President of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), Alhaji Lukman Dauda, has said the Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has made the state conducive for businesses.
Dauda, who doubles as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) Ltd, also praised the governor for his free education policy, which he noted has enabled many poor parents to enroll their wards in schools.
The NPA President said: “The governor is doing his best to ensure that the standard of education in Oyo State is upgraded from where he met it.”
He added: “His interest in making education free at the basic level is laudable because of the financial capability of many people in the state, which is low, but with the free education policy, they are able to send their children to school.”
Dauda noted that the free education policy of the state government would achieve the desired result with the government providing books and improving the learning environment.
The Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) boss, who spoke in an interview, said: “One of the things investors look out for is security, which has been improved upon. At least we go about our business with no fear of anybody attacking us anyhow. We don’t go to bed with one eye open and the other closed.
“Such things help in our business development; it even helps in our pricing to make books affordable to the populace. Relatively, the atmosphere is conducive for business.”
Alhaji Dauda expressed the appreciation of the publishers association to the governor for making the cost of book review in the state very modest.
He said: “We thank the governor for ensuring that the book review process is not turned into an income-generating venture. We want to thank the government for being very modest in its approach towards book review.”
The NPA president called for collaboration with the state government, saying doing so would be beneficial to the state and the populace.
According to him, “We can collaborate with the government. We know that the purse of the government is very lean, not just Oyo State government alone but all governments. But we can look at how we collaborate so that out of that lean purse we can still get things done.
“We have done it before in other places, why not here also? Our NPA Headquarters is in Ibadan, Oyo State should be able to take advantage of that.
“And we have the President of the NPA here in Ibadan too. So, the state must be ready to take advantage of that for the betterment of the populace.”
Dauda also praised Governor Makinde for putting in what he described as his best to ensure that he leaves a lasting legacy in the state.
