2023 Election: Governor Makinde urges Nigerians to vote for good governance

On Sunday, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State urged all Nigerians to vote in defence of good governance during the forthcoming general elections in 2023.

Makinde made the call while speaking at the special thanksgiving church service to commemorate Nigeria’s 62nd Independence anniversary, held at the Cathedral of St. Peters, Aremo, Ibadan.

The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Olubamiwo Adeosun, stated that Nigerians need to keep hope alive and be steadfast in their prayers for the nation, as according to him, there is light at the end of the current dark alley in the country.

He said despite the country facing challenges in security, banditry, kidnapping, and other crimes, the government in the state had risen above the national malaise by faithfully implementing its poverty to prosperity agenda, recording a series of life-changing achievements.

Makinde noted: “Aside from the rise in crimes and criminality, the country is also burdened by economic difficulties, which appears to defy social-scientific prognosis.

“A peep at the front cover of the national dailies published in Nigeria quickly portrays a country in dire straits. But our message today is that of hope.

“That there is light at the end of the dark alley and like Moses confidently declared to the children of Israel in Exodus 14: 13, the Egyptians whom we see today, we shall see no more forever, Amen,” he prayed.

The governor said Oyo State had stayed afloat despite taking its share of the national crisis through his administration’s faithful implementation of the Poverty to Posterity mantra, which launched the Roadmap for Accelerated Development of Oyo State, 2019 to 2023 immediately after it assumed office on May 29, 2019.

He affirmed: “With the religious implementation of the four-point service delivery agenda encapsulated by the roadmap, we isolated the four essential existential realities of human beings, including security, health, education, and economic expansion, using the agribusiness value chain.

“Without security, life is hellish; without good health, life is gloomy; without education, life is in despair, and without a good economic prospect, life is melancholic.”

Makinde disclosed that Ibadan, the state capital, had been ranked as the second fastest growing city in Africa, according to a rating by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), because of the carefully welded service delivery programme encapsulated in the four-point service agenda of his administration.

“Cities and zones of the state are being linked with brand new roads, a Light-Up Oyo Project covering over 200 kilometres of roads across the state is up and running, while we have equally turned around the skyline of the state with projects such as the bus terminals, remodeled stadia, and others.

“As our people go to the polls in February and March 2023, I can only urge you to cast your votes in defence of good governance and service delivery,” he concluded.

In his sermon, Bishop of Ibadan North Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Rt. Rev. Williams Aladekugbe urged Nigerians always to be their brother’s keepers while calling on those in positions of power and authority to use their positions to uplift the less privileged people in the society.

Aladekugbe decried the country’s worsening insecurity and economic challenges, adding that the lack of development is because of the lack of capacity by those at the helm of affairs.

He also urged the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resolve their issues and end the ongoing strike without delay, saying the strike seriously affected the entire teaching and learning system among students and their lecturers across the country.

The Clergyman commended the Governor Makinde- led administration for the regular payment of workers’ salaries as and when due, adding that the series of infrastructural projects being undertaken by the current administration in Oyo State are visible across the nooks and crannies of the state and prayed for the success of the administration in its bid to develop the state further.

The event had in attendance top government functionaries, including the Head of Service, Alhaja Ololade Agboola, commissioners, special advisers, special assistants, permanent secretaries, and other political appointees.

S.O