Makinde will surpass first term achievements with the way he’s going — Commissioner

The Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Prince Dọtun Oyelade, says Gov. Seyi Makinde has so far disappointed those with the wrong ideas about his second term.

Oyelade, while receiving management staff of the Ibadan Zonal Office of newsmen on Tuesday, said the governor has already disproved wrong insinuations about how he would perform.

”Some said then that Gov. Makinde’s performance if he gets a second term will not match his first term achievements.

“But, right now, every activity of the state government so far is a pointer to how serious the governor has taken his second term mandate,” he said.

The Commissioner said Gov. Makinde has performed beyond expectations in the past five months to show that he was out to surpass whatever he has done in the past.

“In the first five months of Seyi Makinde’s second term, 1,174 teachers have been promoted to level 17 because of the governor’s policy of not tying teachers’ promotions to availability of vacancies.

“Also, since the commencement of Omituntun 2.0, Gov. Makinde’s administration has opened up more roads, including the commissioning of the 34-kilometre Oyo-Iseyin road,” he said.

Oyelade further pointed at the successful relocation of 1,533 undergraduates from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso to the newly-established Faculty of Agriculture and Renewal Science at Iseyin.

“This administration has also spent over four billion Naira on the Strategic Action for Economic Recovery (SAfER) programme to alleviate the sufferings of the poorest of the poor as a result of the recent fuel subsidy removal.

“This includes the one billion Naira released to the Oyo State Agricultural Credit Corporation for farmers across the state just last week.

“Above all, and just only yesterday (Monday), the workers’ wage bill was increased by N2.2 billion per month as a result of the new N25,000 wage award for the state’s workers and N15,000 for the pensioners,” he stated.

The Commissioner said the governor had even given an idea of how he wanted to better serve the people of Oyo State with his charge to members of his cabinet recently.

“The governor had warned members of his cabinet during a leadership retreat on Oct. 4 that the people of Oyo State will neither take excuses or stories from his administration.

“According to him (Makinde), all the people want is performance and he gave a marching order at the time that each ministry, department and agency must submit its two year work-plan to his office within the month,” Oyelade said.

In his remarks earlier, NAN’s Ibadan Zonal Manager, Mr Olawale Alabi, had said he was encouraged to approach the Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation for collaboration in information dissemination.

“We at NAN are encouraged by the professional manner the activities of government are being disseminated, and believe we need to strengthen our collaboration for better results.

”From what we have seen, the duties of disseminating information here are in good hands and we will delightfully join in making things better,” he said.

NAN reports that the NAN Ibadan Zonal Office team, which included a Deputy Editor-in-Chief (DEIC), Dr Adewale Sadeeq, was received by the Ministry’s top officials.