Being the Keynote by His Excellency Seyi Makinde, Executive Governor of Oyo State during Omituntun 2.0 Mid-Term Leadership Retreat Held from Monday, 23 June – Tuesday, 24 June 2025, titled “Reflecting on Omituntun 2.0: Towards Building an Enduring Legacy” at IITA, Ibadan, Oyo State

Let me formally welcome you to this Omituntun 2.0 Mid-Term Leadership Retreat where we will be reflecting on the journey of Omituntun 2.0. We will be x-raying our activities through the lens of our Oyo State Roadmap for Sustainable Development 2023 to 2027. We are now halfway through this mandate and it is a good time to take a step back to ask ourselves: how far have we come, what remains to be done, and what must we now do to finish strong?

We began this journey not merely with promises, but with a vision—to shift from accelerated development to sustainable transformation. A vision that says: we do not only build for applause, we build for impact.

Let us begin by acknowledging that there is much to be proud of.

Under the Economic pillar, Oyo State has made history. We became the first subnational in Africa to gain admission into the World Union of Wholesale Markets. We secured a landmark partnership with Semmaris to establish Nigeria’s first Rungis-style wholesale agri-food market — a direct outcome of our agribusiness-first strategy. I want to again publicly thank Dr Debo Akande for his role in making this possible.

We commissioned the 11MW Independent Power Project, powering the State Secretariat 24/7 for the first time in 49 years.

We started the Rashidi Ladoja Circular Road and the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport upgrade, while paying attention to feeder roads starting from the Ibadan Zone and extending to other zones from this year. We have also commenced the rehabilitation of rural roads through the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP).

Significantly, we brought water to our people. Let me also thank Elias Adeojo for his role in this. He did the unexpected and is still working. Well done.

Our tourism vision is taking shape. We held the first tourism summit in 2024, which helped us to see what direction we wanted to go with tourism, and we are back this year with the second edition, where we will be making a clear call to investors and showing a shift in how we have been working in that sector.

In Education, we recruited over 14,000 new personnel — teaching and non-teaching — to close the gap in our classrooms. We’ve upgraded 105 schools in underserved areas and commenced work on 36 more. The focus is not just on structures, but also on curriculum reform, digital tools, and inclusion.

In Healthcare, we’ve extended the Omituntun Free Health Mission, reaching over 18,000 people this year alone, equipped 264 Primary Healthcare Centres, and improved health equity. Diseases like Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis have been eliminated in several LGAs — a first for our State. I acknowledge the work our Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi and the rest of the team are doing in this sector. God bless you.

In Security, we have grown Amotekun to about 2,500 personnel, equipped our forces, and invested in forest protection, rural security, and community intelligence. Our farmers are returning to their farms. Our people are safer today because we chose to act early.

I thank you all for all the work you have put in to make Omituntun 2.0 Part 1 a success. We are now moving to Part 2.

This moment calls for honest reflection.

Have we made progress? Yes.
Are we where we need to be? Not yet.

Across our Roadmap, there remain gaps — not of vision, but of delivery. Projects that began with promise now need a final push:

• Several critical road and transport infrastructure projects are behind schedule.
• Our Agribusiness Industrial Hubs — Eruwa, Akufo. Ijaiye— are not yet completed.
• Solid Minerals Development is just gradually taking off.
• IGR targets, although rising, have not yet met the N7.5 billion monthly benchmark we envisioned.

These are not failures. They are reminders that great visions demand deliberate coordination — across ministries, agencies, and partners. And that brings me to the most urgent message of today.

Finishing Strong Requires Interministerial Collaboration.

No single ministry can build a legacy. Not Agriculture alone. Not Education alone. Not Public Works, Energy or Lands. But together, they can.

The next 18–24 months must focus not on launching new projects but on completing what we began, consolidating institutional wins, and ensuring that every arm of government works in alignment.

I am therefore proposing:

• An Oyo State Delivery Taskforce — a monthly review system between ministries to unlock bottlenecks, track legacy projects, and solve problems before they escalate.
• A public-facing Legacy Dashboard to show citizens what is left to complete and who is responsible.
• Quarterly Cross-Ministerial Retreats, focused not on reporting activities, but on co-delivering outcomes.

In doing this, we can draw strength from global models.

For example, in Rwanda, legacy performance is tied to the Imihigo delivery compact. Imihigo means “those who vow” — and what they did with this system was simple: ministers publicly state what they will accomplish, so the public can hold them accountable when they do not.

I have stated that those of you here now are those I will be finishing this tenure with. So, this is not an exercise in determining who stays and who leaves, but an exercise in leaving a legacy.

Like Rwanda, Oyo State can set its own gold standard — one grounded in coordination, not competition.

This is what we can take away from the Rwandan model:

• We can agree and require MDAs to publicly commit to specific deliverables aligned with the Omituntun 2.0 agenda.
• We can develop cross-MDA pledges, for example, establishing a desk at OYSIPA where every relevant ministry is represented — creating shared accountability.
• We can set mid-year evaluations — realistically, we can have two to three of these before the end of this tenure. Already, the CPS is coordinating one of such platforms where Commissioners meet with the press and present their scorecards.

To formalise this, I am announcing today the launch of the Legacy Compact — Oyo State’s performance delivery compact.

This is our commitment to measurable results, not activity. Under this system, each Ministry, Department, and Agency will:

1. Identify 3–5 legacy deliverables they can realistically complete before 2027.
2. Break these down into 6-month targets — what will be delivered by January 2026, and what will be completed by May 2027.
3. Ensure each target is S.M.A.R.T. — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
4. Publish these commitments as their Oyo Legacy Pledge, and be prepared to stand before the public and say: “This is what we promised. This is what we delivered.”
5. Collaborate across ministries through Joint Compacts, especially where outcomes overlap — such as infrastructure and commerce, education and youth, tourism and environment.

These compacts will be monitored quarterly and reviewed at our Mid-Term Legacy Retreat in 2026. They will guide resourcing, visibility, and decision-making for the remainder of this administration.

The Oyo State Legacy Compact is not a slogan. It is a covenant. A pact between us and the people we serve.

To build a legacy that lasts, we must:

1. Prioritise Completion: Finish the agribusiness hubs, upgrade our PHCs, deliver the airport and feeder roads.
2. Institutionalise What Works: Protect effective policies through legal frameworks and performance-linked budgeting.
3. Celebrate the Process, Not Just the Product: Make our delivery model transparent and replicable.
4. Empower Successors, Not Sabotage Them: A true legacy is one that outlives its architects.

We are at a defining point. The foundation is solid. The vision is clear. The next two years must be about intentional delivery, interministerial synergy, and generational impact.

Let us remember: A legacy is not what you start. It is what you finish — and finish well.

Let posterity say of this government, of this season:

They came, they saw the gaps… and they closed them.

Thank you, and God bless you.

Seyi Makinde

23 June 2025