Few days ago, the government of Oyo State led by Engr Seyi Makinde announced the re-awarding of Ibadan circular road with a stretch of about 110km circulating around about 15 local government and Central Business District in the State to the Consortium of Sel Vydra, who agreed to raise the N138.2b needed for the construction on Build Operate and Trasfer, while the goverment will only contribute just N25billion to make the road come alive.
The 32km of the same road was awarded to ENL for N65b by the Oyo State APC administration, with nothing to show, since it was awarded and goverment cannot pin point its stake in the said project, as there were allegations that the government at that time, who awarded the road contract, collected about 50% of the money back as kickback, which made the project to suffer stagnation.
The strategic input from the Goverment of Seyi Makinde in righting the wrongs of the previous administrations, was based on the fact that, contractors with credibility and experience are only allowed by his government, as many of them have access to funds, which will enable the funds from the government to be used in other areas. This is a common sense economic principle, which is helping the steady growth and expansion of Oyo State economy.
The more money being pushed into the economy by private investors and contractors, the better for the State, job creation and geometrical growth. Someone needs to educate the APC and their fellow Janjaweeds on this simple principle.
Sel Vydra, the new boss in town to take on circular road, which APC goverment have failed to deliver to the good people of Oyo State, is a group of companies involving Julius Berger and others, floated to raise funds and consummate this project and deliver it as at when due based on the agreement with the government.
Another company doing wonders in Oyo State is the Messrs Peculiar Ultimate, who has been a great partner with the Oyo State Government since the word go. They have taken on several projects and delivered through the Alternative Project Funding Approach (APFA), an Initiative of the Seyi Makinde led government, which allows the contractor to raise funds of their own, while goverment contribute a fraction, and when the project is delivered, the Goverment repay back, and such repayment are spread for months, such that it won’t affect government spending in any ways.
Let me try and explain this concept of APFA. We all know how Mortgage housing works for the civil servant, where a Civil Servant on a particular grade level given access to Housing loan. Their monthly salary could be say N200, 000. Such CS could access an housing loan of about N10m, which repayment could be spread such that his monthly deductible may not exceed N20, 000 from his N200, 000 monthly salary, which still leaves him with N180, 000 to spend on other things.
The approach of this goverment to infrastructural development is the best in the recent time, by working hard to discontinue the accumulation of local and foreign loans, which the predecessors have almost used to ruin the State.
When Seyi Makinde came to the government, he has made deliberate efforts to pay down huge loan outstandings left by his predecessors, while he uses other creative project funding strategy such as APFA to ensure that both the capital and recurrent expenditures are adequately taken care of.
To govern a State in Nigeria, a creative and very intelligent person needs to take to the saddle. Recall that the Nigerian government led by Buhari’s APC, is spending about 97% of our earnings on debt servicing, and for any State to survive and stay afloat, to avoid the Buhari led goverment kind of debt pilling, it must approach its development in a more strategic and different ways.
To corroborate my claim on the strategic economic turn around by GSM, an agency under the Federal government, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has been consistent in it reportage of the growth of Oyo State, and these growths were made possible due to the deliberate management of the State Economy by the governor, who has blocked several loop holes and conduit pipes being used to steal goverment funds by the previous administrations.
It is very unfortunate that opposition APC in Oyo State, due to their greed and quest for power at all cost, have been making efforts at twisting the stories of the developmental strides of the government just to score cheap political points.
When the government celebrated its 2 years in power, we listed, showed pictures and video of majority of projects delivered for the whole world to see, so that everyone can see the laudable achievements of the government, without giving the bad Belle elements the opportunity to to go town telling outrageous lies. Most of the people who have had the opportunity to visit Oyo State have been giving kudos to the Governor for the making of modern and new Oyo State.
Again, the truth is out there and the citizens of the State can visibly see the achievements of the Goverment without being coerced by anyone.
One of the funny narrative they (APC) tried to sell which fell and failed woefully, was the credibility of these contractors, for instance, there was a time they hired one ajegunle Economist called Seun Onigbinde, who was questioning the credibility of Messrs Peculiar Ultimate in his tweet, this self overrated economist said that he isn’t sure of the company’s credibility, because they don’t have website or much cannot be seen about them online. You see how retarded some of these funny characters have become.
The same company, Peculiar Ultimate they said didn’t have a website has just delivered the much celebrated Lekan Salami Sport Complex, which can effectively compete with Camp Nou and other International Sport Arena around the world.
If New companies and entrepreneurs cannot bid and take up projects, then, what is the purpose of the much talked about “Ease of Doing Business”, which same APC have been the major campaigner?
The same APC spreading propaganda all over the place about credibility of companies doing wonders, delivering projects on target, have Professor Yemi Osinbajo campaigning for MSME, and ease of doing business all over the place.
Recently, the APC goverment, to further support their quest for ease of doing Business, and sort some bottle necks around doing businesses in Nigeria, ammended the CAMA and CAC act of doing business. So, what is the fuss if a company is floated yesterday and got a contract today, so far they have the capacity to deliver on their mandate to the government at the agreed time.
APC should stop their madness and focus on productive ventures, while they stop disgracing themselves in their show of economic illiteracy.
One of them who said he wants to become Oyo State governor in 2023, who has been jumping from one media house to the other telling bare faced lies, was seen in a video saying he would ban cars and vehicles with Lagos plate numbers in Oyo State. This is how ridiculous and shallow they think in that party called APC. Lol
GSM, ride on sir and keep shutting them up with more massive projects delivery.
