The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked Governor Seyi Makinde to spell out specific projects which will gulp some portion of the 2025 budget proposal, which he recently presented to lawmakers.
OsunDailyNG reports that Makinde, on Wednesday, November 13, the governor submitted a budget of ₦678.86 billion, referred to as the “Budget of Economic Stabilisation,” to the state House of Assembly for review and approval.
According to the governor, the budget allocates ₦349.29 billion for capital expenditure, which constitutes 50.59 per cent, while ₦325.57 billion is designated for recurrent expenditure, accounting for 49.41 per cent of the total budget.
However, the state’s opposition party has criticized Makinde’s budget proposal as lacking transparency, asking for clarity on the specific projects which would gulp 51 per cent of the total ₦679 billion budget proposal for the coming year as presented by the governor.
The Oyo APC, in a statement released on Thursday through its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, expressed concern that the governor did not engage relevant stakeholders.
The party stated that the governor’s assertion of involving citizens 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 ₦679 billion.
“Also, we have expected him (Makinde) to quote the exact period during which workers should expect the commencement of the payment of the ₦80,000 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 opposition camp also wondered how Governor Makinde evaluated his scoresheet to have claimed that the ₦515bn 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.
