The governor of Oyo State, ‘Seyi Makinde, recently had a media interaction with selected journalists from media houses in the state. SAM NWAOKO, who was part of the team of journalists, brings excerpts of the interview:
Your people are complaning of land grabbing at the Circular Road. Do you really need the contentious corridor there?
People do not really understand the concept of the Circular Road. They think the circular road would be like something like the road from Iwo Road to Beere. That is not the concept of the Circular Road. Because of that misconception, people are saying ‘we want the circular road but we don’t want the corridor.’ From the thought they had of the circular road, some think they would bring their driveway into the road. We are not spending this kind of money to build this Iwo Road to Gate kind of road, we are building a motorway. The circular Road willl be the very first motorway in Nigeria. With the circular road we are redefining the city limit not just for Ibadan but for the majority of the local governments around Ibadan. The 32km stretch from TechU (on Lagos-Ibadan expressway) to Badeku (on Ibadan-Ife Road) will have only two exit points. If you like, you put your estate where you don’t have entry and exit points, you won’t have access to the road. So, the concept of how you want to develop that place requires that you must have a corridor. This will be a road that you have a minimum speed limit; nobody will go less than 80km per hour. Maybe some would like to go less than that, I don’t know, but they would break the law if they go at 20 or 30 kilometres per hour. When you want to do something like that, you need to let the people know that there will be a corridor.
When the Circular Road is the discussion, people would raise complaints of land being usurped; in Akinyele somebody had been sent to prison on the accusation of land-grabbing. Are you a land-grabber?
I’m not a landgrabber, but I am a firm believer in the saying that ‘it is only an idiot that will continue to do something the same way and expect a different result. So, I believe that our leaders in the past tried their best. Some of them, maybe because they listened to what people were saying without really going deep into why they were saying those things, and who are the people behind those things. I can say it boldly that it is the landgrabbers that are landgrabbing. Let us take for instance, some people are being investigated and they are in custody right now. There is a mechanic garage opposite the Gbagi Market. The Housing Corporation of Oyo State approached the people there to relocate them because of the things we are doing about the road and the airport on which we are spending billions of Naira to bring to an international standard. Then I saw a man in the social media ranting that ‘Seyi is a thief, bla bla bla, all of that…’ Now they got him and asked him to show us where his own mechanic shed is in the location. He hasn’t got any; he only came from Lagos to do that job in Ibadan. So, who paid him for that job? Some people must have paid him.
In 1982 as a 15-year-old, I was in BCOS with my elder brother to feature in a programme called Word Power. When I came here that time, there was an estate for the workers here. Fast-forward to when I became the governor, the land for the estate was still there while the place had become ‘short-time’ hotels. I went there and I met people. I said let us use this place as the first example of how we can mobilise private money to build infrastructure and today the Lere Adigun GRA is known and talked about even outside the state and ‘big men’ are living there including elder statesmen. If I didn’t take that decision, the place would still have been like that. Did I grab the land? If you see a plot belonging to Seyi Makinde in there bring it and I will sign it over to you.
These places you’re opening up are being taken by the affluent, whereas the ones that need these places don’t have access to them.
What is the concept of development? Do you want to be like the crab to say if I cannot get up nobody will get up, and we use poverty to flatten ourselves? I don’t think that is what we want to do. I was born at Isale Aafa in Ibadan. When my father went from being a primary school teacher to a banker, we moved to Adeoyo. When he left the bank and joined ANCE as their deputy accountant, we moved to Yemetu. By so doing, we were moving towards Bodija Estate. Later, when he stabilised, we moved to Iwo Road. Look at where we were coming from. So, to expand your economy is to provide opportunities for the downtrodden to move.
In January 2024 when the tragedy of explosion happened in Bodija, Ibadan, you took some steps including providing temporary shelter just as you made some promises to the victims. You also said steps would be taken regarding the people found to have caused the incident. What has happened in all of these? What has the law been able to do?
When the incident at Bodija happened, we immediately took all the steps you had highlighted to bring succour to the victims. From your question, you are asking what has happened to the people who were accused of being behind the explosion in Bodija. I want to say that the wheel of justice grinds slowly. The wheel of justice takes time. We are in court and I can assure that nobody has been let off the hook. The law enforcement agencies are doing their job to ensure that justice is served. For those whose properties were affected and/or destroyed, I owe the people a responsibility to let them know how things happened. The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) went there and did a report. Of course, this process took some time, some of them we put them in a hotel during this period. Some of them we informed them that they would be supported, not compensated. There is a difference in that. Of course when things like that happen people would expect the government to turn up for them while some have entitled opinions. The report of the NSE said that the cost of what happened there is over N3 billion and I said let us look for N3 billion and see how to get things moving again. Then some people began to say that they heard in Abuja that Oyo State government was given a certain amount of money because of the incident and so they demanded for N5 billion. I said you don’t run the government for us and I showed them the report which says that they are part of the incident. But the long and short of it is that we have awarded contracts for the reconstruction of the roads and other government infrastructure that were destroyed in that vicinity and that is a closure for the government on that matter. But for the victims, some of them may never fully recover from the effect of that incident for life, because some might even lose their certificate which might never be recovered.
If you are to briefly give highlights of what your administration has achieved, what would you say are the major highlights?
I didn’t want to return in 2023, it took me time to decide and people kept telling me when governors get a second term, they don’t work and would hardly do anything, and all those things. So, Oyo State people were afraid that ‘would this man not be the same thing after getting re-elected?’. When I became convinced that we can continue with some of the things we are doing, I approached the people to give me the opportunity to continue to serve them.
The way I would look at it is: the people who gave me the opportunity, have they been disappointed in the job they gave to us? That is one way to look at it. I want to know from the people those things they want done which we have not done or which we have not set foot on the way to do. I don’t want people to tell me what I love to hear. All the data that he has completed 184 kilometres of road and so on, what quality of road are we talking about? Are there roads that would still be there 20 – 25 years from now? I say to people, construction of roads is not the legacy I am looking at when I think of what I would be remembered for when I leave this place. The institutions which we are building and how those institutions are impacting the life of the people and how would they guarantee that Oyo State would continue to experience good governance when going into the foreseeable future. I was tuned in to a radio programme and I heard people there say the federal budget presented recently would change the life of the people and I laughed and wondered how. I said, ‘Can you change this country in one year of a federal budget?’ So, don’t let us deceive ourselves, don’t let us deceive our leaders. Let us tell them the truth and let’s be objective about it.
For instance, the people at the road from BCGA to NIHORT, I promised them since 2019 that we would fix that road. We have not been able to. Let them come here and tell me not to forget what I said and I can tell them the plans we have in place regarding that. When we were fixing the New Garage road that leads to Owode and so on, I told the people at Elebu that we should fix the major artery first and then we would go into the inner roads around that place. They can come to me along with a few others like that all over the place and I can tell them what plans we have put in the budget for 2025 and the expectations. So, I don’t want people to score this administration right now. Yes, we’ve done quite a bit but a lot still has to be done.
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