Makinde’s frequent faceoff with FG, federal institutions, bad for Oyo, APC warns

The All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has called on relevant stakeholders in the state to call Governor Seyi Makinde to order over his alleged penchant for engaging the federal government, its agencies and officials in needless face offs as it has been the case in the last twelve months.

Oyo APC’s warning may have come against the backdrop of some reported cases of altercation between Makinde-led administration and the Presidency as well as officials and institutions of the federal government under the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari which the opposition party in the state claimed was becoming worrisome.

In a statement issued on Monday by its Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo, Oyo APC regretted that Gov. Makinde has never shied away from “open display of his naivety on the issues of good governance as well as the need to establish and sustain synergy with other tiers of government with a view to attracting opportunities to the state for the sake of indigenous and resident population.

“It is inconceivable that a young governor like Engr. Makinde could hold the esteemed Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria so lowly that he hardly exchange communication with the Presidency over many matters of importance. When the Oyo state governor is not calling out the person of Mr. President, he must have someone in the Presidency to ridicule all in the name of belonging to the PDP and not the APC.

“Empirically, the only agencies of the federal government in the good book of Gov. Makinde are perhaps INEC and the Ministry of Finance for obvious reasons. The whole mess started on his inauguration day when the governor called the bluff of the Supreme Court and went against a celebrated verdict which restrains state helmsmen and the Houses of Assembly from dissolving elected local government officials.

“Gov. Makinde later followed it up when he brazenly discountenanced the letters drawing his attention to the violation of the Apex Court verdict written to him by the Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice as well as the Inspector-General of Police at different occasions. With this kind of reckless display of disrespect to constituted authorities, he (Makinde) convinced the whole of the stuff he was made of and up till today, he would not allow democratically elected officials to function at the local government level in the state.

“As if this was not enough, the same governor took the Constitutionally revered Justices of the Appellate Court to the cleaners during a live radio and television interview last year when he claimed a verdict they against him, on account of his gubernatorial mandate, was influenced by interested parties he did not mention. Another issues was that of his cold war with the federal Ministry of Works over plans to duplicate efforts on the reconstruction of the Iwo Road, Ibadan interchange at a whopping cost of N8 billion without any engineering design.

“Recently, news filtered in that the governor was ready for a battle with the Nigerian Railway Corporation over issues of rights to some landed properties in Samonda, Bodija and parts of Ibadan at a time tongues were still wagging on the controversies surrounding the donation of 1,800 bags of rice by the Nigerian Customs Service and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Abuja to serve as palliative to the masses of the state in view the hardship occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Oyo state government is not ready to come clean on its management of the Coronavirus pandemic as the present administration has not demonstrated basic understanding of the danger locking around the corner. Rather than cooperate with the federal Ministry of Health, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan among others to stem the tide of the virus in the state, Gov. Makinde is more interested in unnecessary muscle flexing and this is quite unfortunate as the trend, if not checked, would literarily remove our dear from the national map with dire consequences, ” APC stated.