Makinde’s 2025 budget proposal lacks stakeholders’ input — Oyo APC

T The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has slammed Governor Seyi Makinde for alleged lack of transparency in the presentation of the state’s proposed budget estimate of N678.86bn.

The governor, on Wednesday, presented a budget of N678.86bn, tagged, “Budget of Economic Stabilisation,” to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval.

“Out of the budget, capital expenditure gulped N349.29bn, representing 50.59 per cent while N325.57bn is allocated to recurrent expenditure, representing 49.41 per cent of the budget,” Makinde said

However, in a statement issued on Thursday by the Oyo APC’s Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, in Ibadan, the state capital, the party lamented that the governor failed to involve “relevant stakeholders,” as it said the governor’s claim of involving the people of the state in the budget proposal is “false.”

“The orchestrated presentation was just a ceremony aimed at fulfilling all righteousness as Governor Makinde did not carry any of the relevant stakeholders along in its preparation while he would not make use of the Appropriation Bill upon its passage by the lawmakers.

“As far as the Oyo APC is concerned, the claim by Governor Makinde that the 2025 budget proposal had the input of the people of the state is false, even as we challenge him to come out clean on the specific projects which would gulp the 51 per cent of the total N679 billion.

“Also, we have expected him (Makinde) to quote the exact period during which workers should expect the commencement of the payment of the N80,000 minimum wage which he announced recently as well as the monthly total of the state wage bill to justify the amount quoted as recurrent expenditure in the 2025 budget,” the statement partly read.

The state APC chapter equally wondered how the governor evaluated his scoresheet to have claimed that the N515bn budget for the state in 2024 had a 70 per cent successful implementation.

“Governor Makinde claimed 70 per cent successful implementation of the N515 billion budget for 2024 but we do not know the parameters he used to score himself. In the health sector of the state, residents live under the fear of Lassa fever, cholera and smallpox, among others, while the personnel in our under-staffed public hospitals groan on account of the poor condition of service. But for the World Bank which bankrolls Ibadan Urban Flood Management Projects, the whole of the state capital (Ibadan) would have been washed away by flood and erosion,” it concluded.