The governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde has come in for heavy criticisms from Nigerians for calling the widely acclaimed landmark judgement of the Supreme Court affirming local government financial autonomy as a “distraction”.
Gov. Makinde while reacting to the Supreme Court judgment said, “the Supreme Court’s judgment on local government autonomy is a distraction; we need to face the real issues we have. Nigeria is not productive. There is hunger and anger in the land.”
His apparent disapproval of the Supreme Court’s ruling incurred the wrath of many Nigerians who took to the social media especially X to vent their displeasure with the governor.
An angry X user called Tosin Saibu screamed, “Imagine what a governor is saying!”
Another X user, Bosun Johnson commented under the thread saying, “shame on Seyi Makinde, you’re part of the problem. If we cannot feed ourselves as a nation, the governors are a big part of the problem. What has Seyi Makinde done in his last 5 years as a governor regarding agriculture in Oyo State? The loans, machines and other agricultural inputs meant to be given to farmers nko? Where are they?”
Another X handle @Paytriort commented:
“How this man doesn’t know he contributes to the hunger and anger is worrisome. Our people in Oyo are poorer and hopeless today than they were 5yrs ago. Hope he knows these. The LGs in Oyo State can’t even tar 100m road.”
An X handle, @dlarry12 also had this to say to Gov. Makinde: “This is intellectual dishonesty. The CEO of a state is complaining of hunger and anger. You expect the federal government to do everything for you. The main reason why he is complaining is because the free money from LGA is gone. They have to show people why they aspire to lead with almost nothing to show for it. If you have nothing to contribute to productivity of your area, stay away from politics.”
David A. Balogun on his part said, “Mr. Governor, you can also start with the implementation of massive agriculture in Oyo state, Niger State is doing it and Oyo has the land as well, leave the the local governments to govern itself.”
Another X user queried, “Why are these governors against Local Government autonomy? It’s really suspicious. A policy that would really impact the lives of people in every part of your state?”
Another popular voice on X, Jeff Phillips while reacting to the comments made by the governor said, “He didn’t reveal full context of his argument but let me ask, is he aware of his responsibilities as the governor of Oyo State to enhance food and general productivity? How many kilometers of land is Oyo State industrially farming?”
Mr. Alli-Balogun Lekan also weighed in on comments by Seyi Makinde when he wrote: “You see the irony: A governor of perhaps the biggest state in the Southwest of Nigeria is equally buck-passing. The man is complaining of hunger in the land when the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria bestows the right to the land on him as the Governor”
“One would begin to wonder if Governor Bago is the President of Niger State. Anyway, LG’s fiscal autonomy is a distraction; let the Local Government people be distracted”, Mr. Lekan concluded.
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Wale Adedayo wrote:
“With 80% of its 28,454 square kilometers of land being arable, Oyo State should be a leading producer of food in the country with a “production” minded governor.
“The best mango in Nigeria is arguably from Ogbomosho and more than half of it gets wasted annually. Poor leadership.
“Oyo’s cashew has a huge potential to earn the state millions of dollars annually if they have an exchange that off-takes it from the farmers.
“The state has enough proximity to Lagos and with proper leadership, their farmers should not have any problem for market.
“People like this will be campaigning across the country with the consumption-to-production mantra while they waste their time in office doing absolutely nothing because they do not have the creativity required to drive it”, Mr. Adedayo concluded.
