It is very unfortunate that the mouth of a liar doesn’t bleed. ( Enu opuro kii seje).
Infact, if the mouth of a liar used to bleed when they are lying, only God knows what would have happened to Governor Seyi Makinde when he stood in front of the camera to lie to the people of Oyo state on Friday.
Actually, only the gullible ones would be deceived by the theatrics of the Governor on Friday, yet, we must not leave the corpse of the mother of the mad man for him alone to mess up.
If for anything, right thinking persons should do the needful so that the mad man doesn’t end up eating part of the corpse and littering the compound with the entrails.
On Friday, during a Stakeholders consultative and engagement meeting on the 2027 Budget, Governor Seyi Makinde said the allocation he received for this month is a sum of 22bn and that what he signed for salary was almost 18bn plus another 1.8bn as wage award.
Governor Makinde therefore went ahead to criticize those who says that States now have more money to spend on infrastructures.
If you take Governor Seyi Makinde’s words on the face value, you would think he was making sense, whereas, he was downright been hypocritical and deceitful.
However, like Yorubas would say, it is the sword of the tortoise that you use to take its life.
Now that Governor Seyi Makinde seems to be ready for discussions around the inflow of monthly allocations since the withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the controversy surrounding whether States are better off now than before, I want to raise some questions and I will dare Governor Makinde to pick up the gauntlet by providing answers to my questions.
As an Engineer, a Fellow for that matter, I am sure that Governor Seyi Makinde would agree with me that you can not just randomly pick on the monthly allocation for just one month and use it as the basis for determining the question of whether States are better off now than before.
Secondly, Governor Makinde shouldn’t also have any problem with the fact that his statement requires a breakdown.
For example, when he said he received the sum of 22bn for this month, is it in respect of the State and the 33 Local Governments? If not, how much was received by the 33 Local Governments?
Secondly, he said he signed almost 18bn and another 1.8bn as salary and wage awards, will the Governor tell us if the sum represents salaries for the State civil servants alone or it covers that of Teachers and Staffs of the 33 Local Governments?
If it covers the payment of the salaries for the State civil service, Local Government Staffs and Teachers, will Governor Seyi Makinde give us a breakdown of what was deducted from the monthly allocations belonging to the state and what was deducted from the monthly allocations belonging to the Local Governments so that we know what exactly remains for each tier of Government?
We can’t all be foolish. Governor Seyi Makinde can not just lump figures together and pretend as if all the wage bills are on the state alone. Show us, what was deducted from the resources belonging to the state and what was deducted from Local Government allocation.
Like I said, only a fool will fall for Governor Makinde’s shenanigans.
I am not done with my questions for the Governor.
In recent months, Oyo state had been taking over 30bn. Same for the 33 Local Governments.
I challenge Governor Seyi Makinde to publish the inflow of the monthly allocations received by the state and the 33 Local Governments since the removal of fuel subsidies.
I also challenge him to publish the schedule for the payment of salaries for the State civil servants, Teachers and Local Government Staffs and I bet, he won’t dare because if he does, he will be completely exposed.
I want the public to take note of the fact that what we are discussing here is just the statutory monthly allocations. There are also other means of income like the Internally Generated Revenues, IGR which we have not factored.
I also have to say this, that we have to factor the number of loans that Governor Makinde is servicing with the monthly allocations for the State and the 33 Local Governments.
Why didn’t the Governor talk about that?
I challenge him to publish the details of the loans obtained by him with respect to the State and the 33 Local Governments and how they are being serviced.
If Oyo state is not having enough money, who is to blame? Who plunged us into debts? Who is using the resources meant for the development of the State and the Local Governments to service debts?
I also challenge Governor Seyi Makinde to tell us what has been happening to the monthly allocations received on behalf of the 33 Local Governments.
He can’t just stop short by telling us what he received for the state in just one month because it fell short of what he received in previous months.
I will not waste so much time on his reckless comments regarding the NLNG dividends.
The Governor of Oyo state is a drowning man and one should really be careful over the kind of issues you will be joining with him.
For me, I will be happy if the Federal Government could really hold on to the money in question until after the election. At least, we would be sure of having something to start with.
I can understand Governor Seyi Makinde’s frustrations in this regard, but he is the only one complaining as usual.
My advice to him is to go to court if he feels strongly about it.
I don’t know why the Governor doesn’t know that he shouldn’t be raising this kind of issues after what he did with the 30bn Bodija relief fund.
Sola Abegunde.
