TRIBUNE ONLINE
Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, speaks on the state’s annual budget performance, the gains of his administration’s focus on agribusiness and his focus ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
YOU recently presented the 2025 Oyo State Budget. What can you say about the budget?
I have the responsibility to make life meaningful for the people of Oyo State. But of course, you have impact from whatever is happening at the federal level. I cannot, from Oyo State, dictate the fiscal policies for the country. I don’t determine the exchange rate of naira to the dollar, but I will have to get bitumen in US dollars to tar roads in Oyo State. That is how these things are linked. However, for us in this state, you can go back to even 2019, we came in on May 29. Immediately, we realigned the budget and you can also check previous administrations and check their budget performance, which used to be about 30 to 35 percent.
When we came in 2019, we brought down the figure and by the time we got to the end of the year, we improved the budget performance to about 45 to 48 percent. But our first full budget as an administration was in 2020 and two months into the implementation of that budget, COVID-19 hit the world. At the end of the year, we still achieved almost about 65 percent. From that point, we have been performing up to about 70 percent. What it means is that if you look at the Oyo State budget, whatever you see in there, you have a 70 percent chance that they will get done. That is why, for us, you will notice that we have had stability in terms of how our projects are executed. And, in terms of liveability how our people are living, we are not concentrating projects within a certain group only. Market women, artisans and others are all doing far better than before.
When we talk about inflation, people will go out there and be brandishing figures and be saying that food inflation in Oyo State is high and all of that. But recently, I was coming from the Passing Out Parade of the Amotekun Rangers in Iseyin and I decided to stop by Psaltery Farms to see what they were doing and I passed through Ibarapa to check the progress of the Ido-Eruwa road. We saw many trailers of cassava not heading to anywhere in Oyo State but going to neighbouring states. What does that mean? It means that you have freedom of movement in Nigeria, so we cannot say that people should not move freely.
After the experience, I told my people that, now, we are producing for all these states and people will tell me there is food inflation in Oyo State. So, I said they must return to produce posts. I am not saying that outsiders should not come here to buy cassava, but if you are taking cassava from Oyo State to another state, it means we are doing some things right here and you must pay. We will tax them. But we have not gotten to that point.
Let me also give you another example; some days ago, I met a farmer and I asked him. How come what we are producing in high quantity here have not saturated our markets in Oyo State and he told me that farmers are selling to those from neighbouring states, because they are paying more and things like that. It means the farmers are making more money, but we are subsidising land clearing for farmers and providing other benefits. So, I said to them that we will all sit down and agree on how Oyo State would benefit first and foremost before other states.
It is a free market and we need to think things out with our farmers. We give you inputs and subsidy on land clearing and it is time for harvest, you want to go to the highest bidder wherever they may come from? No. That is causing dislocation for us. There are different schemes we are looking at, but the most important thing is accurate data on what is going on. Once we can wrap our heads around the data, we can think out the best solution.
Many people have been talking about the state of the education sector in Oyo State. Would you say you are doing well and are you happy as far as education sector is concerned in the state?
The policies and practices in the past towards infrastructure development in the education sector were faulty. But we have corrected that now. We carried out a study which discovered that the infrastructure deficit in education was around N60 billion. We were spending about N3 billion yearly both on our own counterpart and UBEC funding. If you have a N60 billion gap and you are spending N3 billion, it will take you 20 years to close that gap. That was why this year (2024), we were able to pull through. We validated those data and I appointed Suraj Abiodun Tiamy as a Special Adviser on Education Intervention, because, to bridge that gap, we must be spending N10 billion to N15 billion yearly. That will allow us to bridge the gap in four years to turn things around and we are well on track. We are trying to rearrange our resources, such that we can do more for the education sector.
I should also add that it is not for fun that since I came into power, in every budget year, we have exceeded the 20 percent UNESCO recommended figure for education. Education is in three layers – the primary, secondary and tertiary. As for the tertiary, I can say that we are doing very well and I am satisfied with what we are doing in that direction. For secondary and primary, we still have a lot more to do…
Connect with us on our socials: