A two- term gubernatorial aspirant in Oyo State under the banner of All Progressives Congress (APC), Akeem Agbaje, has commended Governor Seyi Makinde on the handling of security issues in the State. He however condemned his administration for use of propaganda laced with misplaced priorities.
Agbaje, a distinguished lawyer from the popular Salami Agbaje Compound in Ayeye, Ibadan, made the assessment on Monday while speaking with New Telegraph on his objective rating of the administration of Governor Makinde in the last six years.
As an opposition politician, businessman and legal practitioner, Agbaje said: “One area I commend him (Makinde) on is security. As far as I am concerned, he is doing very well in the area of security. Because apart from normal localized crimes, we don’t have any major crimes. So, on security, I commend Makinde”, he said.
However, against the general belief that Makinde is performing well in governance, Agbaje said the governor has been embarking on projects that do not have direct positive impact on the people of the state. To him, Makinde has been using his good media handlers in propaganda to deceive people rather than better their lots.
“The people at the grassroots that we interact with, have not told us Gov. Seyi Makinde is doing well. Give it to him, he is being the best governor at manipulating the media space, both print, electronic and the Social Media.
“He has good handlers for that. But in terms of what he has done, has he impacted the lives of the people? Because the essence of governance is to impact the lives of the people.
“Part of the things that are critical to people are: food, transportation, housing, health care. But if you put all these into consideration and you want to be honest, you will not score him 20% in any of these indices.
“But in terms of propaganda, you will score him almost 90%. I keep telling people that the bane of his challenge is misplaced priorities. Projects that will not have any direct bearing to the lives of the people are his priority.
“When he became governor, what were the two things he quickly did? Motor Parks. He was building four motor parks. These motor parks are in proximity to and very close to the motor parks built by late Ajimobi.
“In Challenge, there is the Oluyole Motor Park not too far from and even much bigger than the one he built. He now spent N5 billion naira to build it. He hasn’t finished Iwo Road. In eight years, that is N10 billion.
“Maybe it is only Moniya and Ojoo that is fully optimized, and Challenge. But are those the real priorities of the people? No. Motor park is local government responsibility.
“The next project he did was the Adamasingba Stadium. He has pumped $10m into it. If you convert $5m at the rate of dollars at that time, it would be N10bn.
“That was for a stadium of 5,000 capacity. Arsenal Stadium that is 60,000 capacity was built from scratch with $100m. But of what immediate benefit was that stadium to the humongous challenges we have in Oyo?
“The next thing he started was Light Oyo: another N30 something billion project. Most of those street lights are not functioning today. Now he is going to invest another N60 to N70bn on International Airport when we don’t have support infrastructure.
“No State today has a viable Airport. None that has been adjudged viable.
“Why we are saying all these is not to attack him but there is need for our people to understand that their needs must be met. That is the purpose of governance”, Agbaje stressed.
