Chief Niyi Akintola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has described Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, as a promise-keeper who never betrays people’s trust.
Akintola, who was an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in 2019, said this during an interview with The People’s Verdict.
The Asiwaju of Idoland described Governor Makinde as “A person who embodies everything called ‘Omoluabi’. He is a man of impeccable character. He is humble, calculating, brilliant, unassuming and, of course, a go-getter.
“When we adopted him, I took him to my local government. In the presence of everybody there, what we would not accept, we told him. What we would accept, we let him know. He has never betrayed us.
“I told him, ‘Your Excellency, you are going to get the kind of votes that has never been recorded in Ido during the coming election. And that is what happened.
“What he got from Ido Local Government Area was more than what he got in some four local governments put together. And he has never betrayed us.”
Speaking about the demand placed before Makinde, Chief Akintola said: “We demanded construction of our roads that had been abandoned for year.
“Even though we are in APC, top notch of the party, aspirant of the party, but our road from Omi to Ido was left unattended to. It was last attended to in 1992.
“It was so bad that if you wanted to travel to Ido from Omi Adio, you had to come through Elenusonso, NIHORT or better still go to Elebu. That was the situation. But Governor Makinde fixed the road.
“He didn’t stop there. If you know the road from our Ward 7, Owode Housing Estate, down to Akala Way to Toll Gate, he has finished the road.
“As I am speaking with you, apart from completing the road from Apete to Akufo, he has started Akufo to Alabata in Akinyele Local Government Area on the way to Iseyin.
“Now ask me, even if I were the governor, what more could I have done for my local government area?”
Chief Akintola recalled a time when he was in the same vehicle with Governor Makinde on their way to Omi Adio.
He said: “We were in the vehicle one day; we were driving to Omi Adio from Amuludun Hotel, when he saw a huge crowd on both sides of the road.
“And the governor said, ‘May God save us in this state. Should any vehicle lose control here, it will just be clearing people.’
“People were selling right in the middle of the road. He said, ‘What shall we do?’ There and then, he offered to give us a modern market. And I tell you, the modern market is 99 per cent ready.”
Chief Akintola also stated that, though Ido was left out of the Ibadan Circular Road, which connects all other local government areas in Ibadanland, Governor Makinde has devised a means of bringing Ido Local Government Area into the Circular Road.
The Senior Advocate spoke of a Houston, USA-based Nigerian who recently came to Ibadan on vacation.
He said: “An engineer friend who came in from Houston in the USA, just called me and said, ‘Where did you get this kind of governor?’ I asked him what happened.
“Then he said, ‘Can you lend us your governor? Where did he get the money with which he is fixing all the roads? Almost all Ibadan roads are wearing a new look.
‘Even in Akobo, where I am staying, I noticed that the bridge connecting Basorun to General Gas has been dualised. Each time I drive from Akobo to Basorun and environs, everywhere I turn, I find a new road.
‘And these are not improperly done roads, but very good roads. Can’t you lend us your governor for a few months in my home state?’
“I said to him: ‘Nigeria’s constitution does not give room for taking governors from one state to another.’
Akintola said all that Governor Makinde has been doing boiled down to his commitment to improving the life of the average Oyo State citizen.
Buttressing his point, the Learned Silk cited the dredging of Ibadan rivers and streams.
He said the World Bank-supported Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project had lingered since 2014 because of the failure of the state to put in its counterpart fund, which Governor Makinde paid shortly after his assumption of office.
He said, with that, all the rivers in Ibadan are dredged, river banks concretised and even some bridges removed for expansion and elevation, thus making the fear of ‘omiyale’ a thing of the past in the city.
Chief Akintola considered infrastructure development as one of Governor Makinde’s outstanding accomplishments, referencing the Iseyin-Fapote-Ogbomoso Road, Moniya-Iseyin Road and the Ibadan internal roads, among others.
“The second one, I think is the issue of security. If you pass through the old Oyo Road, every three kilometres, you will come across Amotekun Corps, Operation Burst and the Nigeria Police supplied with vehicles by the Oyo State government.
“I came to know because I used to be one of those who had been financing the police in our own private way.
“That is now a thing of the past because the Oyo State government has been responsible for providing vehicles and other necessary support for the Nigeria Police.
“So, the combination of Amotekun Corps, the Nigeria Police, Operation Burst and other security agencies has made Oyo State very safe.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria rated Governor Seyi Makinde highly on all indices, scoring him 85 per cent.
He added: “Our prayer is that the governor will end well. We also pray that God will give us someone like him who will come prepared and improve on what Governor Makinde has accomplished.”
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