Our Infrastructure projects will drive economic growth — Makinde
Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, says the various Infrastructure projects being executed by his administration are targeted at not only development of the state, but also economic growth.
Makinde said this on Saturday when he received the leadership of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), in his office at the State Secretariat, Agodi Ibadan.
The NGE leadership was in the state for their Standing Committee meeting.
Makinde, who later took the team on a tour of some of the ongoing projects being executed by his government, said his administration was unrelenting in providing good governance to the people of Oyo State.
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The governor and some key government functionaries led the team to visit the newly constructed Methodist Model Primary School, Bodija and the completed 65 kilometres Ibadan-Iseyin Road project.
They also visited the site of the ongoing 78 kilometers Iseyin – Ogbomoso Road project; ongoing Lere Adigun Housing Estate and ongoing Ibadan Airport dual carriage way, Alakia.
The team also visited the headquarters of the State Security Network, codenamed ‘Amotekun’ situated at Akinyele Road, Moniya, Ibadan and the newly rehabilitated/upgraded Primary Health Centre(PHC), Iseyin.
Makinde said the priority given to the Amotekun outfit and other conventional security agencies in the state was because “security is one of the major pillars of our accelerated development”.
He said the establishment of the Amotekun had been of great benefits in tackling security challenges, complementing the efforts of the conventional security agencies in addressing insecurity across the state.
On Ibadan-Iseyin Road, the governor said the project was awarded in November 2019, few months after his assumption of office, and the contractor delivered the project in 2021.
On the 78 kilometers Iseyin-Ogbomoso Road project that was awarded recently, Makinde said that 17 kilometres of the project, from Iseyin end, and 16 kilometres from Ogbomoso end, had been asphalted.
He hinted that all the bridges on the road had been done, hoping that the project would be completed for inauguration in January 2023.
On the PHC Iseyin, he said his administration was targeting to have one functional PHC in each of the 351 wards in the state.
He said the idea was for people not to go beyond one kilometre radius from wherever they are living to access primary health care facility.
On the Ibadan Airport Road being dualised, Makinde said “the Airport itself is central to expanding our economy.
“I tell people that if you want to expand your economy and the airport only has one flight in a day, it does not tell a good story.
“As a matter of fact, we believe aircraft should be landing and taking off every 30 minutes in the airport if it must have an impact on the economy.
“We have been able to put an aviation fuel storage and dispensing facility at the Airport, the only thing that will remain to make the airport fully competitive is the extension of the runway from 2.7 kilometres to 3.3 kilometres.
“Once we are able to do that, then we can do other possible things around there.”
Earlier, the President of the Guild, Mr Mustapha Isah, said the presence of the team in Ibadan was an opportunity to look at government projects in the state.
