Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, speaks on the state’s annual budget performance, the gains of his administration’s focus on agribusiness and his focus ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

YOU recently presented the 2025 Oyo State Budget. What can you say about the budget?

I have the responsibility to make life meaningful for the people of Oyo State. But of course, you have impact from whatever is happening at the federal level. I cannot, from Oyo State, dictate the fiscal policies for the country. I don’t determine the exchange rate of naira to the dollar, but I will have to get bitumen in US dollars to tar roads in Oyo State. That is how these things are linked. However, for us in this state, you can go back to even 2019, we came in on May 29. Immediately, we realigned the budget and you can also check previous administrations and check their budget performance, which used to be about 30 to 35 percent.

When we came in 2019, we brought down the figure and by the time we got to the end of the year, we improved the budget performance to about 45 to 48 percent. But our first full budget as an administration was in 2020 and two months into the implementation of that budget, COVID-19 hit the world. At the end of the year, we still achieved almost about 65 percent. From that point, we have been performing up to about 70 percent. What it means is that if you look at the Oyo State budget, whatever you see in there, you have a 70 percent chance that they will get done. That is why, for us, you will notice that we have had stability in terms of how our projects are executed. And, in terms of liveability how our people are living, we are not concentrating projects within a certain group only. Market women, artisans and others are all doing far better than before.

When we talk about inflation, people will go out there and be brandishing figures and be saying that food inflation in Oyo State is high and all of that. But recently, I was coming from the Passing Out Parade of the Amotekun Rangers in Iseyin and I decided to stop by Psaltery Farms to see what they were doing and I passed through Ibarapa to check the progress of the Ido-Eruwa road. We saw many trailers of cassava not heading to anywhere in Oyo State but going to neighbouring states. What does that mean? It means that you have freedom of movement in Nigeria, so we cannot say that people should not move freely.

After the experience, I told my people that, now, we are producing for all these states and people will tell me there is food inflation in Oyo State. So, I said they must return to produce posts. I am not saying that outsiders should not come here to buy cassava, but if you are taking cassava from Oyo State to another state, it means we are doing some things right here and you must pay. We will tax them. But we have not gotten to that point.

Let me also give you another example; some days ago, I met a farmer and I asked him. How come what we are producing in high quantity here have not saturated our markets in Oyo State and he told me that farmers are selling to those from neighbouring states, because they are paying more and things like that. It means the farmers are making more money, but we are subsidising land clearing for farmers and providing other benefits. So, I said to them that we will all sit down and agree on how Oyo State would benefit first and foremost before other states.

It is a free market and we need to think things out with our farmers. We give you inputs and subsidy on land clearing and it is time for harvest, you want to go to the highest bidder wherever they may come from? No. That is causing dislocation for us. There are different schemes we are looking at, but the most important thing is accurate data on what is going on. Once we can wrap our heads around the data, we can think out the best solution.

Many people have been talking about the state of the education sector in Oyo State. Would you say you are doing well and are you happy as far as education sector is concerned in the state?

The policies and practices in the past towards infrastructure development in the education sector were faulty. But we have corrected that now. We carried out a study which discovered that the infrastructure deficit in education was around N60 billion. We were spending about N3 billion yearly both on our own counterpart and UBEC funding. If you have a N60 billion gap and you are spending N3 billion, it will take you 20 years to close that gap. That was why this year (2024), we were able to pull through. We validated those data and I appointed Suraj Abiodun Tiamy as a Special Adviser on Education Intervention, because, to bridge that gap, we must be spending N10 billion to N15 billion yearly. That will allow us to bridge the gap in four years to turn things around and we are well on track. We are trying to rearrange our resources, such that we can do more for the education sector.

I should also add that it is not for fun that since I came into power, in every budget year, we have exceeded the 20 percent UNESCO recommended figure for education. Education is in three layers – the primary, secondary and tertiary. As for the tertiary, I can say that we are doing very well and I am satisfied with what we are doing in that direction. For secondary and primary, we still have a lot more to do.

The deaths of 35 children in a stampede during a private funfair organised in Ibadan last December has remained a topical issue. What is your reaction and what is the state of things now?

When I look at the children, I think in my mind that it would have been better if we go and those children are still here with us since some of us have achieved some things. Among them, there were potential presidents, ministers, governors and all that, but those dreams are dead. We had potential inventors among them. So, looking at all of that, I said that celebrating birthday should be the last thing after that tragedy. People may think death happens, but this is totally different because of the people involved; they were very innocent and also because of the fact that this is something that could have been avoided if those involved had played their roles well and lived responsibly. That is why I said there won’t be birthday for me this year (2024), because we are seriously mourning. It’s very sad.

You have continued to use the word avoidable. Can you expatiate a little bit on this?

It was avoidable. If the organisers and all that were involved had done what they were supposed to do, it would not have happened. No crowd control, no contact with the security agencies. There was no plan in place. And when this started, the Commissioner for Health sent me the message and the Chairman of the Hospital Management Board, but it was already too late. By that time, corpses of those children were already going to the mortuary. So, it is just so unfortunate and it is something that we have to really learn from.

In 2024, two major avoidable incidents that led to loss of lives happened. On 16th of January, 2024, there was an explosion in Bodija, which was caused by some people who stored explosives in a residential area, and the residents had been seeing these things. Meanwhile, we have said if you see something, say something and put the blame on the authority if we cannot do something about it. Also, two weeks to the end of the year, the stampede incident came up.

You took some steps after the Bodija explosion to provide shelter for those affected and carried out an integrity test on the remaining houses to see how some could be fixed or demolished for rebuilding. But what is the latest development on the matter?

After the explosion, we took those steps immediately. The people that allowed the bad incident to occur are still being investigated. The wheel of justice grinds slowly, but I can assure you that nobody has been let off the hook. The security agencies are doing their work to ensure that justice is served.

And for those whose properties were affected, I will say it openly that we took the Nigerian Society of Engineers to the site. They did their report. I mentioned the fact that the affected people would be supported, and not compensated. There is a difference. Yes, it is their government and if anything happens, the government can come in to support. But when people have entitled positions, it is not good enough.

According to the evaluation report carried out by the NSE, the destroyed properties are worth over N3 billion. I said let us look for over N3 billion for them so that they can get things moving again for themselves. But some people came back and said that they heard that the Presidency gave Oyo State a particular amount of money, about N5 billion. And, I said to them, you can’t run the government for us.

We have already inaugurated a relief disbursement committee comprising residents of the affected area, NSE, NBA and NUJ representatives. We have also done other things such as awarding contracts to fix all the roads in the axis.

Looking back at 2024, what are the highlights of what you were able to achieve?

I didn’t want to come back into government in 2023. It took me much time to think about this and decide. You know there is an insinuation that governors do not do well in their second terms; that they only retain the office to enjoy themselves and all that. I am sure that the people of Oyo State were afraid that I would act the same way.

So, when I became convinced that I would continue with the things we had been doing, I approached the people to give me another opportunity to serve them for a second term. The way I will look at it is that the people gave me the opportunity. From this media chat, I want to know from the people what they expect us to do, which we are yet to touch or we are not looking at. That is exactly why I am here. I don’t want people to tell me what I want to hear.

I have said it several times that I don’t want to be remembered for construction of roads, this and that. These are not the legacies I want to leave. I want to be remembered for the institutions we are building and how they are impacting the lives of the people and how they will guarantee that Oyo State will continue to experience good governance well into the foreseeable future.

Some people are complaining from the Circular Road end about land-grabbing. Are you a land grabber?

I am not a land grabber. But I am a firm believer in the saying that it is only an idiot that will continue to do the same thing the same way and be expecting a different result. Who are the people behind the accusations against me? I can say it boldly that it is the land grabbers that are calling me a land grabber.

We approached some people that we needed to relocate them because of the airport upgrade we are trying to do, and before we knew it, they started calling me names in the social media. Even this BCOS where we are hosting this programme, in 1982 in this same studio, I came here for a programme that was called Word Power. Then, there used to be an estate for the workers here. Fast forward to when I became governor, it had already become something else. I asked myself what do we do? I felt we should use the place as a first example of how we can mobilise private money to build infrastructure. Today, we have the Lere Adigun GRA. Men and women have brought their money and they are living there. Did I grab the BCOS land? If you see a plot belonging to Seyi Makinde in here, bring it out with proof and I will sign it off to anyone who does so.

The concept of the Circular Road is yet to be understood by people. They thought it would be like Iwo Road to Beere. No. It will be the very first motorway in Nigeria. It was because of that misconception that some people are saying they want the Circular Road but they don’t want the corridor, because they thought that from the land close to the circular road, some will bring their driveway into the road. We can’t be spending this kind of money to build a road like Iwo Road to Beere. No. We are building a motorway not just for Ibadan but for the majority of the local government areas around that place. The 32km stretch from TECH-U to Badeku will only have two exit points. If you like, put your estate where you don’t have exit points, it only means you won’t have access to the road. So, the concept of how you want to develop the place requires that you must get a corridor.

And, it would be a road that you will have a minimum speed limit; nobody would go less than 80km per hour. They will break the law even if they are going on 20 or 30km per hour. When you want to do something like that, you need people to know that there is a need for a corridor.

People are saying that many of the places you are opening up are not for the downtrodden, as poor people don’t have access to them. What is happening?

What is the concept of development? Do we want to be like the crab to say, look, if I cannot get up, no one should get up? I believe we are not supposed to use poverty to flatten everyone. I don’t think that is what we want to do. In order to expand your economy, you have to provide opportunities for the downtrodden to also rise above poverty, but you won’t play politics with them by saying, oh, all of these places should be given to you because you don’t have money. No. You only create opportunities for them such that they can take themselves out of poverty.

People don’t seem to understand your standpoint on local government autonomy. Are you criticising the judgment because you are in the PDP or what?

On the local government autonomy matter, I am still of the firm belief that the brouhaha is just a distraction, because in Oyo State, the state government fixes federal roads. We did a complete reconstruction linking Oyo to Oke-Ogun zone through the Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin road. We spent N10 billion at that time. It used to take two hours from Iseyin to Oyo but it will take you about 25 minutes now. Our people are the ones plying the road because, for us, it has a big impact on our economy. The ordinary people don’t know whether a particular road is for state or federal or local government. Those creating the dichotomy are the ones who will love to benefit. I still insist that this is a convoluted arrangement.

Nigeria runs a federal system where we have three units federating instead of two. In Oyo State, before my time, they created LCDAs. The constitutionally recognised LGAs for Oyo State are 33, but the government of that time created 34 LCDAs. When I campaigned in 2019, I said that I would scrap the LCDAs and I was going to do it because I mentioned it when I was going around campaigning.

But when I came in, some elders and leaders came to me and said, “Look, we have LCDAs as development centres; let us leave them so that development could spread. Anyway, the vision of our forefathers that negotiated Nigeria’s federal arrangements was that the regions or the states would have control over their local governments. If in Oyo State, like the previous administration decided, we want to have 67 Local Development Centres, why can’t we have that? But the constitution of Nigeria says you cannot have more than 33 in the constitution. What is the uniqueness of that 33?

 The Attorney-General of the Federation is threatening governors that do not comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. What’s your opinion?

The Supreme Court ruling said the Federal Government will pay directly to the local government. So, are governors the Federal Government? Why is the Federal Government not paying directly to the local governments? Did I not mention it that they would have issues to deal with? Are they not having issues to deal with now?

You have been vocal about local government areas being productive and not overly relying on federal allocation. What would you say the state government is doing to increase the productivity of the local government?

When we fixed the road between Moniya and Iseyin, you have the Akinyele LG in there; you also have Iseyin and part of Afijio LGs. We now have Fasola Agribusiness Hub already up and we have moved on to Eruwa Farm Estate. All of those will empower the local governments around the areas. So, once we are fixing our infrastructure, the local governments also benefit as they have things to do. Let us also take from Iseyin to Ogbomoso the state government spent about N42bn to build the road from the scratch. Now, I said we can have trailers pass through that place, but you must weigh them and they must pay. I have told the Iseyin and Ogbomoso Local Government chairmen to construct weigh bridges at both locations and the state will also contribute money to the project. Then, they can collect revenue from the trailers that will ply the road and at the end of the month, the LGAs can take 70 percent while the state government will take 30 percent. My position still remains that our problem is not that we don’t have resources. We were all in this country when a former Head of State said our problem is not money but how to spend it. At that particular time, the rest of the world was developing their infrastructure that would serve them for the next 50 years.

Now, our problem is lack of infrastructure that will expand our economy for the next 50 years, that will support what we are doing so that the children we are giving birth to now can have a place to thrive. So, I don’t have any problem with the Federal Government. But I will always speak the truth.

You recently commissioned the Ibadan Hybrid Power Plant. What other efforts are you making to make Oyo State self-sufficient in terms of electricity?

Yes, we started the IPP and we are discussing a 500 megawatts power project and it’s a lot of investment. You need conducive atmosphere for investors to come in. People think government’s pocket is limitless, but that is not true.

We have started and I commissioned the first phase of the IPP project a few weeks back. We already have a proof of concept on the next project and we now have interests coming on board.

Do you want to become Nigeria’s president in 2027?

I have a big work that the people of Oyo State have given to me. I have done some and still have quite a lot to do. My focus is not to become president in 2027, but to deliver on the mandate given to me by Oyo State people.

[Nigerian Tribune]