Recently, a poster vent viral among interest groups on social media. I do not know who designed the poster. But its message was straight. The poster had an image of Engr. Seyi Makinde, the governor of Oyo State, with the inscription: “Ihie 2023. Vote Seyi Makinde for Abia State Governor.” 

While it is public knowledge that Makinde cannot become governor of Abia State, the poster is, however, a mockery of the situation in Abia State. The designer of the poster drew positive narratives with it. For him, Makinde has become the positive face of governance in Nigeria such that he is used to shame Abia State. Those behind the poster may be wrong in their assessment of the situation in Abia State, but they are right in their assessment of Makinde as a message of hope for a country in search visionary leadership.

For those who know where Oyo State is coming from, and what it has been through in the hands of its leaders since 1999, reaching its peak with the leadership miasma of the “Constituted Authority,” Makinde offers hope for a regenerated future not just for Oyo State but Nigeria generally. Gradually, a lot of people are now using him to measure their state governors. This is a positive sign, one that goes to prove that leadership in our clime need no longer be left to professional politicians whose only address is the party headquarters.

However, there are voices that say Makinde need not be applauded now because it is too early to do so. But having expressed himself remarkably since May, and proved that he is on a mission to redeem, reclaim and regenerate Oyo as, indeed, the Pacesetter State, he deserves every encouragement to remain focused on his vision and mission.

Makinde took off by publicly declaring his asset. His worth? Over N48 billion. That was a very audacious action. I will tell you why. When a public official declares an asset so huge, he inadvertently sets off a secret inquest by officials of state responsible for that. The inquest is to be sure that the declaration was not meant to create room for projected looting. Outcome of the inquest will determine if the official will face the Code of Conduct Bureau/Tribunal or not. So, in making that declaration, Makinde opened himself to inquest. Will he come out clean? Time will tell. But when you put that action side by side his recent action in signing the Oyo State Financial Crimes Commission Bill into law, you would begin to see the trajectory of his mission in leadership.

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Prior to the action, Makinde had at his inaugural address to the Oyo State House of Assembly tasked the legislators to be adept in their oversight functions. In fact, he tasked the Assembly to focus more attention on the executive, including his office and on himself. Somehow, he is the first, if not the only one, of the class of 2019-2023 governors to have taken these three strategic steps in leadership –making his asset public, tasking the state Assembly to seriously oversee the executive and also signing into law a bill creating a financial crimes commission in a state. These are clear departures from the past. They set Makinde apart as of a different kind. He is not thinking like the normal Nigerian politician.

Makinde came into politics with a very rich private sector background. He brought his experiences in project and resource management to reshape an Oyo State where public funds have never been enough to pay salaries of civil servants and still execute projects. At least, that was the story before he became governor. But without any magical increase in the state’s allocation from the Federation Account, the guy is doing even more with same amount what his predecessor could not do. What these say of him is about prudent management of resources and plugging holes that accounted for wastage. And that is what you get when leaders connect with the people; when the people, not a privileged few, are the actual godfathers. This is not to say that Makinde is not servicing some sacred ‘owners of state.’ He may be servicing them like his predecessors did. But he hasn’t allowed that to blight his leadership credentials and development of the state.

The sweet stories coming from Oyo are exactly what the people look up to when they invest their will in reasonable leaders. They expect that such leaders would lead them into new hope and new vision. But the reverse has always been the practice. Leadership of Nigeria’s states has always been a narrative of games godfathers play with their pawns. Godfathers appoint, anoint an install a lackey as governor with the understanding that they pull the strings over the finances of the state while the ‘governor’ merely executes orders. This is what you get in situations where the hungry, the naked and the deprived are selected and literally imposed on a state by a godfather. His first assignment is usually to repay the godfather and then satisfy wants that come from previous deprivations. So doing, the ‘governor’ spends his tenure running about aimlessly without a proper understanding of what it means to manage a state.

Managing a state, like Makinde is presently doing, means ensuring the good of a greater percentage of the population, and also building structures and institutions that deliver no personal benefit to the leader. In building a bridge, the engineer envisions the traffic the bridge will carry in several years to come. He does not build one that would carry the day’s traffic. So, he builds a bridge that would withstand the pressures of time and weather. When he is sure that he has achieved such, he plants his imprint on it. That is what people who purposefully build for the future do. It seems to me that this is what Makinde is doing in Oyo State –building structures and institutions that will take Oyo into its future. Will he succeed? I do not yet know. However, I agree that where there is a will there is always a way.

Connecting with the people the way Makinde has done is a sure way to inspire growth and popular participation in government. Perhaps, the peer-review mechanism of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum needs to be reactivated with Makinde anchoring master classes for his peers. With that, there would be no need to make a mockery of states using such posters as ‘Ihie 2023.’