Oyo 2018 budget not for the masses, Seyi Makinde insists

A People Democratic Party (PDP) Gubernatorial aspirant in Oyo state, Mr Seyi Makinde has warned the people of the state to brace up for harder times because the budget presented with fanfare last month cannot do them any good.

Makinde stated this in a statement issued by the Seyi Makinde Organisation and signed by Prince Dotun Oyelade and made available to journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday.

He said, “excessive debt profile of the Ajimobi Administration has limited the options of good governance such that there is little or nothing left in government coffers to provide vital interventions in crucial areas that affect the lives of the people directly such as Health, Education and Agriculture.”

The statement further affirmed that “Makinde has done his homework and discovered that Oyo has exceeded its debt gross revenue and consolidated debt/net revenues by about 339.56 percent and 410.86 percent respectively, according to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.”

He noted that the development has made the state to become fifth in the Federation Highest Profligacy Index.

The statement added that “as at 2016, Oyo state is indebted to the tune of N116 billion” quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin Vol 27, December 2016, as his source, said it “makes the current administration the highest debtor since the creation of the state in 1976.”

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“What government does in the past few years, according to the statement, is to service the excessive debt by accumulating more debt and using same for recurrent expenditure such as salaries and capital projects that bring no direct impact to the lives of the poor,” adding that “the CBN Statistical Bulletin Vol 27, Oyo State has been running a deficit budget for years which has put the state inconsistent decline with a devastating impact on the lives of workers, pensioners and the masses.”

The statement then appealed to His Excellency, Senator Ajimobi to encourage the state House of Assembly to trigger a motion of discontinuity of the current budget and redirect the budget to suit the masses’ immediate needs.

According to Makinde “the serious economic downturn has increased the number of sick people in the society who could not get any relief at all from our hospitals, while our able-bodied young ones could not find work because of government’s misplaced priorities.”