Six Years Of APC Has Worsened Nigeria’s Situation –Makinde

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Six Years Of APC Has Worsened Nigeria’s Situation –Makinde

 Engr. Seyi Makinde, Oyo State Governor, in this interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Yoruba, speaks on latest developments in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the successful outcome of its national convention, 2023 general elections and other issues. TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI who monitored the session for this online newspaper brings the excerpts:

.What is your general assess­ment of the PDP National Convention and what do you think are the implications for the country?

Everything ended end well. This is because since we have been holding a plethora National Conven­tions in the annals of the PDP, we have not had any­one with this type of pos­itive outcome. Out of 21 vacant positions available to be occupied, 18 of them were occupied through consensus arrangement. We already knew the ma­jority of the candidates that were to occupy the positions and stakehold­ers from different zones had also endorsed them.

The topmost position, which is the National Chairmanship, was filled by consensus, with Dr Iyorchia Ayu, as the Na­tional Chairman. We just affirmed his candidature at the convention.

You know the major problem we have in Nige­ria today is disunity. There is no unity and, in fact, we have never been divided like this since I grew up to start monitoring political activities in the country. For example, if you go to the North-West, bandits are operating. If you go to the North-East, insurgents are there. If you try to go to the North Central, it is farmers/herders clashes. And if you come down to the South-West, it is the same thing.

Before now, we used to think Hausa and Fulanis are of the same ethnicity but now, we have come to understand the fact that they are not. If you go to Yobe, Zamfara and Soko­to, people are saying that Hausa people are killing the Fulanis and vice ver­sa. But at the PDP Nation­al Convention, you saw a practical demonstration that the party can unite Nigerians, as we came up with different people from different zones and that too without rancour. So, one of the implications of the successful conduct of the PDP National Con­vention is that the PDP can restore the hopes of Nige­rians for a safe and united country.

As an opposition politician in the country, if you meet with President Muhammadu Buhari today, how best would you advise him on the situ­ation regarding disunity and insecurity in the country?

If I have such an oppor­tunity, I will simply tell him that if he cannot trust those from other ethnic groups in the country to serve in the government, then we can never be unit­ed in this country.

You see, it is very sim­ple. Look at the Service Chiefs we have today. Why don’t we have any­one from South-Eastern zone? Is there no one in the military in that same zone that can occupy the topmost position? So, I will advise the Presiden­cy to tone down the issue of ethnicity and seriously toe the path of unity in the country. I am saying this because if there is unity, we will experience prog­ress in different sectors of our economy.

As governor of Oyo State, what are the three major things you have done since you assumed office?

In Oyo State, we have what we call the four ser­vice point agenda or four pillars, which our admin­istration rests upon: these pillars are security, educa­tion, health and economic expansion through agri­business.

On education; we are operating a free educa­tion policy. I promised to ensure that our children, who have been ‘out of school’ and roaming the streets, return to their different schools. That was why we had to stop the payment of the N3,000 education levy they were paying before we came into government, because we observed some parents could not even afford the payment.

As of today, over 50,000 out-of-school children are back in school. We gave them textbooks and note­books. We organised free tutorials for those of them who were preparing for WASSCE and NECO – we recruited special teach­ers for them and got them paid. Today, it would not come as a surprise to our people that Oyo State is now in the 9th position as against the 29th position we occupied when we had a high number of out-of-school-children in the South-West.

Also, before we came in, I promised that our youths in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) would no lon­ger waste years in school before they graduate. I vowed to take sole owner­ship of the institution for the state so that it could run as a proper university and it was achieved.

On the issue of health, we believe that our peo­ple need to be healthy in order to be productive. So, on that, we felt where significant things can be done is at the primary health care level. We have 351 Electoral Wards in Oyo State and we said one functional PHC must be in each ward. Most of them are almost at the point of completion and we are equipping them as well. What this means is that wherever you are, you can access a PHC facility with­in one or two kilometres.

Apart from our inter­vention in fixing and equipping one Prima­ry Health Centre per ward, we have also made massive investments on health care service deliv­ery at the secondary lev­el too. We have fixed and equipped many general hospitals, including the Adeoyo State Hospital, Ring Road, Agbami Chest Centre, Jericho and the Saki Specialist Hospital, Saki. We have equally pro­cured 10 ambulances and put in place a solid struc­ture that will culminate in the overall improvement of the health sector.

In the area of infrastruc­ture, before we came in, at least, I campaigned every­where and I saw the situa­tion of the infrastructure gap in the state. For ex­ample, the Moniya-Iseyin road; when we came in, we had to award the road and it is completed now due to our intervention. Travel­ling along the road before now used to be almost three hours but now it is about 40 minutes.

Today, I am happy to tell you that we have also started the construction of Oyo to Iseyin and the Sa­ki-Ogboro-Igboho road. In Ibadan, the Ajia-Airport road with a spur to Am­uloko is being done. The Apete-Awotan-Akufo road, which is the first road to be constructed with con­crete in the state, is also a major intervention by our government. The big one is the Circular Road, which has been re-award­ed and before the comple­tion of this government, 70 kilometres out of the 110 kilometres will be done.

Sincerely, we met a state that was deep inside the hole but we are coming up and we want to start run­ning. Realistically, I will give our administration 60 to 70 per cent pass mark in terms of performance, because there is room for improvement on what we are doing.

But some residents in Oke- Ogun have raised concern over the issue of insecurity around that axis of the state and are of the opinion that you have not done enough for them as expected. So, what will you say about that?

First let me say that be­fore we came in, there was nothing like Amotekun, it was the creation of this current government. And now, if you ask the people if they want Amotekun to be scrapped or not, I know they want it to stay. You can also experiment with that on your Facebook timeline and get the opin­ions of the people.

There are challenges in terms of security in Nigeria. If you compare the general situation with what we have in Oyo State, we will even be thanking God, because we are fight­ing it. In places where there was no coverage before, they are now be­ing covered and we are pumping funds massively into the security sector. We have bought a lot of patrol vehicles for securi­ty agencies to ensure they perform optimally and we have noticed that there is cooperation and synergy among the security agen­cies. The truth is, we have never had it so good like this in the state, though we will continue to do more.

It is in this same govern­ment that we asked the In­spector-General of Police to provide us a Mobile Po­lice Squadron at Ago-Are. And now, from Ago-Are to Saki, it is a rapid response for the police officers who are there currently. We have applied for another squadron for Oyo town. So, the people know that we are doing well on the issue of security and we are not relenting. When you compare what we have here with the general sit­uation in the country, you will agree that we are still the safest – or one of the safest – in Nigeria.

People like Sunday Igboho and others think little or nothing is being done on the issue of security, which brought up the clamour for Yoruba Nation. What can you say?

I think the best approach to take care of headache is not to cut off such head. There are better ways of addressing some matters. Our forefathers who ne­gotiated this country sac­rificed a lot of things. But some of these people who are clamouring that Nige­rians should be divided, what have they sacrificed? Have they gone to battle at any war front? See, it is not just about sitting somewhere and clamour­ing for division when we can explore other means to achieve unity.

So, what do you think are the other means available to be explored to achieve that unity? It is restructuring – all of us have to sit down and think of what is next. We see different things in dif­ferent ways. So, we still have opportunity to all sit together and address some matters we feel are probably problematic to us. It looks as though things have fallen apart and the centre is not hold­ing anymore. But I believe that the six years of APC so far have worsened the situation of this country. I am for restructuring and discouraging disuni­ty, because our people will benefit a lot from a united Nigeria.