The governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) in Oyo State, Bimbo Adekanmbi, has said he is prepared and ready for the serious business of governance that would further sustain the development of the state.
He said Governor Seyi Makinde has already consolidated the baseline for development, and his administration would unlock the wealth of the state for the growth of its economy and ensure a better living standard for the people.
Speaking on road infrastructure, he said, “What Governor Seyi Makinde has done is that when he came, he did Ibadan to Iseyin, Oyo to Iseyin, Ogbomoso to Iseyin, and the Olorunda Akobo road, so he has opened up the state. I am from Amuloko in the Ona-Ara local government, and I am happy that the governor last week approved N4b for the Amuloko road to Ijebu.
Now that the governor has opened up the state, we cannot use the state money on those roads again. I have gone round the state, and I am on my third tour of local government areas in the state, and roads are one of the major demands of the people. The governor is already doing it in Omituntun 1.0 and 2.0, but we will enhance it with 3.0.
We intend to construct 100 kilometers of roads in the first year of our administration, and a lot of them will be rural roads. Of all the governorship candidates, I have been to the 33 local government areas, and I know which of the roads are of concern to the people. I have my charter with the people of Oyo State.
On the allegation that he is a front for Governor Makinde, he said, “I hear it all the time that I am a front for GSM continuation all the time, and it makes me laugh. I was a commissioner for finance under Governor Ajimobi, who is also highly cerebral; he knows what he wanted, and he went for it. He came to headhunt me, and he had his reasons. I was an appointee, meaning that I could be sacked immediately if I did something that the governor did not like.
“There were instances where I saw decisions that everybody around was ready to let go, but I told the governor no, and because he believed in me, he agreed with me. That was when I was an appointee that I could be sacked. I stood my ground. Now that I am the governor, where the decisions lie with me, responsibility and accountability are with me, and people say I am a stooge, how?
I have a family name, I have a degree, and I am a professional. I am an accountant, and accountants have five things that guide them: professional duty and care, confidentiality, integrity, technical ability, and professionalism.
It is all over the place,” Governor Makinde told me. The reason why I want you to succeed me is that you should be loyal to Oyo State.” Look at the issue of the circular road we are talking about; if I look at it to see whether the decisions are loyal to Oyo State or Governor Makinde, I will choose loyalty to Oyo State because that is what I am responsible for.
On his plan for tourism development in the state, Adekanmbi said, “The government of Oyo State has done so much in the area of tourism. For hotels, by the time Seyi Makinde came into government, there were 3,500 registered hotels and leisure places in the state. Now we have 18,000 in the state, and then we have other areas that the government has enhanced, like the CAP village of Kunle Afolayan.
What government does is it will open up access roads, so on Ado Awaye Lake, we have a formula that we will apply to our tourism sites. Number one, we will audit them before the first 100 days; number two, what are their potentials? Number three, how do we open up those potentials? So those that need access roads, we will do them; those that need brochures, we will do them; it is after that we can place an international advert to invite people. It is a systematic way that is captured in our manifesto for tourism.
On Ikere dam, I am aware Governor Abiola Ajimobi applied for it to be a concession, and he pursued it vehemently up to the end of his tenure, but he didn’t get it. I am aware that Governor Makinde did the same thing. Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority manages it. I know that the Ministry of Power concession it to a private operator last year; we can’t say where the concessionaire is now because it is a federal government project, but we hope they do well because it will have a multiplier effect; it will be nice if that happens.
But if that doesn’t happen when I become governor, we will meet with the federal government. After giving it to a concessionaire, we haven’t seen appreciable progress, so they should consider giving it to Oyo State.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
