By: Odeh Favour
The presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has sharply criticized the Federal Government’s economic reforms, arguing that rising poverty across the country demonstrates the need to assess leadership by its direct impact on citizens rather than macroeconomic indicators.
In a newsletter released on Thursday comparing his administration’s governance approach in Oyo State with the Federal Government’s handling of the economy under President Bola Tinubu, Makinde maintained that one presidential term is sufficient for Nigerians to evaluate a leader’s priorities and determine whether the government deserves another mandate.
The APM candidate acknowledged that fiscal measures like petrol subsidy removal and foreign exchange unification had economic justifications, but insisted that any policy must be weighed against the daily realities facing ordinary Nigerians.
“Policies tell you what a government wants to change. The order in which it chooses to make those changes tells you how that government thinks,” Makinde stated.
“There are never enough resources for government to meet every need at once. So, leadership is about what you choose to do first, what you are prepared to postpone, and who bears the cost of those choices,” he added.
Contrasting his state’s record since taking office in 2019, the governor explained that his administration prioritized workers’ salaries, pensions, and inherited gratuity arrears alongside critical infrastructure development.
He emphasized that Oyo State’s development roadmap consistently focused on the core sectors of the economy, education, healthcare, and security, ensuring public financial obligations were met despite competing demands.
“We could have said government needed the money for infrastructure and asked workers and pensioners to wait,” he said.
“Instead of choosing between paying people and building infrastructure, we chose to do both. We paid salaries consistently. We regularised pension payments. We began clearing inherited gratuity arrears,” Makinde stated.
The APM flagbearer revealed that personnel costs alone accounted for about 70 per cent of Oyo State’s federal receipts over four years, prompting his administration to adopt alternative financing mechanisms such as the Alternative Project Funding Approach where contractors financed selected projects upfront for repayment over an agreed period.
“Going back to our test of leadership, you can see clearly what we chose to do first – meet our obligations. And we accepted the fiscal cost of that choice,” he noted.
Turning his focus to federal economic management, Makinde argued that policy reforms must be evaluated by their effect on citizens’ livelihoods rather than abstract statistical claims.
“Reform is not only about fixing the numbers. It is also about how people survive the transition,” he stated.
Citing economic data, the governor claimed that national poverty rates rose from roughly 56 per cent in 2023 to around 62 per cent in 2026, representing an estimated 23 million additional Nigerians pushed into poverty.
He noted that while the Federal Government frequently cites assessments by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pointing to macroeconomic stability, those gains have failed to improve everyday living conditions.
“These 23 million are not just numbers. They are our parents, neighbours, friends and children.
Macroeconomic stability has not translated at the same pace into jobs, lower poverty and improved living standards for the majority of Nigerians,” Makinde said.
“And if, after four years, a leader has not been able to make those choices work for the people, Nigerians have every right to say: let us try someone else,” he concluded.
