By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Governor Seyi Makinde on Saturday, tasked Senator Teslim Folarin, Chief Adebayo Adelabu and other governorship candidates in the state to forget about the last election and jointly move Oyo State ahead.
Speaking at a Fresh FM 105.9, Ibadan live programme , the governor declared that it is now time to move Oyo state forward as elections are over and time for governance for the state to progress.
Emphasizing that he is open to working with the ideas of his co-contestants wherever they are found to be superior to his, Governor Makinde pointed out that he is ready to sit down with any of his co-contestants in the March 18 polls on move Oyo state to greater heights, particularly if there are areas they have ideas and plans to move the state forward.
Describing his electoral success as a victory for the people of the state, the governor said everyone must now come together in the interest of Oyo state and as well go ahead to put the sticky points learnt during the campaign period into practice .
” The issue of the electioneering campaign is behind us now and we are to battle the issue of governance now. This is our state and commonwealth and we must make sure we move our state forward. Very soon, we will begin to deploy the available resources to the areas that have not been touched and keep engaging with the people”, he said.
The governor added, ” we also appreciate the fact that we have improved our budget performance, which means that anything we put in the budget, we will do it,”
” We have said that we would look at the infrastructure that targets our economy and since I became the governor, I have been to the Ikere Gorge Dam twice. It is one of the potentials we have but we have to fix the road first”.
The governor stressed, ” the road from Iseyin to Ikere is bad but before we get to Ikere, we have to prioritise. The road from Oyo to Iseyin, which is a federal road, is of more economic importance than that of Ikere, and that was why we had to fix that first.
He noted , “apart from the power generation and fishery potentials in the Dam, it is also a place of tourist attraction. I can assure you that Ikere Gorge Dam will be a priority under Omituntun 2.0.’
” I promised that LAUTECH is so central to the economy of Ogbomoso and that was why I said I would do everything possible to own LAUTECH and allow the economy of Ogbomoso to be integrated into the wider economy of the state. That was why we felt we needed to link Ogbomoso to the food basket of the state by coming up with the Ogbomoso-Fapote-Iseyin road. So, there will be continuity in this second term.”
Assuring that his administration will reach more areas with development by and touching a wider population of Oyo State residents in his second term in office, Governor said the recruitment of teachers and other non-teaching staff, building of more education infrastructure will receive major priority under Omituntun 2.0.
“We will employ more teachers in the primary schools and pay attention to the infrastructure in the schools through the local government areas. If you observe Omituntun 1.0, we started working from the first day. Thankfully, there is an improvement in our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) because we have successfully boosted it from N1.9b to about N3.5b now, which means we can do a project worth N18bn in a year.
“ Very soon, we will begin to deploy the available resources to the areas that have not been touched and keep engaging with the people. We also appreciate the fact that we have improved our budget performance, which means that anything we put in the budget, we will do it,”
