Sunday 25th December, 2022, the governor of Oyo State Engr. Seyi Makinde clocked 55 in style. It was a well celebrated event across the board. As expected, family, friends and political associates of the governor sent in their best wishes.
All kinds of advertorials bearing different birthday messages adorned pages of some leading daily newspapers in the country. Even those who are in the opposition parties didn’t miss out in the celebration. As some of them reached out to the governor to rejoice with him on a special day of his.
As a matter of fact, President Muhammadu Buhari also sent his warm greetings to Makinde on the occasion of his 55th birthday anniversary. In his message, Buhari described “the peoples’ governor”, as Makinde is being called by his admirers, as a visionary politician with strong commitment to the progress and well-being of the nation.
However, that governor Makinde clocked 55 is not the main gist here. The fact that the birthday was well celebrated shouldn’t also be surprising. The interesting thing is how the governor has been celebrating his birthdays outside Ibadan in the last three years.
Since Makinde came to power in 2019, he has been celebrating his birthday in Saki, the Oke-Ogun zone of the state. It’s almost a tradition now for Makinde to move to Saki ahead of his birthday and participate in Pre-Birthday golf tourney at Asabari Golf Resort in Saki, then have the main celebration on the 25th. The last birthday wasn’t an exception. In fact it fell on a Sunday, so the state’s government secretariat was practically moved to Saki.
While some see this Makinde’s gesture of celebrating his birthday in Oke-Ogun zone as being normal, others, however, have attached all kinds of meanings to it. Saying that the move is nothing but political and a strategy adopted by Makinde to appeal to the people of the zone. They said Makinde, having realized that his popularity in the zone has reduced, has decided to appease the aggrieved stakeholders ahead of the 2023 election.
But governor Makinde has since rebuffed all these insinuations. Saying he is only paying attention to Saki in order to encourage them, as the second largest economy from Oke-Ogun zone. He was quoted in a recent interview to have said that his administration is trying to integrate the zones to give them a sense of belonging and let them also feel part of a wider system. When Makinde was asked about why he’s always celebrating his birthday in Saki and if other zones won’t become jealous and feel excluded.
He said: “Well, if you look at the concept of this administration, we are trying to integrate the zones in the state, give them a sense of belonging and let them also feel part of a wider system. We have seven zones basically, but five in reality. We have Ibadan City and Less City; we have Ibarapa and for Oke-Ogun, we have Oke-Ogun 1 and Oke-Ogun 2. Then, we have Oyo and Ogbomoso zones.
In Oke-Ogun 1, the biggest economy there is Iseyin, while the biggest economy in Oke-Ogun 2 is Saki and we have Saki West, Saki East, Atisbo, Irepo, Olorunsogo and Oorelope local governments. The biggest pool for those other five councils is Saki. If you get the economy of Saki right, you can pull the other local government areas to key into it. Suddenly, you would have succeeded in creating zonal hubs economically and that is what we are doing. For Oke-Ogun 1, we have Iseyin. So, those major cities are supposed to pull the satellite LGs around them together.
We have returned OYSADA to Saki and we are also trying to make that place live up to the expectation of a zonal hub. Iseyin is quite close to Ibadan and one can get there in 45 minutes. But Saki and Oke-Ogun 2 zones are the areas that need encouragement and support and it is a bit stretched out. You want people to see why they must come there to see what we are doing and also enjoy the place.
That is the only way you can stimulate the economy. That happens to be the place we have looked at in terms of intra-zonal road network. We are linking the major zones of the state. But in Saki, I deliberately decided to put in the resources to say, look, I want Saki, which is already linked to Atisbo. It is 15 minutes on that way coming from Tede junction to Saki.
Now, the other local government out there; Saki East is also linked somehow though the road is not as good as we want it to be, but the major axis to be linked to Saki first to have the benefit of a zonal hub is to link Saki with Ogboro to Igboho, and after then to Kishi and Igbeti. Once we are able to do that, then the zone is ultimately linked and the economy of Saki can lift the other ones.
This is why, for the first time, we awarded the intra-zonal link and by the time we complete the projects, people can stay in Igbeti and in 45 minutes to one hour, they will get to Saki with a good road.”
It is a known fact that Oke-Ogun zone, after Ibadan, is a major factor as far as Oyo guber race is concerned. The zone comprises of 10 local governments-Atisbo, Oorelope, Iseyin, Itesiwsju, Kajola, Irepo, Olorunsogo, Iwajowa, Saki East and Saki West. In 2019 guber poll, PDP gathered 118,034 (Saki East 8,527 and Saki West 21,184) votes from the zone out of the overall 515,621 total votes scored.
