Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has approved the reappointments of retired Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni and former chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Oyo State chapter, Comrade Bayo Titilola-Sodo, as Special Advisers on Security and Labour Matters, respectively.
This is as the governor reappointed a retired Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, Mr. Segun Adegoke, as the Special Adviser on Homeland Security. Governor Makinde, according to a letter signed by his Chief of Staff, Otunba Segun Ogunwuyi, equally approved the appointment of the immediate past Commissioner for Trades and Commerce, Chief Bayo Lawal, as Senior Executive Assistant on General Duties.
Other appointments approved by the governor are as follows:
Mr. Olatilewa Folami- Director-General, Oyo State Investment and Public Private Partnership (OYSIPA); Mr. Elias Adeojo- Chairman, Water Corporation of Oyo State; Mr. Olufemi Awakan- Chairman, Oyo State Board of Internal Revenue; and Dr. Debo Akande- Executive Adviser, Agribusiness, International Cooperation and Development & Director-General, Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA).
The governor charged the new appointees to see their appointments as further call to service and to discharge their duties with dedication and absolute loyalty to the state.
The appointments are with immediate effect, according to the release
The Oyo State government has declared that over 1.5million remnants of the out-of-school students that have been absorbed into various public schools under the 2017 to 2022 Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), will be mopped up and brought back to the classrooms under the BESDA-Additional Funding (AF)-Transforming Education System at State level (TESS) programme.
The announcement was made on Monday at the opening of a two-day training programme for School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) on Community-Driven Development Approach by the Permanent Secretary, Oyo State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Adeniyi Olusanjo at Lagelu Grammar School’s Hall in Ibadan.
The BESDA-AF-TESS project is aimed at reducing out-of-school students through physical infrastructural project and training of teachers for improved teaching practices and learning outcomes.
In his words, Olusanjo said the programme was targeting mopping up the remaining 1.5million out-of-school students after those that have been successfully returned to classrooms under the BESDA within 2017 and 2022.
He added that the State enjoyed the privilege of been selected by the Federal government and donor agencies like the World Bank and GPE because of the success achieved by the State under the BESDA programme, adding that the 1.5million figure covered students from far and neighboring States and countries that have come to Oyo State to to enjoy the State’s free education policy.
“The TESS programme we are starting now is targeting mopping up the remaining 1.5million pupils that have been identified to have taken residence in Oyo State from far and neighboring States and even beyond the borders of Nigeria, due to the benefits derivable from the State’s free education system.
“Having noticed the success of BESDA within 2017 to 2022 in Oyo State, the World Bank, federal government and GPE decided to pick Oyo State, Adamawa State and Katsina State for the new project, which is to deliver the needed equitable access to out-of-school children in Oyo State.”
In his own words, the State Coordinator of BESDA-AF-TESS, Dr. Bamidele Odekunle said the roles of the School-Based Management Committee was very germane to the success of the new project.
He maintained that the training, superintendent by the Oyo State Community and Social Development Agency (OYCSDA), was to prepare the representatives of the benefiting SBMCs for the work ahead, urging participants to note all the aspects of the training so as to have a seamless implementation.
Members of the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) include School Heads, representatives of teachers, males and females representatives of pupils, males and females representatives of traditional leaders, old pupils and students, Parents, Teachers Association (PTA) representatives, Youths representatives, artizans, community-based organizations, community representatives and faith-based organizations.
Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ibadan North East Local Government under the umbrella of PDP Concerned Members of Ibadan North East Constituency 1 has written to the leadership of the party appealing to them to ensure that constituency 1 should be allowed to produce consensus candidate.
According to different letters made available to Oduduwa News, signed by the Mr A. A Maruf & M. O Jimoh Coordinator and Secretary respectively, the group appealed to His Excellency Seyi Makinde and the Vice Chairman of PDP southwest zone, Amb Taofeek Arapaja.
In the different letters with the title “Clarion Call To Correct Imbalance in the Nomination of Chairmanship Of Ibadan North East Local Government Between Constituency 1 & 2 of the Local Government “ the signatories on behalf of the concerned members appealed to Gov. Seyi Makinde to ensure that the people of constituency 1 are given a sense of inclusion as the party since 1999 has always chosen chairmanship candidate by consensus and all has been from constituency 2, and it’s only fair that the 2024 Chairmanship candidate of the local government should be chosen by consensus from constituency 1.
Similarly, the same call was made to the Chairman Ib. North East Elders/Stakeholders Forum, a former Commissioner in the State Chief Mikail Adebayo Lawal & the Chairman, PDP of the local government, Mr Isiaka Fatokun
His Excellency, Engr Seyi Makinde, has approved the reappointment of Ms Tara Adefope as the Director General of Oyo State Bureau of Public Procurement.
Similarly, the governor also approved the reappointment of Colonel Bisiriyu Olayinka Olayanju fdc (Retired) as Commandant, Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun), Oyo State, while appointing Engr. Mufutau Open Salawu as Executive Assistant, Project Monitoring.
These are contained in a letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Otunba Segun Ogunwuyi. According to the letter, the appointments are with immediate effect.
The Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Oluseyi Makinde, has approved the appointment of the immediate past Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Abiodun Oni, as the Director-General of the Mineral Development Agency of Oyo State and Executive Chairman of the Pacesetter Mineral Development Company.
Similarly, the governor approved the appointment of four other aides.
The governor, through a letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the governor, Otunba Segun Ogunwuyi, indicated that Mr. Olorundare Olamide Wilson has been appointed as Senior Special Assistant on New Media, while Oluwadare Daniel Aleshinloye, has been reappointed as Special Assistant on Photography.
The duo of Mr. Timilehin Olubiyi and Miss Mobolaji Dada were announced as Special Assistant (New Media I) and Special Assistant (New Media II) respectively.
Background: Few months into the first term of His Excellency, Engr. Oluseyi Makinde, the State government instituted the Light Up Oyo Project, which was targeted to cover over 240km of roads throughout the State.
According to the design and roadmap to the implementation of the project, it was aimed at improving the economy of the state by ensuring that the state economy does not go to bed at sunset. This initiative, when it was first introduced was said to be under the Ministry of Works and Transport in the state, and was highly commended by the people immediately the project kicked off and various towns began to be lit. The project, if successful, will not only improve the economic activities of people in the State, but also helps to address challenges of insecurity confronting the State.
The Project: The 240km street light project tagged Light Up Oyo was aimed to cover all the geopolitical zones in the State, from Ibadan to Oyo to Oke-Ogun to Ogbomoso and to Ibarapa for the good people of Oyo State. There is no gainsaying in the fact that this laudable project will bring economic development to the state. However, poor implementation of the project has been a major setback holding down its progress.
The funding arrangement was on Independent Power Producer IPP with the contractor providing larger percentage of the funding and Oyo State government fulfilling its own part too till the project is finally handed over to the State government after the agreed number of years.
According to findings, the street lights were to be powered by tribrid energy source grid, gas and inverter, with diesel as the first means for test running of the project.
What Went Wrong? After 2years of the project, darkness has returned to the State, most especially in key areas where the project has been carried out. As the darkness looms, it is not out of point, if people begin to ask questions as regards the setback of the project and its failure to meet up with expectations.
Findings further reveal that the project started to fail immediately it was moved from Ministry of Works to Ministry of Energy, as it was alleged that those who were appointed to be in charge at the new ministry didn’t study the already-prepared contractual document developed by the Ministry of Works on the roadmap to implementation of the project via-a-vis transition from diesel to gas and Inverter.
It is a fundamental defect for a project of this magnitude to be allowed to go through its life cycle, without a designated dedicated champion. It is even problematic, if not chaotic, when one observes, that the implementation that goes with rigorous supervision is, in this case, left in the hands of inexperienced politicians, who too, possess no clue or any background knowledge of the complexities that normally come with managing such engineering technicalities necessary to pilot the project to a successful execution.
The idea of entrusting a handler and negotiator without requisite knowledge to champion this gigantic project, instead of assigning such role to a seasoned and tested professional engineer, detracts from the excellent merit the government pontificates about.
Another disturbing aspect of the detected flaws in the Light Up contract, is the project’s heavy concentration on “low hanging fruits”, that is, some noticeable short term hurriedly carried out meeting arrangements culminating into quick-fix problems and challenges, the solution to which could give a shot in the arm, to the prevailing problem.
The Issues: The rising cost of diesel during the early implementation stage (2019 to 2020) hindered the effective functioning of the street lights making some people in the state to speak up and ask questions as regards the project. The government agreed that the project wasn’t meant to be placed on diesel and that they are doing all possible best on its transition to gas.
In 2022, the government successfully started transition from diesel generator to gas generator, still the lingering issues still persist.
In April 25th, 2023, the Honorable Commissioner for Energy, Barr. Seun Ashamu confirmed the speculation going around that there’s disagreement between the contractor and that the state government has rendered the project ineffective. According to further findings, the disagreement between the contractor and state government is based on funding, the state government is owing the contractor almost N20bn. While this figure of debt seems to be daring, owing a state contractor to that amount is not palatable for a state that is struggling to be financially viable in the comity of the states. Hence, the government’s decision to audit the project infrastructures to ascertain the veracity of the claim by the state handlers of the project.
Nonetheless financially, it was also revealed that the stealing and theft also responsible for the failure of the project, as cables were alleged to have been stolen by some hoodlums, including vandalization of street light materials. While this has been brought under control by security agencies, the disagreement between the contractor and the state government over payment remains unresolved or partially solved.
Way Out: The project if successful will be one of the legacies of the Seyi Makinde’s administration, and for this, it’s in the best interest of the governor to make it work.
Conclusively, those in charge of the project at the Ministry of Energy are not doing enough. Either attributable to inexperience or lack of political will. All what Oyo State citizens want is that there is need to review operational guidelines and that value is given to every penny spent from the tax payers’ money to the project.
It is our suggestion that once the project is restored, committed hands should be put in charge with oversight supervision and all hands should be on deck to ascertain certain areas of key performance indicators.
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Your Excellency, I congratulate you on your landmark victory of the March 18th Gubernatorial election, it was a win for the people of Oyo State. Since the inception of your administration in 2019, if you kindly recall Sir, this will be my fourth pen route addressed to your esteemed office. In previous editions, I addressed students and youth welfare; bursary and scholarship, as well as governance. Today, as Governor and the Governor Re-elect of our beloved pacesetter state, much has been done in the above-stated area of concerns and there is more to be done.
Evidently, there are new milestones laid before you and the milestones may seem more challenging than your first term service to the good people of Oyo State. With the rubicon being scaled, there are more expectations and faith in your governance especially now that the 2027 journey is around the corner.
Your Excellency, I’d like to set forth a significant question that played out in the concluded election, does performance guarantee electoral success if alliances are broken? Your guess is as good as mine, Your Excellency!
The sojourn as the Governor of Oyo state was birthed in 2019 as a result of alliances. I was a student of Obafemi Awolowo University at the time, and in good faith, students supported your aspiration despite our non-partisanship as students. We saw in you a young man with visions to address contemporary issues as far as governance and welfarism is concerned in Oyo State, even when others left, we stood solidly behind you.
Depending on individual perspectives and interest, your first term which is gradually coming to an end has recorded a huge success relative to the purse of our dear state. While landmark success was recorded in Health, Secondary Education, Economy, Agriculture, Inter-city road networks, little has been done on local roads, primary education, and indigenous students bodies.
Your Excellency, Salvation Army School, Odo Alagbafo and Methodist Primary School, NTA are less than 5 minutes drive to the State SUBEB headquarters, and in almost four years the infrastructural facilities in these schools are decaying day by day. The present situation has gotten worse to the extent that the younger ones now wash feces every morning before they could settle down in class for their daily academic study, including sitting on broken chairs for almost four years. I cited these two schools as examples because of their proximity to Government House, Ibadan North Secretariat and Oyo SUBEB. The best and kindest gesture from the new dawn of Omituntun 2.0 should wholeheartedly be a reform of the situation in these schools and other schools with similar untold hardships.
Your Excellency, with the recent constitutional amendment bills signed by President Muhammadu Buhari which moved Railways from Exclusive legislative list to the Concurrent list, likewise allowing each of the state in the federation the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity, has make governance more serious for State and many keen onlookers and patriotic Oyo state citizens are now expecting not short from the new dawn. It is of this hope that I appeal to the kind hearings of Your Excellency to have an intra-city railway system under Omituntun 2.0 dispensation. We also hope for the Oyo State Power Generating Plants, good and motorable access roads and furnished and well-equipped primary schools.
Your Excellency, it’s only an ingrate that won’t acknowledge your effort in Education, most especially the recent employment of 5000 teachers. While this has been appreciated, there’s more to do, especially in the primary school system, which has been bedeviled with shortage of teachers, unavailability of instructional materials and abandoned buildings. I am aware that you stated during one of your gubernatorial debates that more attention will be given to public primary schools, under Omituntun 2.0, we want to see this materialize, and I pray that you succeed in this endeavor.
Mr Governor, as a former student indigenous leader in the State, the place of the indigenous students and youth groups are not well represented in your first term. We have more of our own, competent and well-read that can be considered for political appointment as far as this aforesaid area is concerned. We have always been with you, and we hope that your kind turn of favor in governance will be extended to the aforesaid groups.
The Circular Road is the giant of all the Infrastructure work that your administration is known for. The project was conceived by Governor Rasheed Ladoja and abandoned for over 15 years. We appreciate your concerted effort for breathing life back to this project , this being done without erasing the bearer of the vision. My Governor, our Governor, the state workers are happy, the pensioners are happy, the people are happy, if being a populist governor is what makes the people happy, please, continue, we pray for your success.
I’d like to drop my pen for now with the trending accolades ascribed to Who’s your guy? Seyi Makinde is my guy.
According to Johann Goethe, “Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action”.
The above is a summary of the recent action of the indigenous students of Ogbomosho who out of ignorance planned to take to the streets to forestall the resumption of academic activities in LAUTECH Iseyin Campus. What should perturb sensible minds is that knowledge fused with ignorance have now become a tool of grandstanding in the pursuit of self-delusion.
The purported planned protest as called for by the Federation of Ogbomoso Students’ Union FOGSU could be likened to dance of shame and display of rascality. The basis of the protest according to the student body is that the resumption of academic activities in LAUTECH Iseyin Satelite Campus be suspended because its commencement will hinder economic progress of Ogbomosho. As watery this assertion could be, one will wonder what the students of nowadays learn in their various institutions of learning if such could be a position of an indigenous student body whose objective should transcend beyond parochial view.
To set the record straight, LAUTECH is our collective patrimony and it is being funded with the tax-payers’ money. All Oyo State indigenes have equal stake in the institution and as such nobody should lay claim to the ownership as if it is a family heritage bequeathed to Ogbomosho people.
It is so shameful that the shenanigans are bereft of ideas of how government policies work. If not, they wouldn’t have subjected themselves to public ridicule. To the discerning minds and for the sake of clarity, LAUTECH Establishment Act became law having passed through first, second and third reading at the State Assembly before the final assent by Governor of Oyo State.
The so-called students leaders were not oblivious of the fact that LAUTECH was being run by Oyo State and Osun State in the past before it became independent university in Oyo State. They should be informed that in the time past LAUTECH was in a state of comatose and couldn’t function for several months due to administrative problem between the two states and inability of the past administration in Oyo State to settle some financial obligations.
Those who suddenly gain their voices now were nowhere to be found when all Oyo State indigenes rose in unison to support Governor Makinde to get the full ownership of the institution with the payment of over N2billion winding-up cost from the tax payers money.
Now, that the normalcy has returned, the school is running smooth academic calendar and it has been approved to commence as full fledged university where some Faculties like Law, Education and others would be established, parochial view of some self-centered student leaders has now resurfaced forgetting the sweat of all Oyo State indigenes to restore the lost glory of the ivory tower.
In as much as I believe that everybody has equal right to protest as enshrined under the Fundamental Human Rights of Nigerian Constitution 1999 as Amended. However, we should be wary of certain act capable of destabilizing the peace currently enjoyed in Oyo State due to ignorance of some set of people.
I don’t know if the charlatans understand that LAUTECH Multicampus system has already become a Law and nobody no matter how highly placed can rescind such decision let alone protest by some few disgruntled element aiming at reversing the popular decision made by the State Government.
I do not want to preempt that these people are being sponsored to destabilize the peace and harmony of Oyo State by pitching Ogbomosho against Iseyin.
Oke-Ogun and Ogbomosho have enjoyed peaceful coexistence for a long period of time and no amount of clandestine mission of the few confused self-styled student leaders can bring the long existing relationship to an end.
I therefore implore the people of Oke-Ogun to remain calm and not to be tempted to reacting to provocation by these set of people whose mission albinitio is to cause disharmony in the State.
To the people of Oke-Ogun, let’s remain calm. This too shall pass.
A Former Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, two-term member, House of Representatives Egbeda/Ona Ara Federal Constituency has congratulated Governor Oluseyi Makinde on the Saturday March 18th 2023 Gubernatorial Election.
Hon. Adegoke who was the Deputy Director Monitoring and Evaluation PDP Presidential Campaign Council for Oyo State in the just concluded Presidential Election stated that the people have once again passed a vote of confidence in the administration of Engr. Seyi Makinde.
“The outcome of Saturday’s election is the reflects of the wish of the people and a confirmation of Engr. Seyi Makinde’s leadership style.It’s on this note that I congratulate His Excellency, Engr Oluseyi Makinde on his resounding victory at the poll and praying that God almighty will continue to grant him uncommon wisdom in directing the affairs of our dear state, for the betterment of the good people of Oyo state.
A PDP Stalwart and member of Ward 6, Ona Ara Local Government, Mr Samuel Adeniji has congratulated Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde on his re-election to serve for another four years as Governor of Oyo State.
Aare Adeniji who is the former Special Assistant on Media to the Deputy Speaker Oyo State House of Assembly & Former Coordinator, Youth Arise Network, Oyo State in his congratulatory message dated 20th March 2023, described Gov. Makinde as a God-sent leader to the people of Oyo State.
“Governor Makinde is God-sent, his victory at the poll further reiterates our position that he’s the people’s Governor and generally accepted by the people” “We at the youth constituency are pleased with your leadership, most especially the huge successes recorded in Infrastructure, Health, Education & Economy. We have no doubt that Omituntun 2.0 will be known for good, Congratulations Your Excellency.”
