slowly when it comes to government. As a matter of fact, people will try to create problems for you. Even though you are doing the right things. So, to get the projects out, the gestation period, if you follow all the bureaucratic part, it is going to take more than a year. But what we have done as a government is to streamline things.
” I have also placed my honour in line because I know that some may say anything about Seyi Makinde but they know I will never steal their money and know I will always work for their best interest. Sometimes, I put that on the line and say, look, I want all these things done. If you have questions somewhere, I will take responsibility for it.
“So, on both Akufo and Eruwa, we are in the process where they should break the ground out to keep things moving. Let us remember that the year 2020 was a year like no other. We started pushing out things for the year and by mid-February, we had COVID-19.
“Both are farm estates that are about breaking ground but we have done few things. I stayed over at Saki during my birthday late last year to look at the work that was going on at OYSADA Headquarters. We signed an MoU with IITA on the STEP programme for Agriculture. The school at Fasola has been commissioned and we have taken schools from all the geopolitical zones in Oyo State and that also is going on. Two of them are nearing completion. Once they have done that, the rest will follow. We also went to Awe and we have the Farmer’s Academy operational right there now. We met an abandoned silo project, which is still at Awe. They needed input from China but that was where COVID-19 started last year and they shut down for most of the year but now, they are getting back on track.
“So, I will say that all of the things we have promised to do on agriculture have been delayed a little bit because of the situation we found ourselves in. What we said about the Botswana project is that we will have maize here and we can sell it to them. Also, we can do backward integration where we look at our maize and use that to produce ethanol.
” After we came in, we looked at the areas where we have comparative advantages and we found out that a lot of people are already into cassava production and Oyo State is almost like the highest producer in the country right now. So, that is an area where we have seen a lot of results.
” Therefore, I changed my mind and said instead of corn to ethanol, we will now use cassava to ethanol and we have been working around that to support the private people that are producing cassava in Oyo State to expand their production and utilize it fully as opposed to corn. So, that is what has happened to the Botswana project.”
