Makinde: For blocking governance loopholes, I’ve received threats over 2023 ambition

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, says he has received threats over the forthcoming 2023 governorship election in the state, because he has blocked loopholes in the system.

According to a statement on Friday by Taiwo Adisa, the governor’s chief press secretary, Makinde disclosed this in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, during the public presentation of two books authored by Temitope Alonge, immediate past chief medical director (CMD) of the University College Hospital.

The governor said some persons who benefitted from “free money” in the past — which he claimed his administration has now blocked access to — have threatened to get back at him if he runs for governorship in 2023.

He, however, insisted that he will not succumb to such threats.

“There are people within the system that are used to free money, and they are still there. And all they can say to me is that I am messing with their honey pots and have blocked loopholes they are making money from,” he was quoted to have said.

“They do threaten me on 2023 ambition, saying I will come back again. But I may or may not; that is the news for them. I will ensure that those loopholes remain blocked.”

The governor also noted that the alternative projects funding approach, which his administration has adopted, is the best way to speed up infrastructural development in the state.

“The PPP, which Alonge wrote about, is the saving grace for Oyo state right now. We actually call it APFA, Alternative Project Funding Approach, which for us, is very simple,” he said.

“We go to a capital organisation with access to money and tell them that the government cannot take everything on at the same time. We will give you an irrevocable standing payment order. What that does is, it allows the government to execute projects without paying upfront 100 percent.

“So, for us, by the time some of these projects are being handed over, the government would have paid only 35 to 38 percent of the total cost. But in the approach of the previous government, you have to pay 30 percent upfront for the contractor to even mobilise to site.”

Speaking on his books, Alonge said he wrote them to provide information about other models of public-private partnership that can be deployed in the health sector.