Governor Seyi Makinde’s Remarks at the Commissioning of 38.48 Km of Feeder Roads in the Ibadan

Being the Remarks by His Excellency Seyi Makinde, Executive Governor of Oyo State at the Commissioning of 38.48 Km of Feeder Roads in the Ibadan Metropolis on Thursday, 11 July 2024.

Let me start by thanking everyone who came out here today for the official commissioning of these 38.48 kilometres of feeder roads here in Ibadan. We all know that feeder roads play a role in encouraging small businesses and also making residents of the state happier. We have heard so many stories of people and their car issues because of how bad some of our feeder roads are.

As a government, our job is to do our best with the resources we have to keep residents of our dear State happy and even attract more people to come to our State. This is the way we grow our economy. But we also acknowledge that we do not have all the resources at our disposal, so we cannot meet all our needs at the same time.

This commissioning today will be the first of many. Our administration earmarked an initial 95.58 kilometres of feeder roads for asphaltic improvements and reconstruction in December 2023 to be completed within 12 months. We are now in July and we are almost half way gone with over 38 kilometres completed and the remaining 57 kilometres ongoing. So, I can rightly say we are over halfway done.

When we assumed office in 2019 and spoke about our plans and the direction we wanted to go with road construction, many people did not understand it. They wanted us to start with feeder roads and then move to interconnecting more zones, but that was not the vision. Our vision was to interconnect all zones which would help us raise our Internally Generated Revenue and then plough those resources back in the development of feeder roads. The commissioning we are having today is a result of that well thought out strategy.

We look forward to rehabilitating more roads within the State and extending this feeder roads rehabilitation to other zones of the State. You can hold me to that promise.

Let me also use this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to moving our people from poverty to prosperity through road constructions. We are determined to lay the right foundations so that whoever is coming after us will build on the template we have provided. That is why we are going to keep working. The benefits of some of the work we are doing will be immediately manifest, but others are long term. We only ask that you join us in staying with the vision.

We have listed all feeder roads being fixed in Ibadan including the 38.48 kilometres of feeder roads that have so far been completed. Let me just say that if the road you wanted so badly to be fixed has not been done, don’t worry. As they say in Nollywood, watch out for part two.

So, I will now proceed to commission this 38.48 kilometres first tranche of 95.58 kilometres of feeder roads in Ibadan to the glory of God and for the benefit of the good people of Oyo State.

Thank you and God bless you.

Seyi Makinde

11 July 2024