Who is next after King Saheed Osupa to receive a brand new multimillion naira SUV car gift from the manager of Oyo State resources?
The governor of Oyo State, Engr Seyi Makinde recently gifted a brand new SUV car to King Saheed Osupa. The car wasn’t a gift from the governor’s purse but from the public funds. Yes, from the state purse! The car gift is not for his humanitarian service to the state but a reward for his support of governor Makinde’s re-election.
In 2020, according to Sahara Reporter, governor Makinde was reported to have purchased a “2020 Toyota Prado SUV worth N65 million for Alhaja Abosede Adedibu, wife of the late political leader in Ibadan, Chief Lamidi Adedibu”. The report continued that Governor Makinde also purchased a “2020 model of SUV worth N45 million and was also given to a Fuji musician in Ibadan, Taye Currency, while a 2020 Toyota LX 570 SUV was bought for Mutiat Ladoja, wife of a former governor of the state, Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja.”
All the cars are imported cars, none is locally made in Nigeria. A governor from one of the poorest states in the South West with a taste for foreign products!
Meanwhile, the governor had in December 2019 obtained a N2 billion loan to purchase cars for 32 members of the Oyo State House of Assembly. This is a state where hundreds of thousands do not have basic amenities in their communities.
When the late Ariyibi Adelabu died in 2008, the people thought the end of infamous and inglorious amala politics would be laid to rest, forever. Late Adedibu politics was stomach infrastructure, to feed the poor. His politics and that of his political son, the late Alao Akala, were not to create an enabling environment that would create wealth for their people, but to waste the resources of the state in merriment.
Entered Governor Seyi Makinde in 2019, he has redefined, elevated, and modernised the amala politics from feeding the poor to feeding the rich. The compound of the governor isn’t big enough to accommodate the poor masses like the late Adedibu; rather, the Oyo State government house (hereafter Agodi) has become a garage for gifting multimillion naira cars to the friends and loyalists of the governor.
These are public funds for God’s sake! Amidst economic woes and hardship the residents of Oyo State are grappling with, one would’ve thought the inflation and economic woes in the country would make a government like Oyo State to rethink fiscal discipline and financial prudence. The political recklessness continues as hardship hits the people harder.
The officials of the state at Agodi do not just mismanage the scarce resources of the state, it seems mismanagement is official. Oyo State cannot afford officialdom of mismanagement of scarce resources.
Some people would ask about the state house of assembly in all these. Mismanagement is official! That is the answer.
Politicians don’t waste their money like that. They invest their own money in investments that yield huge returns. It is only a collective commonwealth that is mismanaged and wasted.
Oyo State is poor; the society is poor. Yet, the governor is giftings N40m and above cars to his loyalists from public funds. This is why unearned wealth by the state breeds centralisation of power and a lack of transparent and accountable government. When a state’s wealth comes from taxing the people, people will mount criticism on the government to demand transparency and accountability. Taxation keeps the government on its toes.
Governor Makinde was a billionaire (in naira) before he became the governor in 2019. Makinde doesn’t build a multi-billion naira business by mismanagement. The governor, like many of his other politicians know how to manage their businesses and mismanage state resources. They are competent in their private businesses but mismanage public funds.
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