Engr. Oyedele Hakeem Alao, the governorship candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 2019 elections in Oyo State, has stated that it was the inordinate ambition of Governor Seyi Makinde and the docility of the people of Oyo State, that made the state “lose” the N26b (USD52m) World Bank project (IUFMP).
He said this of the people especially members of the state House of Assembly and All Progressives Congress (APC), the major opposition party in the state.
Engr. Alao, who pointed out that he had called the attention of residents of the state to possibility of losing the World Bank-funded project in a press release of February, 2021, stated this in a new release on the subject via his media spokesman, Omotayo Iyanda, in Ibadan.
According to the release, Engr Alao quoted from the February 2021 release saying, “Engr Oyedele Hakeem Alao has echoed an alarm that the Oyo State Government under Engr Seyi Makinde will lose N26b World Bank (WB) project which will be beneficial to the people of the state in the area of environmental flood control describing the present members of the state assembly as Lilliputians, inexperienced and incompetent.
“Engr Hakeem Alao said that after the contractors that would handle the project had been selected based on global procedures and practices of the WB, Governor Makinde reportedly insisted that if the project would not be handled by his preferred candidates, then the project could be taken to another state.”
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The ex-AD gubernatorial candidate hinted that the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has initially withdrawn their support and involvement in the project when Governor Makinde refused to follow the best global bidding practices for the project.
The Asiwaju of Iroko, Chief Oyedele Hakeem Alao, however, stated that it was very sad that the project/fund had been “withdrawn” by the World Bank due to inordinate ambition, inexperience of the state assembly, the docility of the opposition and the inability of our people to see anything wrong in the activities of the administration of Governor Makinde just because we “love” him.
“Although, in a quick response, Governor Mákindé via Mr Taiwo Adisa, his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), has denied the withdrawal, yet they said they had sent an “appeal” to the World Bank. An appeal for what?
“Whether or not an appeal against the withdrawal has been forwarded to the World Bank, we’ll be playing our role as a constructive opposition.
“We’ll be doing a lot of disservice to our state if we continue to be docile, gloss over issues and refrain from telling the Governor Makinde the bitter truth all in the name of politics, favoritism, nepotism and unreasonable solidarity.
“Nobody is working against the government of Engr Makinde or doing what we’re doing to pull him down to seize his seat. All we are doing is to point the areas that need attention to the governor to have a better Oyo State because we all own the state and it’s nobody’s private property.
“When it’s time for anybody occupying any position to leave, he’ll exit!” stated Engr Hakeem Alao.
“Although Governor Makinde has demonstrated penchant for ignoring advice and suggestions and always thinking his ways and approaches are best and that’s his most undoing and the reason he keeps at bay leaders of his party who could help him and surrounds himself with neophytes, we’ll continue to tell him the hard truth.
“He refused to listen to us on the establishment of PMS, and judgement was obtained against him by NURTW; also the apex court in the country delivered a landmark judgement against him on the matter of hurried local government dissolution after we told him it was unconstitutional to do so,” Engr Hakeem Alao added.
He spoke further that it was preposterous, conspiratorial and unpatriotic for anybody to keep quite when things are going wrong in his state.
