Governor Seyi Makinde assumed office on May 29, 2019. Between then and now, he has borrowed a total of over One hundred and forty billion naira (140,000,000,000), including the recently approved 100billion naira bond! Oyo state government led by our ‘Debtgineer’ Governor stated that the 100 billion naira bond is meant to execute pending projects such as Ibadan Circular road, upgrading of Alakia Airport, Ibadan Dry Port, a FG project, and few others.
Let’s recall that former governor of Oyo state, late Senator Abiola Ajimobi awarded the contract of Ibadan Circular road to ENL Consortium on Build-Operate-Transfer model of Public-Private-Partnership. But when Governor Seyi Makinde assumed office as the governor, one of former Governor Ajimobi’s legacies he tried to uproot is the Ibadan Circular road project as he revoked the contract from ENL, citing slow pace of work. Seyi Makinde took the rash action without going through the project file, the reason he didn’t know that the project was on PPP. He went on to wrongly allege that the money received by ENL from the administration of Senator Ajimobi did not commensurate with the level of work already done on the project. It took a threat from ENL Consortium that it would sue the state government before Governor Seyi Makinde could regain his sense.
Apart from the fact that it is most insensitive on the part of Seyi Makinde to seek 100 billion naira bond, there are other issues the recently approved loan bond have generated. Before we read corruption meaning to the 100 billion naira bond sought by Governor Seyi Makinde, let’s make a quick comparison.
Recently, the Federal Government approved over One hundred and sixty five billion naira to meet financial obligations on road and rail projects across the six geopolitical zones in the country. Each region has over 10 projects to be covered in the approved sum of over 165 billion naira for all the projects. The question is, if the FG is spending over a hundred billion naira to execute projects in all geopolitical zones in Nigeria, does Seyi Makinde also need a hundred billion naira to execute few projects in his state only? The point here is that a hundred billion naira to execute Ibadan Circular road, upgrading of Alakia Airport and a few other projects is unreasonably outrageous! We do not need any forensic analysis before we can sniff intent to commit excessive financial corruption from a billion kilometres!
It’s worthy of note that during the administration of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the state government attempted to obtain 50billion bond when there was recession and all the monies the state was getting from federal allocation and IGR went into paying salaries. The 50billion bond sought by Senator Ajimobi was for specific projects but the then FG under Goodluck Jonathan did not allow the bond to fly, courtesy of the moves made by the leader of Accord Party in Oyo state then to frustrate the effort.
It’s now that we know a party which wishes well for Oyo state and its people. APC is in Oyo state and the party has no problem with any government taking loans as long as such loans are meant for projects that will ensure provision of infrastructure for the betterment of the people and their businesses. Oyo APC could have also influenced the FG to stop the bond as PDP and other opposition parties did for Senator Ajimobi. But Oyo APC allowed the bond to fly in the interest of developments in the state. What Oyo APC is warning Governor Seyi Makinde against is not to plunge the state into financial slavery through his knack for loans. If Oyo state has been indebted to the tune of over 140 billion naira in a little over a year of Seyi Makinde’s administration, one imagines what the state’s debt profile will read at the end of four years when Seyi Makinde will pack his bags and baggages to return to his house of ‘slaps’ for good.
