By Adeyinka Adeniran
Ahead of the April 27th, local government election in the state, Governor Seyi Makinde has charged the electorate to go out en masse and vote for their preferred and choice leaders at the grassroots level.
Noting that the April 27 election would make it the second time his government is conducting the local government elections in less than five years, the Governor recalled that the previous administration in the state did not conduct local government elections for seven years out of its eight-year tenure.
Makinde gave the charge in a remark while receiving top government functionaries and dignitaries who paid him a Sallah homage at his Ikolaba, Ibadan residence on Wednesday. The visitors were led by the Deputy Governor, Bayo Lawal.
Apparently throwing a jab at the opposition parties in the state, the Governor said the immediate past administration that could not organise council poll for seven out of its eight years tenure should not accuse his administration of insincerity, if they (opposition) will not praise him.
He said election is not a do-or-die affair but that the people are at liberty to vote for leaders of their choice.
Makinde said, “Let me use this opportunity to say that the local government election is barely three weeks away. I want to say to our people that, please election is not a do-or-die thing. It is whosoever the people want that they will choose.
“When people go out and accuse us of insincerity, these are people who didn’t conduct election for almost eight years. This is our second local government election that we are organising under this administration.
“Let us intensify our campaign. This administration is all about the interest of the people. And the people know the difference between federal, state and local elections.
“They should keep quiet and with what they cannot do, if they can’t praise us, they should keep quiet. Nobody has stopped anyone from going out to campaign. The political landscape in Oyo state is very calm. We know how things used to be even for internal elections.
“We have come together to put the interest of the state over and above all other interests be it personal or group.”
He also seized the opportunity to assure party loyalists that he is working on rolling out more appointments for deserving individuals noting however that his administration is the leanest in terms of giving appointments.
He thanked all the residents for the religious tolerance and harmony which made it possible for his government to be able to achieve success at various levels.
“I want to seize this opportunity to thank all residents for the religious tolerance. When people say we are achieving progress, it’s because we have peace in the state and I want us to maintain it.
“And for us as an administration, I know that I have said we will soon begin to roll out appointment for deserving people. We are working on it. In the days ahead we will do it. The appointments are there.
“And for those who may want to criticise us on our appointments, this has been the leanest administration in the history of Oyo State. You may check the data. After our re-elections, before we started giving appointments, after we had sacked all appointees, I was surpised that our wage bill didn’t make any difference.
“For the first four years, we moved our wage bill from about N4.8billion monthly to about N8.3billion (including wage award). But the political appointees in it is not up to a N100million. When people say it is politicians that feed fat on public fund, the percentage we politicians get from our wage bill is what I just told you.
“We will continue to run a responsible administration. Those to be appointed, we can accommodate them. And it won’t damage the system that we have put in place.”
