The current administration in Oyo State met yet to be completed projects initiated by administrations as far back as the Lam Adesina (late), Governor Seyi Makinde has said.
Makinde stated this while speaking on his programmes, and the challenges that has faced his administration in his first year in office, in a syndicated interview in The Nation.
He also revealed that since he got into office, he had discovered that “are not really as transparent as they ought to have been.”
“We thought we were dealing with a transparent system and we tried to have a feel of what is going on in there but when we came in, we found out that things are not really as transparent as they ought to have been but we kept digging,”he stated.
He explained further, “If you listened to my inaugural address, one thing I emphasised to the people was that there must be continuity in governance; that any project that has been started by the previous administration, which is beneficial to the people of Oyo State, will be completed. Quite frankly, administrations will come and go but our state will remain. Those previous administrations did not use their personal funds but put our commonwealth into those projects and we have to derive value from them. That is what we have been doing for the last one year.
“I have heard people say we are commissioning other people’s projects but let me tell them now that we have been extracting value for Oyo State’s money from the projects the previous administrations started.
“It will interest you to know that we met projects that were started as far back as 2003, even up to the time of Alhaji Lam Adesina.”
He added, “Recently, we went to commission the Police Mobile Squadron 72 in Ago-Are. That location was given to us by the Nigerian Tobacco Company and, on our way back, we stopped at Ijaye in Akinyele Local government. The Quarry and Asphalt plant there had been moribund. It was started by High Chief Rashidi Ladoja’s administration and there was an attempt during Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala’s time to put it back into shape but it was not successful. For like eight years, there was nothing, because the government did not put in a dime. We had to invite private investor and they came in. They put in their money and that place is alive now.
“In some way, we met things rotten than we thought but we promised the people that we were not going to look back but always focus on the future. That is exactly what we have been doing. So, when you take such approach, nothing will surprise you, because whatever you see, you take it like that and forge ahead. That is what we have been doing so far.”
