Seyi Makinde, re-elected governor of Oyo State and his deputy, Bayo Lawal were Monday sworn in by the state chief judge,Justice Iyabo Yerima.
Makinde and Lawal who took their oath of office by 10.53 am and 10.20 am respectively were with their wives and children.
Makinde was elected for second term in the last general election, where he defeated Teslim Folarin of APC and Adebayo Adelabu of Accord Party.
In his inaugural address at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium (formerly Liberty Stadium), Governor Makinde promised to refocus his four pillars which included the Economy, Education, Healthcare and Security during his second term.
He said: “We look forward to four years of sustainable development refocused on the same four pillars we focused on in the last four years. This is why we say Omituntun 2.0 is an upgrade.
“Let me reassure the good people of Oyo State that Omituntun 2.0 will be better than 1.0. We will work even harder to ensure that the prosperity that our people have started enjoying under Omituntun 1.0 will continue for four more years.
“Under Omituntun 1.0, we focused on stimulating economic growth through Agribusiness and Infrastructure development. With the accelerated investments in these sectors, we moved our economy from N2.75 trillion in 2019 to N4.05 trillion as of Q3 2022 without increasing taxes. We also increased our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by over 90% in the same period.”
While saying that the state attracted $65 million in Foreign Direct Investments and $126 million in agribusiness from development partners’ blended finance, he promised that his administration’s vision is to further grow the economy by building on the gains in agribusiness.
He said that the state planned to bring in investments in Solid Minerals, Sustainable Energy and Tourism.
“We are already working towards achieving this goal. Just ten days ago, we were in London to woo investors at the Oyo State International Business Summit (OYSIBS) 2023. This sets the tone for activities we will carry out in the next four years.
“We will continue to be bullish about getting local and foreign direct investments into the State as we focus on youth development and creating employment opportunities for 60% of our population that form an energetic workforce.”
The governor said it was time to upgrade to the Omituntun 2.0 lifestyle, adding that “we must appreciate the link between the rule of law and sustainable development. As we all know, where there is no law, there is chaos, and where there is chaos, business and development suffer. We must never allow our communities to descend to the level of chaos that will turn away investors.
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“Therefore, I direct the creation of the Oyo State Mobilisation Agency for Socio-Economic Development (OMASED). This agency will be mandated to establish a public orientation and sensitisation framework into which all agencies and departments of government must key in. This framework will ensure continuous sensitisation and enlightenment using traditional, electronic and social media. I further direct that this framework should incorporate a timetable for the enforcement of all existing traffic, waste management and street trading laws.
“We know we have your support as we make tough decisions and take tough actions that will lead to improving our state’s environmental and socio-political outlook.
“So far, we have created the architecture required to bring sanity into the markets, transportation and waste management sectors, have built markets and other closed environments for our traders to carry out their business without obstructing traffic and causing mayhem on our streets. Of course, every street corner should not be converted into a marketplace.
“We have built parks and other transportation hubs so transporters do not park on the roads. We are increasing the capacity of our waste managers so that our people stop seeing the medians and street corners as legal dumpsites,have embarked on continuous sensitisation of the people, encouraging them to adopt a lifestyle change that will make the environment more suitable for living and business.”
Makinde said that during the first term, his administration returned over 50,000 children to the classrooms through targeted interventions, such as maintaining the no-fees in public schools’ policy, saying plans are underway to return another 50,000 to the classroom in the next four years.
“Another policy that will remain in place is the 15-20% budgetary allocation to education. We must urgently continue to reduce the infrastructure deficit in our public primary and secondary schools. So, we shall focus on building classrooms and other needed facilities in underserved areas in the state.”
Having upgraded over 200 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) under Omituntun 1.0, he promised to equip and upgrade more PHCs and other selected secondary healthcare facilities to ensure people have even better access to quality healthcare.
“I will ensure that communities without upgraded PHCs are prioritised in our quest to ensure that all 351 wards in Oyo State have an operational Tier 4 Primary Healthcare Centre,” he said.
At the inauguration were former governor of Ondo state, Olusegun Mimiko; former Senate president, Aldolphus Wabara; former deputy governor of Oyo State, Moses Adeyemo, traditional rulers; PDP chieftains, among others.
