Alternative Funding Or “Alternative Fraud”? Bimbo Adekanmbi’s Explosive 2021 Verdict On Makinde’s Debt Playbook | Ibraheem Sheriff -Team Arapaja

The debate surrounding financial transparency, accountability, and the management of the Oyo State Treasury continues to generate intense scrutiny—particularly when examining the track records and statements of key political figures.

In a revealing 2021 magazine interview, APM gubernatorial candidate Bimbo Adekanmbi—now widely cited as Governor Seyi Makinde’s preferred successor for 2027—offered a scathing critique of the state’s financial strategy. Adekanmbi sharply questioned the government’s claimed reduction in public debt and labeled the administration’s flagship Alternative Project Funding Approach (APFA) as nothing short of a deceptive scheme.
Below are his unedited statements from that interview:

“What is your view on the recent statement by the Oyo state government that the debt profile of the state has been reduced and the alternative project funding it adopted for infrastructural projects is working?

I don’t want to be political in answering the question because I can shake a lot of tables. About the debt reduction claimed by the government, there is no debt reduction anywhere. When people go online and say the government has reduced the state debt from N136 million to N85 million, I think the next question that good men and women need to ask is, can you give us a component of the debt? We want to see in what areas this debt has reduced.

Sometimes they will just rejig the components of the debt. There is no way, as I stand here, that you will go and reduce the external debt stuff of Oyo state by 50 something million one year, it’s not possible! I want you to do investigative journalism and ask people in government to give us the component and you will see the rise contained therein.

The alternative project funding approach, what I call it is an alternative fraud approach. If they do a road at eight billion naira, they will say it is the contractor that borrowed the money. So when you are looking at the Oyo debt profile they will not add that eight billion naira to the domestic debt but Oyo state still owe the debt. This is because the contractor that goes to the bank to borrow the money has to go with the guarantee of the government tied to the IGR of the state or else they won’t give the money and those projects are so inflated.

So when people come out to talk, people should ask them to give us the components of the contracts they are awarding. What is the cost of the contract?

Who are the people that bid? So the project of five naira they will call it 20 naira and then you will go out with your company, they will give you IGR back-up which they call SPO to guarantee the payment and then you steal the money for the project in two years and even after you left because there is an SPO.

Let’s quickly do mathematics; a road is meant to be 5 naira, you borrow 20 naira to construct it, they spread it over 5 years, so the 20 naira means you are paying 4 naira per year and is meant to be 5 naira. That means you’re paying 4 naira. Even when you leave, when people are saying the next government has not paid the contractor, the contractor has already made his money.” …

The Political Dilemma for Oyo Electorates

When it comes to managing the financial future of Oyo State, the overlap between Governor Seyi Makinde and Bimbo Adekanmbi raises critical questions about continuity, transparency, and governance.

Adekanmbi’s 2021 remarks represent a serious, detailed allegation of systemic financial manipulation—raised by the very figure now positioned to take over the mantle of leadership in 2027. If these damning claims of contract inflation and off-balance-sheet debt were true then, how can voters trust that a transition of power between these two political figures will bring true accountability rather than a convenient cover-up?

As the 2027 election approaches, the electorates of Oyo State must examine these contradictions closely and demand clear answers before casting their votes.