The Oyo State Government and the Accord Party have locked horns over the performance of Governor Seyi Makinde in the first year of his second term in office.
The Accord Party, through its National Vice-Chairman for the South-West, Chief Paul Igbinsola, on Monday, criticised Makinde’s performance, stating that it has fallen short of the expectations of the people of Oyo State.
Igbinsola opined that the state has witnessed no meaningful development since the commencement of Makinde’s second term on May 29, 2023.
In a statement, he said: “The economic situation across the state is 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.”
The Accord National Vice-Chairman also stated that the state has grappled with security challenges within the period under review, adding that the impacts of the money claimed to have been expended on security agencies have yet to be felt.
He further criticised the state government for alleged indiscriminate selling of lands in Government Reservation Areas (GRAs) and those already occupied by professional groups to estate developers.
“In the last one year, we have witnessed 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 the reversal of some of the Makinde-led administration’s policies and programmes, which he described as anti-people.
However, the Oyo State Government, through the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, dismissed the Accord Chair’s comments on Makinde’s performance.
Olanrewaju contended that the first year of Makinde’s second tenure had recorded tremendous achievements in terms of development across all sectors.
According to him, “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 kilometers of roads had been completed and inaugurated across the state within the last one year, adding that the 76.67-kilometer Ogbomoso- Iseyin road had been completed and would be inaugurated soon.
“The roads whose contracts had been awarded in the last one year to include: Ido-Eruwa road (48 kilometers), Ibadan circular road (32.2 kilometers) and inner roads within Ibadan metropolis (84.75 kilometers).”
In the education sector, Olanrewaju said 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 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 rate.
This, he said, was aside the provision of tractors at subsidised rate to farmers in the state.
On workers’ welfare, the special adviser said the state was the first to announce payment of wage award to its workers and pensioners to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
He added that and 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 said.