Each time I go to the internet and see Seyi Makinde trending, I am always excited and anxious to see the giant strides His Excellency has taken again and again and again because I know he would not trend for the wrong reasons. Few to mention, he declared his asset in a grand manner, waived his immunity, gave his salary to pensioners, day 25 payment of salaries throughout the state, free education in public primary and secondary schools, distribution of free books, appointment of first female Secretary to the State Government in Oyo state, appointment of the record breaking youngest Commissioner for Youths and Sports and now, the appointment of our own Ibadan Pride, Kazeem Bolarinwa.
Since your swearing-in, I kept wishing you were Governor of Oyo state long before now, but then, I can only be grateful that you are governor at this strategic time, because you have made me proud of being a native of Oyo State.
Your excellency, I will personally love to appreciate you for all you are doing for Oyo State and the focus you have driven into your administration in restoring the glory of this state. You keep setting the pace in every sense of excellence and your style of leadership is one I desire to covet. We became victims of bad leadership in previous times to the extent that good leadership became gold to us, almost running us excitingly crazy when we saw them. To be frank, most of the things I see in your administration is what a sane society should expect from responsible leadership, but we keep getting overwhelmed with unnecessary surprise each time we see them just because of the disappointing familiarity we have had with undeserving leadership.
To focus gaze on the recent appointments you made, Kazeem Bolarinwa’s own is one I must honestly thank you for. I did a background check on this young bearded individual a while ago and I kept saying to myself that this kind of young man is the type that deserves to serve in governmental capacities. I took a bold step of approaching and interviewing him about a year ago and I was caught in the web of highly cerebral conversations with workable model ideas emanating from him. He was one of the youths who propagated the Not-Young-To-Run ideology in Oyo State, championed many Leadership trails and participated in various fora to advocate for right leadership.
Surprise didn’t catch me when I heard him announced by Your Excellency as your Special Assistant on Youths and Sports. ‘Oh dahm, Seyi Makinde just knows how to fish for the best hands to work with’, I exclaimed.
While I appreciate you for working out your campaign promises, I must charge you to please keep up the good Spirit. To say at this point, so much more work is still left to be done. It was with pain did I read the tweet of ‘Track NG’ as they identified Basorun Ojo High School, Ashi Bodija on the 22nd of October 2019, where the students learn in unpleasant conditions. Some other unidentified schools will definitely yearn for urgent rehabilitative measures. Asides from that, the Iwo Road, untarred axis, Old Ife Road untarred axis, Iseyin/Oyo road, some of the road networks in Oke Ogun and some other places in the state need work to be sped up. Even though it’s obvious work has started on them, I would be excited to see the pace of work on these roads increased.
Youths are the strongest force of any society and out of every 10 persons that move, 7 are youths. The exact reason the face of youthfulness must be rebranded to the right course and that is why I, on behalf of thousands of youths you’re leading will enjoin you to not relent in your transformational works. Gainful employment, security and better resources with which we can improve our lives and work are what we desire so as to deliver a productive Oyo State to you sir. We are your strength and you are our backbone to drive with, we will always need your support sir.
To Kazeem Bolarinwa, to whom much is given, much is expected. Permit me to say that this is the season to scale up. Oyo state has gotten the right track of progress at this point in time and all hands must be on deck to keep her moving. You are representing us, thousands of youths across the state now have a reason to look up to you and we both know you must not get us disappointed. The Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Seun Fakorede has indeed shown that the youths can be trusted and a collaborating force from your sterling end can only deliver fantastic results.
You have been known for excellence, this is another opportunity for you to prove this fact.
Not much words, big thank you to His Excellency Governor Seyi Makinde for making this obviously right appointment and my prayer for this entire administration is evident success in all that you do.
God bless Ibadan, God bless Oyo State, God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Akinola Akinyo-Ojo, a leadership enthusiast writes from Ibadan. He can be reached via eakinyoojo@gmail.com.
