The Peoples Democratic Party and a group within the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State, the Progressives Front, are on collision course over the proposed N100billion bond by the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration.
The APC group, in a statement signed by Olugbenga Olayemi and Wale Murphy, state Chairman and Secretary respectively on
Saturday, described the proposed N100 billion bond by the state as “laying the foundation for the perdition of Oyo State.”
It read that the Makinde administration was laying the foundation for financial enslavement the burden of which unborn generation in the state would bear for a long time.
The statement read in parts,
“When did we come to this sorry pass in Oyo State? We had thought with all his pre-election promises, Governor Makinde had creative ways of generating revenue for the state. It was this same Governor Makinde who said he would raise the state Internally Generated Revenue adding that within a few months we would be competing with Lagos State in IGR.
“He was also the one that said we would be exporting maize to Botswana to increase revenue for the state. He also said within six months, Oyo State, under his watch would no longer go cap in arm to Abuja for federal allocation.
“Governor Makinde had condemned the past administration for incurring a debt of about N90billion in eight years. Within his 14 months sojourn, he is about incurring a debt of about N150b. What would happen after his tenure? It stands to reason that Oyo State would be in a debt hole. The government should have a rethink.”
However, the PDP said the bond was targeted at opening up Ibadan for real investments and to fast track development across the state.
The PDP, in a statement signed by its state Publicity Secretary, Akeem Olatunji, on Saturday, read in parts, “Oyo State PDP wonder why the APC government left the state’s critical infrastructures in such deplorable state with humongous debt profile of over N150billion at a time when foreign exchange was around N170 to $1 than the current situation when over N400 exchanges for $1 leaving the present administration with no choice other than to seek funds to execute capital projects.
“If the APC-led government, between 2011 and 2019, had expended money on critical infrastructure, the present government would not be enmeshed in economic rot that would compel it to seek bond.
“The practice of outsourcing loans, bonds and other financial instruments to develop critical infrastructures in case of paucity of funds is not peculiar to Oyo State as even Western nations engage in such to execute capital projects.
“The Ibadan Circular Road; Ibadan Dry Port project; the proposed Iseyin/Ogbomoso road; expansion of Airport road, Airport Road/Ajia Road/Amuloko Road and other projects that the N100billion is earmarked to capture are very strategic to driving Oyo State internally generated revenue upward because there are no infrastructures that can generate the projected revenue if those projects are not done urgently.”
