We will deactivate all bobby traps set for Makinde —Adeniran, Swearing-in Committee chair

Dr Nureni Adeniran is the chairman, Swearing in Committee for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor-elect for Oyo State, Sir Seyi Makinde. In this interview with DARE ADEKANMBI, he speaks on the committee’s activities and what the people of the state should expect from the incoming government, among other issues.

It has been weeks that your committee started the business of organizing a befitting swearing in ceremony for the new governor of the state. How has the job been?

So far so good, we are on top of it. We have made tremendous progress. When the committee was put in place, we further sub-divided ourselves into sub-committees, about 11 sub-committees which are handling different aspects of the programme. We have sub-committees on venue, entertainment, security, protocol, speech and oath, mobilisation, accommodation, media and publicity, printing and distribution of events programme. Each of these committees is working to ensure a hitch-free ceremony on May 29. We are really on course and we are going to have a very good outing for our new governor, Sir Engineer Seyi Makinde.

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How much cooperation is your committee enjoying from the outgoing government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi?

We have not really been interfacing with the outgoing government because they don’t have a corresponding committee. My own committee is swearing in committee. What they have is a transition committee, which is why it is our own transition committee that has been relating with them. However, some of our programmes have been discussed by the joint transition committee. The government has been giving some support to the extent it wants to go. But at some point, it appeared if though they did not want the event to succeed. But the good thing is that we are not waiting for them. We are on course. Later, they came up and were trying to support the inauguration. Regardless of what they do, our committee is working hard and we are reporting directly to the governor-elect.

On the venue, part of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium at Liberty Road, where the event will hold, has been undergoing renovation because some parts of the stadium need to be renovated. We are the incoming government, so we are not waiting for the government of the day. More importantly, the tenure of the APC government in Oyo State ends at midnight on May 28. So, automatically, Engineer Makinde becomes the governor from 12:01am of May 29. We will only do the ceremony between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. By that time, they will no longer be in existence. So, if we don’t handle the matter by ourselves, who will do so for us?

How true is it, that the money the outgoing government approved for the ceremony is far below the budget for the ceremony?

I was being diplomatic when I said the state government has been lending support to the extent they feel they want to go. Our own budget has been jointly approved by the transition committee, swearing in committee and our governor-elect and so we are carrying on. What they have approved from their end is grossly inadequate for that kind of programme. They can’t tell me that was what they spent to swear in the incumbent governor. So, they are acting deliberately, but we are not bothered at all. It is our programme and it is our governor that will be celebrated on that day. So, we are taking the bull by the horns. You are correct that what the government approved is far below what is required for the ceremony. The budget has been thoroughly scrutinised by three segments and has been reviewed and agreed on as being fair for the event.

The expectation from the populace from the new government is huge. Do you see Engineer Makinde meeting the expectation, at least to the satisfaction of the majority of the people of the state?

I am an indigene and a citizen of Oyo State and have lived practically all my life in the state. I have held several political offices in the state. So, I know what the expectations of the people are. We ran the campaign together. We knew what people told us they wanted. We knew what the people went through in the last eight years under the outgoing government. I have 100 per cent assurance that our governor has both the intellectual and mental capacity to meet the people’s expectation to the satisfaction of the populace.

However, it is also not unimportant to know that the governor will not work alone. I am sure the governor will assemble experienced, competent hands that will assist him in implementing the lofty ideas and programmes he has for the state. Our governor is kind-hearted and has passion for the development of Oyo State and its people. He wants everybody to be happy. He wants poverty to be removed from this land. In his personal capacity, he has demonstrated this sufficiently by providing social infrastructure and in support for education, giving scholarship and bursary to indigent students and providing facilities for public schools.

Since he has done these and more in his personal capacity, now that he has the opportunity to preside over the affairs of the state, your guess is as good as mine as to the extent to which he will go to ensure that things are done to better the lot of the people. One promise he made and which he kept repeating is that primary and secondary education will be totally tuition-free. That is, the money being collected by the outgoing government will no longer be paid by the parents once Governor Makinde comes on board.

He has also made a commitment that the budgetary allocation for education will get a boost to about 10 per cent and continues to grow. The outgoing government has been spending between four (4) and five (5) per cent of its budget on education, which has been grossly inadequate. I can assure you he will hit the ground running because he has the blueprint and the passion to serve the people of the state. He will do well in the health sector, maintain peace and security and even improve on it, focus on rural development and do much more. His government will value the people and not lampoon people as though they are not human beings. The people will have a feel that it is there government.

When people talk about the incoming government, they note the fact that it is a coalition government. In your own opinion, how inclusive do you think the new government should be?

The government is going to be all-inclusive in the spirit of the coalition. One thing I know Engineer Makinde for is that if he has an agreement with anybody. He will not renege. He is a man that keeps promises and that is one thing one of the reasons why I decided to work fully for him. The arrangement between himself as our candidate, our party and other political parties in the coalition will be implemented. He s not the type that will go back on his promise. Already, you would have been seeing that in all the committees he has been constituting, there are people from other parties-ADC, ZLP and others. That is to tell you that we are already running a coalition government. In similar circumstance, when the government is fully formed, you will people from ADC, ZLP and other parties in the government.

The political class in the state, particularly from the opposition, could not coalesce to wrest power in 2015. It was however able to do same in the 2019 election. What changed?

What the political class and most importantly the people of the state suffered in the hands of Governor Ajimobi in the last eight years is highly unpalatable. The people were blaming the political class for causing them the hardship; they said if the parties had come together in 2015, Ajimobi would not have returned. So, in 2019, the brand we brought out, Engineer Makinde, was a more acceptable brand. Secondly, all other parties in the coalition did not want to take chances and so they came to add glamour to ensure victory for Makinde and the PDP. Look at the unprecedented margin of victory we had-157, 669 votes. We won in 28 out of 33 local government areas. It was no mean feat. Makinde was already ahead in opinion poll before the coalition was achieved. But regardless of that, the coalition put the minds of the electorate at rest and fired them up not only to vote for Makinde but also protest their votes. So, everybody came together to say ‘No’ to the misrule of APC in the state.

With the debt burden hanging on the state, do you think Makinde will be able to achieve all he will be setting out to do for the state?

Government is a continuum and that is why Makinde will be inheriting both the assets and liabilities of the state. But he will let the people of the state know how much debt Ajimobi incurred for the state. That will however not impair his determination to turn things around.

Will Makinde review or reverse some of the decisions taken by the outgoing government since the March 9 election lost by the ruling party?

The truth is that this is not the first we will have a transition from one government to another. The style has always been that some of the past governments hurriedly put up some actions to cause problem for the incoming government or set a booby trap for the person taking over. A lot of the decisions taken by the outgoing government were done with malicious intentions. Such decisions will be reviewed and possibly cancelled. Ajimobi should not expect that Makinde will just walk straight into the bobby traps he has set for the incoming governor. We will deactivate the bobby traps and defuse the landmines he has buried in the ground for Makinde. The incoming government means well for the people of the state. Ajimobi had eight years to perform whatever miracles he has in minds. Why is he appearing nice now that he has five days.