By Kemi Olaitan
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, yesterday asked the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 election, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, to rise above cheap politics in his criticisms of the state’s Prosperity Bond unveiled last Wednesday.
Adisa, in a statement made available to THISDAY in Ibadan, said the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has a duty to the people of Oyo State and Nigerians in general to make sound inputs into economic debates and justify that he truly merited a seat at the apex bank, where he once sat as deputy governor.
The media aide to the governor also maintained that the terms that will be agreed to by the state, whenever discussions on the Bond issuance begin, will protect the interest of Oyo State people, as Governor Makinde has continued to show that protecting the interest of Oyo State and lifting it from poverty to prosperity have remained his greatest goals.
According to him, “The announcement by the Oyo State government on the issuance of a N100 billion Bond tagged Prosperity Bond, has generated several reactions especially from the opposition.
“While one would not expect some members of the APC in Oyo State to see anything good with the development, it has become imperative to react to some of the inane ideas being passed off as sound economic commentaries. “This becomes particularly important, seeing how the governorship candidate of the APC in the 2019 election, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, ran amok with imbalanced economic analyses on the matter in order to score cheap political points.
“We will like to state clearly to the right-thinking members of the society that in coming to terms with the need to opt for the Prosperity Bond, Governor Makinde is being guided by sound logic and scientific analyses that originate from unbiased quarters.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the 21 km Ajia-New Ife Express Road project with spur at Amuloko being constructed under the Alternative Project Funding Approach (APFA), a Design, Build, Finance project, at a total cost of N8.5 billion cannot be equated to the moribund and revoked Moniya-Iseyin road project awarded under the administration of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
“The Ajia-Airport project is a Public, Private, Partnership (PPP) project which will benefit from private funds. Rather, the investor has taken the risk of tying his funds to that project because of his firm belief in the economic recovery efforts of Governor Makinde.
