Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and a former Minister of Communication, Barrister Adebayo Shittu seem to be warming up for a showdown. It all started after Shittu made some allegations against the number one citizen of Oyo State while commenting on the outcome of the general election where the three Senatorial Districts in Oyo State were won by the All Progressives Congress, APC, while the ruling party in the state, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won four House of Representatives seats with two declared inconclusive.
The APC chieftain who was once a gubernatorial candidate in Oyo State stated that Makinde became governor without the necessary psychological preparation or political experience for the position. Shittu said Makinde had never been a counselor, commissioner, legislator or political executive at any level and that was why his style of administration had proven that experience cannot be purchased at a store. He questioned the fact that all the APC elements who joined forces with him to become governor in 2019 have left him and not one of them has remained with him till date.
Responding to his outburst in a statement released through the PDP Publicity Secretary, Akeem Olatunji, Makinde dismissed Shittu’s claims as spurious, unfounded, petty and cheap. He described the former minister as a political parasite who has zero electoral value but was privileged to secure his last ministerial appointment largely based on a personal relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari.
He advised Shittu to wake up from daydreaming, stressing that despite being a minister for four years the latter’s selfish personality towards politics greatly fueled his greed and covetousness making him even a worse liability to the people of Oyo state who never felt the impacts of his ministerial position.
Olatunji said that the former minister has exposed his political ignorance and naivety with the ridiculous statements credited to him maintaining that Makinde who never held any elective office prior to becoming the governor has now become a political juggernaut and a template for good governance in Nigeria’s political landscape. He also stressed that the opposition party is no longer on ground in Oyo State after losing all serious politicians in its fold to the PDP and other political parties.
Olatunji also reminded Shittu that Makinde was able to manage Oyo’s economy, in spite of a ravaging global pandemic and national economic recession, and increase the state’s internally generated revenue while meeting its financial obligations with ease without pushing additional burden on the masses.
The statement further stated that while Makinde was easily meeting his financial obligations to workers, pensioners, retirees in the state as well as providing free qualitative education alongside economic expansion, other APC-controlled states, especially in the South-West, continued to struggle with simple payments of workers’ salaries and other basic financial obligations.
It noted that Makinde’s street credibility and popularity among the electorates, students, market men and women, artisans, farmers, and grassroots politicians have increased despite the outcome of the last election because of the positive impacts of his economic policies and programmes.
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