The Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde has asserted
that the era when Governors took cuts from contracts in the state has gone. He
said this while speaking at a special interactive session to mark his first 100
days in office. “I didn’t declare my assets publicly for fun. It is so that I
can be held accountable. What we met when we came was a situation where a
project for which money is allocated gets only about 10% of the total funds for
execution. As we were told, 50% goes back to the Governor, the person who allocated
the project gets 30% and the Governor’s wife gets 10%”. Visibly displeased,
Governor Makinde said “don’t bring money back to me because if you do, I will
probably put you in jail”.
Underscoring that governance goes beyond politics, Governor
Makinde said “I have told contractors that abandoned their work to go back to
site. If they do well, we will allow them complete the projects. I am not bothered
whether it was APC government that paid and PDP is in power. It is Oyo State
money”.
He cited a silo project at Aawe as example, “so far, N 1
billion has been expended and it is at zero value. We got the contractor; he said
he needed N 350 million more. We have given him and he is back on site. He has
assured us he will complete it in four months”. Speaking further, that he has no bias against
any political party or contractor, Governor Makinde said “if it will bring
value to Oyo State, we will continue with such project and get value for the
people of Oyo State”.
On the issue of Local Governments, the dissolution of which
became controversial, the Governor assured that the Oyo State Independent
Electoral Commission would be constituted in less than two weeks. “We are
putting plans in place for Local Government elections. We don’t want to make
the same mistake the last administration made”, he said. He also stated that
council polls will hold in the first quarter of 2020.
When asked whether he would commission the new security vehicles
bought by his administration, Governor Makinde’s responded that “good
governance is beyond razzmatazz. I rejected a proposal to paint the
secretariat. If we paint the outside, the toilets are not good. But we can do
it from the inside, why don’t we improve on the time it takes for your
transaction at the secretariat to be done? I may or may not commission them.
What is important is that people can sleep with both eyes closed”.
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