Oyo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cautioned Governor Seyi Makinde to put a stop to his penchant for frequent foreign trips aimed at helping the Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, to bounce back to reckoning in the national political space as it concerned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The media have reported the many foreign trips made in recent weeks by a group of aggrieved PDP governors led by Governor Wike and which included Governor Seyi Makinde as well as others from Abia, Benue and Enugu states ostensibly to find solutions to their current travails within the umbrella party.
Displeased by the development, the opposition party in the state has asked Makinde to either get serious with the business of governance or vacate his seat for the deputy governor to complete the remaining seven months of his four-year term.
Oyo APC, in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, and made available to journalists in Ibadan submitted that the governor had taken undue advantage of the maturity and the good people of the Pacesetter state for too long “as he conducts the affairs of government since 1999 in a manner that has reduced Oyo state to his private company.
“Without adding any significant value to the state since May 2019, Governor Makinde has been wasting the meagre resources available on foreign trips. As if this was not enough, the governor has graduated from embarking on frequent personal business trips abroad to globetrotting with Governor Wike and three others who are dissatisfied with the outcome of the last presidential primary of their party.
“We find it extremely funny that the same Makinde who has succeeded in sending away virtually all the original Oyo PDP members and replaced them with his SDP and ADC loyalists could be alleging some national leaders of any wrongdoing. If one may ask; who else could be more unjust to his fellow party members than the governor who poached some political neophytes from the APC and dashed them party tickets at the expense of his party faithful?
“Another sad thing is that; Governor Makinde has bastardised the Pacesetter status of Oyo state as we now have a chief executive who carries handbags for governors from other states without any justifiable reason. And each time he (Makinde) had followed Wike and others to France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, United Arab Emirates or any other foreign country, every activity of government stood still since governance has been a one-man show for almost 41 months now in the whole of the state.
“As much as the good people of the state do not expect any miracle to turn things round in the area of fixing of deplorable roads, improved security architecture, good environmental management, provision of qualitative education, provision of potable water among others dividends of democracy in the remaining seven months, they would be comfortable with further dragging of the image of the state in the mud by a governor who has placed mundane politicking above responsibility and responsiveness in office”, Oyo APC added.
