Despite my tight arrangements these days, I still try to take time to either update or amuse myself with the series of Media propaganda from the stables of Governor Seyi Makinde’s salesmen.
Not many of the litany of press releases are worth taking notes of.
2027 is fast approaching and you can understand that this is a very good time to cash out.
Governor Makinde will be trying to become Nigeria’s Numero uno. So, what a good time to get his attention?
Like I said, the praise singers have increased tremendously. So are the number of junk write ups.
I read one of them where Governor Makinde was being praised for the appointment of Teachers.
The writer was of the opinion that the appointment of Teachers have turned our Education sector to El dorado.
I’m not surprised. I have since discovered that, just like the man they are praising, those who write to praise him would trade substance for flashy headlines.
The one who wrote about the employment of Teachers, either deliberately, or perhaps, limited by insights, decided to look away from the fact that the condition of service of Teachers, infrastructures and performance of Oyo state in the indices of both WAEC and NECO are serious issues, in spite the employment of more Teachers.
He refused or either neglected to take note of the fact that those recently employed Teachers were employed without a plan for how to deploy them for maximum benefits and results.
Most of those Teachers are clustering in open spaces in the schools without offices to accommodate them.
If anyone is in doubts, such a person should just take a random trip to the public schools to find out, exactly, the alarming standard of infrastructural deficits.
This is not a topic for today and those who will jump to the defense of the Governor are better advised to safe their bullets because they will need so much of that to defend the Governor when I release a piece about the employment of Teachers and my perspectives concerning the matter.
Having said that, there are two main issues I will like to treat here.
I listened to the interview of the Revd. Mrs. Tade, popular known as ‘ Mama Empowerment ‘.
She was on a popular Radio station in Ibadan this last Saturday.
Honestly, I didn’t know she was at any time appointed by Governor Seyi Makinde.
I got to know, through the interview, that she was appointed as a member of the Board of the Water Corporation of Oyo state and she resigned after two years.
I have always known her to be a Senatorial candidate for Oyo South Senatorial District.
In the interview, she provided insights as to why she resigned as a Board member of the Water Corporation of Oyo state and her experience with Governor Makinde.
There was a piece of her answers that made me laugh.
She described Governor Seyi Makinde as someone who ” is not too good and not too bad”.
I still have a grin on my face as I write this piece as a result of that statement.
The main crux of the interview was her observations concerning the attitude of Governor Seyi Makinde towards the provision of water for the general masses of Oyo state.
According to her, it was obvious that there was no immediate priority for the provision of water.
To back her story up, she claimed that for the two years she served in the Board, there were no back up fundings released for the Budgets approved for the Board!
The Budgets were just passed. No funds. For two years!!
Not only that, she said she made suggestions about the Dams at Odo -Ona and Oluyole, suggesting that both Dams be licensed to private business interests to manage on behalf of Government but the suggestions were not considered.
I have carefully been monitoring several write ups and rejoinders from Governor Makinde’s official and unofficial quarters and I see that none of them deemed it fit to say anything about this damning revelations.
That is their stock in trade. When you hit the spot, they suddenly go mute.
Even the voiceferous acting Publicity Secretary of the Oyo state Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Michael Ogunsina has not said anything about this.
I will take it as if he has been so busy that he missed that program.
I hope he will consider this write up as a notice. Let us see what he has to say about it.
That would lead me to the other issue.
I saw Prince Dotun Oyelade’s Press release where he talked about the activities of the Oyo state Government regarding the Alakia Airport.
I saw the Press release also by the Oyo state Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, where he raised serious issues about the contracts awarded by the Oyo state Government with respect to the Alakia Airport.
I also saw the toxic rejoinder by the acting Publicity Secretary of the Oyo state PDP.
When I read Michael Ogunsina’s rejoinder, I asked myself one simple question and that is, why is Ogunsina dissipating energies on a matter he is not qualified to defend?
Reasonably, Prince Dotun Oyelade would have been in the best position to reply Sadare.
Why do I say so? The issues raised are and must be beyond the understanding of Ogunsina.
The last time I checked, Michael Ogunsina is said to be the Chairman of the Youth Advisory Council to Governor Seyi Makinde, apart from being the Oyo state acting PRO of the PDP.
Both positions do not confer on him the privilege and legitimacy to take part in the meetings of the Oyo state Executive Council. Does it?
The issues raised by Sadare are policy issues which only the Governor or the Commissioner for Information alone could validly answer.
The fact that Governor Makinde has refused to appoint a Special Adviser on Media, who could have been promoted to a Cabinet rank, but rather stuck to an arrangement where he appointed only a Chief Press Secretary, also robbed the CPS of the capabilities of perfectly responding to such issues.
The information Commissioner who made the release that Sadare responded to would have been the perfect authority to react to Sadare if necessary.
At best, the efforts of the PDP acting PRO is considered an unnecessary meddlesomeness.
I am not surprised that the rejoinder by the PDP is filled with anger and noise instead of addressing the substance of the issues raised by the APC.
I don’t know why Governor Makinde and the PDP hate to be exposed.
In fact, they consider it an abomination.
Were we not all here when, as Leader of the opposition, Eng. Seyi Makinde was always on the late Governor Ajimobi’s neck, taking him up on all his policies.
Did the bitterness not extend to even after the man had passed away?
Where was Ogunsina then?
There is another aspect of the rejoinder that caught my interest.
Some people can take hypocrisy to another level.
I always ask myself where Governor Makinde and his ‘Olentelafas’ got the mouths to criticize Tinubu.
O ye eni gbogbo ko dinwo aro, ko ye a to sile. A bed-wetter shouldn’t get the mouth to complain about the price of dye.
Let me ask this question, where was the PDP acting PRO when Governor Makinde was running from Pillar to Post, neglecting his duties in Ibadan and running after the same Tinubu before and immediately after the the 2023 general election?
Where was he when Governor Makinde was pontificating about ” equity, justice and fairness”?
If it was really about equity, justice and fairness, why didn’t Governor Makinde support Peter Obi of the Labor Party?
After all, that would have been another way of fulfilling his avowment to equity, justice and fairness.
I am sure that Ogunsina knows how Governor Makinde secured a second term in office, even though, he will dare not admit it publicly.
I am not aware that Governor Makinde had at any time tendered an apology for trading with Tinubu in 2023.
I also know that Governor Makinde’s admittance of receiving help from the APC was made publicly by the Governor himself.
At which point did Makinde become a saint in all of this?
I am sure that the PDP is aware of the claims that all the Governors, including Makinde, submitted nominees for Ministerial and other appointments to Tinubu?
I see that in Ogunsina’s opinion, Tinubu is the harbinger of everything bad. Hunger, lack and even those who could not impregnate their wives must have been afflicted by Tinubu.
I have no issues with that. However, as bad Tinubu is, he has kept saying that since he became president and since he removed subsidies on Petroleum products, he has indeed taken some steps and one of the steps is that he has increased monthly Allocations for the states and the Local Governments.
He claimed recently that monthly Allocations have tripled.
Governor Seyi Makinde must address this claim before the likes of Ogunsina would have the mouth to call Tinubu names.
As a Yoruba man from Oke Ogun, I think? Ogunsina must be familiar with the saying that you have to bathe first before you stand a chance to conquer the cold of harmattan. ( Wiwe laa we, ka too jare oye).
Let Ogunsina go back and ask Governor Makinde to tell the people of Oyo state that Tinubu is lying about the fact that monthly Allocations for the states and the Local Governments have tripled.
Let me say that when they come to public, they must show us in black and white, how much the Governor was collecting before Tinubu and how much he is collecting now.
He must also show us how that increase has affected governance.
Is it positively or negatively?
I think we should all rather be worried about the misappropriation of the funds belonging to the 33 Local Governments by Governor Makinde.
I think we should be more worried that the Governor took billions of Naira of Local Government funds, which we have been wrongly putting at #16 billion but which was more than that, to build Bus Terminals, which resources are being embezzled daily.
Shouldn’t we all be more worried that Governor Makinde spent more than #32 billion on Light Up Oyo and later came to admit that the contract failed in how many years?
I would rather, we are more worried and concerned that the Governor just got approval to issue Bond for the remodeling of Agbowo shopping complex without explaining to us what happened to the initial agreement with Whitestone Global Limited.
I am worried and I think Michael Ogunsina and the PDP should also be worried that despite billions of Naira committed to Agribusiness by Governor Makinde, Oyo state can not feed its citizens despite the availability of arable land at the disposal of the Governor.
The arable land Governor Makinde has chosen to be selling to Estate Developers instead of utilizing it for farming.
Or, Tinubu is still the one expected to farm our Land for us in Oyo state?
I am worried that Governor Makinde has not only been selling off Government spaces but he has also began to sell off Government Assets purchased by his predecessors when he hasn’t bought replacements.
I raised the issue of the refuse trucks purchased by Akala recently and how Governor Makinde just sold ten of them for #70 million!
That should worry any right thinking citizen of Oyo state.
Did Michael not see the story?
I am worried that the only time Governor Makinde attempted to give free exercise books to pupils in Oyo state, the whole episode ended up in a mess where an exercise book was purchased for #2,100.
Aw! I’m worried and Michael Ogunsina must also be worried.
I want Michael Ogunsina to find out how much the Ogun state Governor is spending to build the Airport in Ogun state.
Perhaps, that will improve his thinking before jumping to defend Governor Makinde’s activities.
We were all here when Governor Makinde said he refurbished the Adamasingba Stadium with #5 billion and when there was an uproar about the amount, they said, oh! It included the costs of Mini Stadia.
Where are the Mini Stadia?
Believe me, Governor Makinde has got more questions than answers and no one should come at us with confusionist strategy.
If you think you know how to hide things, some of us will tell you that we are masters in exposing whatever you thought had been well hidden.
The views of the writer does not by any means translate to the position of this news media
