The governor of Oyo state. Seyi Makinde was on Thursday joined by his Osun state counterpart, Ademola Adeleke to officially open the 8.2 kilometres dualised Agodi Gate-Old Ife Road-Alakia-Adegbayi Junction Road, including the Onipepeye Underpass Bridge, all in Ibadan the Oyo State capital.
Governor Adeleke who commissioned the projects was full of praises and admirations for Makinde, particularly appluding him in the areas of innovations and infrastructure development. He added that Makinde’s feats remain good points of motivation for the other governors in Southwest.
In his speech, the host governor, Makinde pointed out that the completion of the projects is a clear demonstration of his government’s resolve to contnue the expansion of the state economy through physical infrastructure.
The Osun state governor however challeneged Maknde to do more. His words: “In the whole of Western region, he is reputed to be the leading son in the areas of innovations, infrastructure and good governance. We have lost that rating for some time now. But I want to put it on record that the South-West has regained the momentum. The Oyo State governor is a trailblazer. Come on! Give it to him.
“From Lagos to Ekiti to Ondo to Ogun and Osun, the South-West is witnessing infrastructure upgrades. Our roads and health centres are undergoing rehabilitation and we are keeping alive the great memories of our founding leaders.
“We are placing the South-West on the national and global maps. It is on this note that I congratulate my brother, who is an uncommon engineer in governance. As the governor of Osun State, I watch with keen interest the developments in Oyo State. I do peer review and I must say that the people of Oyo State are lucky to have Governor Makinde.
“Oyo State governor’s performance is a great motivation not only for Osun but for other states in the South-West. As we celebrate my brother today, I call for closer developmental cooperation among South-West states. We must deepen closer collaboration,” Adeleke observed.
On his part, governor Makinde assured Oyo state residents that his government will sustain the pace of developments across the state, especially those that will give a boost to the economy and help the people live lives more meaningfully. He said: “We are here today to commission the dualised 8.2km Agodi gate-Old Ife Road-Alakia-Adegbayi including the underpass bridge at Onipepeye.
“The completion of this project is further testament of our commitment to expanding the Oyo State economy through road projects. The expansion of our economy is very important to sustainable development, which was what I preached when I came out to seek a second tenure. This is one of the benefits you are seeing as a result of my reelection.
“As we continue to attract large, medium and small businesses into Oyo State, the pressure on our infrastructure increases and there is a need to upgrade them. This is why we have chosen to keep investing in our infrastructure. Our goal is to upgrade cities and towns in Oyo State to places we can all be proud of.
“We don’t want to leave any communities behind. So, if we had all the resources at our disposal, we would do more at a faster rate. As we all know, our wants and needs are infinite but the resources to meet them are limited.
“So, we often have priorities on the project that will bring the best value to the good people of the state. We linked Ogbomoso zone to Iseyin, because we know the economic value of the project. This, indeed, for me is the true definition of governance, which is the ability to use limited resources to meet the growing needs of the population by prioritising projects that maximise value. And this is exactly what we are doing in Oyo State.”
