Oyo State Governor and presidential candidate of the Action Peoples Movement (APM), Seyi Makinde, has taken a swipe at Senator Sharafadeen Alli and Accord governorship candidate Oriyomi Hamzat, saying governance is too serious to be treated as a joke.
Makinde made the remarks while defending his administration’s record and qualifications of members of his cabinet, saying his government had assembled competent professionals to serve the people of Oyo State.
“You can see a team standing in front of you. I am an engineer, a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. The acting governor is a lawyer and Attorney-General of the state. The SSG is a Professor of Economics, while the Head of Service is a PhD holder. We brought our first eleven to serve Oyo State,” he said.
Taking a swipe at his political opponents, Makinde said, “If you like, go and vote for someone who claimed to be a lawyer but has never entered a courtroom. Let him mention any case he has handled.”
He challenged his opponents to come forward with their achievements, questioning some of the promises being made ahead of the election.
“You know where we are coming from. Let them come out and say their achievements. He claimed he would go back to 30 students per class. How does that affect recruitment of teachers, wages and the physical infrastructure of schools?” Makinde asked.
The governor also said his administration had recorded significant achievements in the recruitment of teachers, adding, “No administration surpassed us in employment of teachers. We don’t just talk for political reasons.”
Makinde recalled the controversy surrounding his administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, saying he had refused to take a politically convenient decision at the time.
“I hadn’t spent six months as governor when COVID hit in 2020. They went to radio stations and started saying Seyi wanted to kill Oyo people. But we looked at the statistics and what was behind it and decided there would be no lockdown. We allowed markets to run, schools were opened,” he said.
He added, “If we had wanted to play politics, we would have gone with the flow. Governance is a serious business because millions of people’s destinies are involved. This is not a place to come and joke.”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
What do you think about this?
Drop your opinion in the comment section.
FOLLOW US & Share this with someone who needs to see this.
