The presence of GOV. SEYI MAKINDE can be compared to the presence of Moses amidst the Israelites when they were about leaving Egypt to the promise land.
The aforementioned people were hopeless and were in dissary before Moses came to their rescue. The same can be said of governor Oluwaseyi Makinde in this period of uncertainty, this man has given hope to the hopeless via his heart felting programmes, for as the saying goes, “when the journey gets tougher, only the tough gets going”, he keeps on powering the boat even when the engine seems not ready, as the state of things in the country is nothing to write home about.
I referred to him as a rare gem that knew where the shoe pinches, because he has demonstrated via his democratic and charismatic nature that he’s toeing the line and as well as setting the pace for others to follow.
This is a great icon and a once in a lifetime politician that dances to the tone, needs and aspirations of the 21st century. This is a significant point on his part, because, according to Marshal McLuhan, the world has moved from the ordinary world to the world of technology, from the world of technology, to the world of technopoly, from the world of tecnopoly, to the world of technocracy and from the world of technocracy, to the present state, which McLuhan referred to as a “global village”, whereby everything you do is visible and accessible, anytime, anywhere and by anybody around the world.
In Seyi Makinde, we have a leader that revolves and evolves around this Marshal’s proposition and as a result, I tagged him the “21st century politician”.
During his campaign, he promised prompt payment of salaries. His administration has kept up with the promise of prompt payment of salaries and pensions for civil and public servants on the 25th of every month and sometimes, earlier, as well as ensuring the payment of more outstanding gratuities for retired civil servants in the past one year than the previous administration paid in eight years, said they were being done to ensure that funds are constantly being injected into the state’s economy, thus benefiting both the formal and informal sectors.
Apart from above, he improved the area of ease of doing business and set up the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency to harness our competitive advantage in agriculture.
Recalled, in August, 2019, both International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and African Development Bank (AfDB) hail governor Seyi Makinde’s vision on agric when he led stakeholders across various value chains in the state to design an implementation plan for agribusiness for the pacesetter state. He led his state officials as well as experts to Cotonou, Republic of Benin to chart a path for transforming agriculture in Oyo State.
To my surprise, he signed the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) Bill into law in April, 2020.
The agency that aims to develop a strategy to coordinate and implement agribusiness investments and projects in the state through public, private and development partnerships.
This will enhance the optimisation of agro-food value chain business within Oyo state through an agricultural ecosystem that strengthens productivity, value chain growth and the processing and packaging of agro-based production.
It will also support the State’s economic growth through engagement in domestic trade in agro-food by import substitution and exportation of nutritious processed and package agro-based products and, promote engagement of youth in agriculture through the development of agribusiness enterprises from downstream, midstream to the upstream of the agricultural sector.
On poor state of IGR by the past administration, Governor Makinde has brought incremental changes in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), following the introduction of a new IGR framework in November 2019, noting that between December 2019 and February 2020, the state’s IGR figures had been between N2.43 Billion. and N2.7 Billion.
The Park Management System that will bring sanity and order to the transportation sector, that will also generates funds for the government is part of the positive changes we are witness in his administration, compare to what the past administration turned the City to in aspect of transportation.
