Makinde Plans to Form Cabinet Within Two Weeks

Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has stated that he will put his cabinet in place in the next two weeks, saying that names of other commissioner-nominees will be sent to the House of Assembly for screening and confirmation. In a statement signed by Sulaimon Olanrewaju, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, the governor equally maintained that his administration will focus on tourism as one of the key sectors that will drive the state’s economy.

According to him, the government will decouple the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism as part of efforts to enhance the optimal performance of the existing ministries.

Makinde, who gave these indications in his official Newsletter, dated 29th June 2023, said that the Ministry of Information will now be headed by one commissioner, while another commissioner will head the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The decoupling, he said, would bring the number of ministries in the state to 18 as against the 17 that existed during the first tenure.

The governor equally noted that in line with his promise, the Light-Up Oyo Streetlights, which went off for a few weeks, have now been reactivated. He explained that the project will, for the time being, continue to use diesel generators until it will finally fall back on the ongoing new power system – the 11MW Independent Power Project (IPP, which is ongoing) as the main source of power, with gas generators and inverters as a backup.

The governor said: “For me, having sent the first batch of commissioner nominees to the Oyo State House of Assembly, I know I now have just about two weeks to send the names of the rest of the nominees and have my cabinet in place.

“This promise will be kept just as all other promises we have made to the good people of Oyo State.

“One of the other things we are going to do is to ensure that all our ministries function optimally.

“This means that under Omituntun 2.0, Oyo State will have 18 and not 17 commissioners.

Some may think that we should be reducing rather than increasing the number of ministries, departments and agencies at this time in order to reduce the cost of governance.

But, after due consideration, we believe that the benefits of these adjustments far outweigh the costs, and Oyo State will be the better for it. He, therefore, charged the residents to keep praying for the state and the entire country, saying he believes that “we will overcome the trying times with the ‘Nigerian can-do spirit and trust in God.”