The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lambasted Governor Seyi Makinde of the state for daring to criticize President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as PMS. The party made this scathing remark on Tuesday.
APC, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Wasiu Olawale Sadare, said that Makinde was the lone voice of dissent among the governors who opposed Tinubu’s bold move to end the subsidy regime on PMS. Sadare, in the statement made available to DAILY POST, said that Makinde had never uttered a word against former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sadare, while speaking further, said that Makinde tried to exploit the labor protest on Tuesday to shift all the blame for the economic woes of the country on the federal government.
He challenged the governor to tackle the problems plaguing the state instead of pointing fingers at Tinubu.
Sadare said, “Makinde has grown more arrogant in his habit of deceiving the public and throwing others under the bus for his incompetence in governance. Interestingly enough, the PDP-controlled State House of Assembly echoed the same sentiment on the same day, and we can see through the governor’s game plan.
“Gov. Makinde holds the dubious record of the only governor in Nigeria who constantly blames the sitting President for his failure to deliver in his state. Out of the 36 governors, the Oyo State boss was the only one who slammed President Bola Tinubu over the removal of fuel subsidy when he claimed that the decision was ill-timed and ill-conceived. This was what he did to former President Muhammadu Buhari between 2019 and 2023 as he alienated himself from Aso Villa out of pride and thereby deprived the Pacesetter state of many opportunities for four years.
“As he is fond of doing, Makinde attempted to take advantage of the labor protest on Tuesday to dump all the blame for the bad economy in the country on the federal government, forgetting that governors like him were more responsible for the extent to which the quality of life has deteriorated. Why fault President Tinubu for ending the wasteful spending on fuel subsidy when the decision has been boosting your allocations in the last nine months, although without much to show for it?
“The Oyo State government has raked in over N207 billion in allocations from Abuja since May last year, and this excludes the billions of naira that flowed to the 33 local government councils which the governor snatched from them.
“Rather than use the huge allocations to create wealth, Gov. Makinde siphoned more funds from loans, grants, IGR, and illegal sale of government assets without transparency. So, who then addresses hunger, poverty, and unemployment in Oyo State when the governor always indulges in extravagant spending, capital flight, and wrong priorities?”
