The Oyo Rising Citizens Forum (ORCF) has described Governor Seyi Makinde’s three-hour media interview on a private radio station in Ibadan as an “exercise in futility” and a complete waste of the Oyo people’s time.
In a press statement signed by Alaba Adebisi and Owolabi Salam, the forum lambasted the governor for using state resources to fund a broadcast on a private station while the state-owned broadcasting outfit rots away.
The Forum described the move as reckless and irresponsible for a governor who has watched the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) become a ghost of its former self due to sheer negligence.
The ORCF pointed directly to the continuous rot of the Agbowo Shopping Complex as a monument to the administration’s fiscal mismanagement and broken promises.
The forum recalled the multiple public protests by aggrieved local sub-contractors, artisans, and material suppliers who have repeatedly swarmed the complex and media hubs in Ibadan to lament non-payment.
“These small-scale suppliers were contracted by the administration’s concessioned ally to provide materials for the remodelling, only to be left high and dry with an unpaid debt mountain of nearly ₦1.6 billion.”
“Protesters have openly cried out that they are facing total financial ruin, with banks seizing their properties and their children being driven out of school over high-interest loans taken to execute the project.
Instead of taking responsibility or resolving these outstanding debts to save dying local businesses, Governor Makinde used his media chat to casually admit he will not complete the complex because he does not have the ₦21 billion required to complete it.”
“The governor even went as far as mockingly suggesting it would only be finished if he becomes Nigeria’s president.”
The ORCF labelled this casual dismissal absurd and deeply offensive to the suffering citizens of a state that already ranks as one of the most heavily indebted in the country.
The statement noted that instead of addressing critical state issues such as local security, hyperinflation, and the collapsing autonomy of local governments, Governor Makinde spent the three-hour airtime airing personal political grievances and posturing for the 2027 presidential election.
According to the forum, the governor’s preoccupation with national power dynamics and an alleged 2023 pre-election agreement regarding a “Government of National Unity” proves he has completely decoupled himself from the day-to-day struggles of Oyo citizens.
The Forum warned that Makinde’s early campaigning, escalating debt profile, and neglect of domestic institutional platforms represent a severe betrayal of his constitutional mandate, leaving Oyo State adrift while its chief executive pursues a misplaced national ambition.