Makinde inaugurates steering committee for 20-year Development Plan

Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, on Friday, launched the State’s 20-year Development Plan, declaring that his government will continue to employ a holistic approach in developing the state.

Governor Makinde also stated that the administration will not relent in embarking on efforts that will leave no sector behind.

The governor, who stated this at the Executive Chamber of the Governor’s Office,  Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, while inaugurating the 27-man Steering Committee for Oyo State Development Plan (2021-2040), noted that the job of the committee is to ensure that the strategies and ideas targeted at ensuring a holistic development of the state are fully implemented to achieve the desired result.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, indicated that the governor had earlier, in September 2019, expressed the readiness of his government to put in place a long-term development plan for the state.

He also added that his administration would be bullish about the  development of the state.

While speaking during the inauguration of the steering committee under his chairmanship, Governor Makinde said Oyo State has never had a  long-term plan, noting that the 20-year development plan being put in place by his administration “is a long-term plan that looks beyond our administration, which is why it is tagged: ‘Oyo State Development Plan (2021 -2040).”

He added that a medium-term sectoral strategic plan 2021-2025 has also been incorporated in the plan, saying: “But one question people may be asking is why now? This administration is one year and five months old, even though I have heard people say it is two years now. If we are just creating a plan now, then, what have we been working with? Well, we have been working with the roadmap to accelerated development 2019-2023.

“This is a document that we developed during my electioneering period.

“We have health, education, agriculture, physical infrastructure and security. Those were very simple and straight forward pillars.”

The governor expressed confidence that the committee, which, according to him, has 27 seasoned professionals, will work diligently and give its all in the assignment for the betterment of the state.

“If we look at the presentation, the central working committee, and the 28 technical working groups, it is over 300 seasoned professionals and bureaucrats; both state and non-state actors.

“Also, we have 30 technical resource persons, 25 professors and five associate professors to serve as experts to the technical working committee. We have seven independent reviewers and I believe by the time we are done with this, we will all be proud of this work,” he said.

The governor, who stated that creating the long-term plan is a prerequisite to building a stronger Oyo State, said that the works already done in one year and a few months by his government showed that the state is doing things right and that it has been attracting investments locally and internationally.

“So, the job of this steering committee is to ensure that the strategies and ideas contained therein are fully implemented to achieve the desired result. We will be taking a holistic approach to the development of our dear state, leaving no sector behind.

“So far, an independent report on the health of the Oyo State economy reveals that we are not doing badly at all. The last statistics released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics shows that in the 2nd Quarter 2020, our IGR grew by over 20 per cent. This happened at a time when other economies were either stagnant or regressive. So, this means that we are doing things right.

“When I was campaigning, people thought I was talking over the head of the populace then because I said we may take decisions that will be economically delicious but are those decisions economically nutritious?

“Yes, you can go out and eat something delicious but is it good for your health? When we came in, the first project that we flagged off was Moniya-Iseyin road. We do know that if we are serious about expanding our economy through agriculture, the Oke-Ogun axis is the place to be. For our economy to expand, we have to get our agriculture to target our economy and that is what we have been doing.

“Also, there are road projects all over the place. I saw sports development because we need to capture the heart and minds of our youths so that they can be productive. We need to seek talents from all over the place. A lot of work is ongoing at the Lekan Salami Stadium and we believe that those are things that, within the shortest possible time, will bring nutrition to the blood-stream of Oyo State economy.

“The moribund businesses, before we came in, the Asphalt plant and Quarry at Ijaiye, was shut down for eleven years. But now, they have pressure on them because their production is not even enough to satisfy our local requirements.

“So, we are attracting more investments both locally and internationally and, in the next few months, when a lot of our ongoing projects are completed, we will see an Oyo State wearing a completely new face of economic development.”

Lead Consultant to the project, Prof Olu Ajakaiye, said that the Development Plan was packaged into five pillars including Economic Development; Human Capital and Social Development; Infrastructure Development; Physical Planning and Sustainable Environment; and Resource Mobilization and Implementation Strategy.

Earlier, the state’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Barr. Adeniyi Farinto, said the long-term plan initiative was conceived by the Makinde administration to address development challenges in the state within a certain time frame.

He commended the administration for identifying the need for the state to have a home-grown long-term plan for the state, which, he said, will provide a sense of direction in governance and government expenditure across the length and breadth of the state without marginalization.

Also speaking, the DG of DAWN, Comrade Seye Oyeleye, said that he was impressed by the fortrightness of Oyo State Government and the move to lay a solid foundation for the state’s future development.