The immediate past Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola did not achieve anything substanstial in his first year in office, the Special Adviser on Strategy and Political Matters to Governor Seyi Makinde, Honourable Babatunde Oduyoye has said.
Oduyoye stated this while speaking on the first year anniversary of Governor Seyi Makinde during an interview with the Nigerian Tribune.
He stated that Governor Makinde has, in his first year, succeeded in reassuring the people of the State that they did not make a mistake in voting him into power.
Speaking on the comparison being made between the administration of Governor Makinde and his predecessor, Abiola Ajimobi, Oduyoye said, “There is no basis for comparison. First, former Governor Abiola Ajimobi was in government for eight years, so if you want to compare, you will have to compare what transpired in the first year of Ajimobi vis-a-vis the first year of Governor Makinde.
“I have read the speech delivered by Ajimobi at the House of Assembly sometime in June 2012 to mark the government’s first year in office. In that address, he made references largely to things they were going to do and, going through the programmes of event for the celebration of the government’s first anniversary, 85 per cent of the projects Ajimobi commissioned were basically in the local governments.”
He explained further,”I found it amusing when I hear and read the lies a lot of people have been telling about the achievements of the Ajimobi government in its first year in office. In fact, a legal luminary joined that bandwagon recently when he tried to compare the Ajimobi government and the Makinde administration. He mentioned the Restoration Bridge on Bodija-Secretariat road and claimed it was completed within Ajimobi’s first year in office. But I am happy that people have put a lie to that claim. We were all in Ibadan; the truth is that nothing substantial was achieved in Ajimobi’s first year in office.
“The major achievement was the establishment of YES-O, which has proved unsustainable as of now. In Ajimobi’s first year in office, he claimed that his government’s focus was on Circular Road and a 250-bed hotel and a host of other things that did not see the light of the day.”
He added that the current administration in the state has performed excellently in its four pillars — Education, Health, Security and Economic expansion through agriculture.
