Watching Seyi Makinde’s appearance on Arise TV left me absolutely sick to my gut. As a citizen, it would be an absolute betrayal of the president, this country, and the good people of Yorubaland to watch this unfold and remain silent.

When asked about the Orire kidnapping, instead of answering with his brain in gear, Makinde responded absent-mindedly as though his brain had taken flight of him. He hid behind classified documents and information, claiming the Office of the National Security Advisor (NSA) restricted what he could say. For a sitting governor and Chief Security Officer of the State whose citizens were abducted right under his watch, that is a cop-out, not an answer.

Worse still, Makinde waxed divisive in an attempted to drive a wedge between the North and the South. He drew a deliberate comparison, claiming the Orire and Borno kidnappings happened simultaneously, and alleged that the President only rescued the Orire victims while abandoning the people of Borno. For a sitting governor, to voice such a divisive and reckless statement beggars belief and is at best, a disgrace.

Let’s be clear: keeping Oyo State safe is Makinde’s primary constitutional responsibility. Why so? Oyo State receives a staggering monthly security vote of N1 billion, totaling 12 billion naira annually. Where is all this money going? Meanwhile, rural roads in the state are so deplorable they could swallow a whole SUV.

To understand the true scale of the state’s financial standing, one only needs to look at the numbers. Since 2023, Oyo State has received roughly ₦735 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), covering January 2023 to July 2026, the latest period with published figures. In 2023, the state received ₦207.37 billion. In 2024, reports put the figure at ₦145.25 billion. In 2025, allocations rose to about ₦213.7 billion, an average of roughly ₦17.8 billion a month. That is a huge leap from the ₦5 billion to ₦7 billion the state used to get monthly before 2023, when yearly allocations ranged between ₦75 billion and ₦85 billion. In 2026, Oyo received about ₦147 billion between January and June, and the total rose to about ₦168.5 billion by July. Oyo ranked among the top ten recipients in Nigeria in both 2025 and 2026.

Drilling down further reveals that this financial boom extends heavily to the grassroots. Oyo State’s 33 local governments are among the biggest council beneficiaries of federal revenue in the South-West. From June 2023 to May 2024, they received a combined ₦127.75 billion, the second-highest in the region after Lagos. In just two months, January and February 2025, they shared ₦31.4 billion. During that two-month period, Ibadan North East led with about ₦1.26 billion. Ibadan North followed with ₦1.20 billion, then Ibadan South West with ₦1.17 billion, Egbeda with ₦1.17 billion, Iseyin with ₦1.16 billion, Ona Ara with ₦1.15 billion, and Ibadan South East with ₦1.14 billion. The next group received between ₦1 billion and ₦1.1 billion each: Ifedapo got ₦1.10 billion, Akinyele ₦1.06 billion, Saki West ₦1.06 billion, Kajola ₦1.03 billion, Atiba ₦1.02 billion, and Oriire ₦1.00 billion. Councils receiving just under ₦1 billion in the same period were Lagelu and Ogbomosho North at ₦0.99 billion each, Atisbo at ₦0.98 billion, Itesiwaju at ₦0.97 billion, and Ibadan North West at ₦0.96 billion. Ifeloju and Afijio each got about ₦0.93 billion, Oyo West got ₦0.93 billion, Irepo received ₦0.92 billion, and Oyo East, Iwajowa, and Olorunsogo each received about ₦0.91 billion.

The lower end of the range saw Saki East at ₦0.90 billion, Orelope at ₦0.89 billion, Ibarapa North at ₦0.88 billion, Ibarapa Central at ₦0.87 billion, Ogbomosho South at ₦0.86 billion, and Ogo Oluwa at ₦0.82 billion (while Oluyole and Ido were recorded for January only, with ₦0.17 billion and ₦0.14 billion respectively).

Over the 12 months to July 2026, the councils with published figures received between about ₦6.7 billion and ₦9.8 billion each, led by Ibadan North East at ₦9.8 billion, Surulere at ₦9.5 billion, and Ibadan North at ₦9.3 billion down to Ogo Oluwa receiving the least at ₦6.7 billion. With such unprecedented financial inflows at both state and local levels, the state of local infrastructure and security is completely indefensible.

For Makinde to draw such comparisons shows a profound lack of reasoning. When the indigenes of his state were kidnapped and his administration proved entirely helpless, the Federal Government stepped in to rescue them from that tragic situation.

Instead of showing gratitude, Makinde tries to paint President Tinubu as a sectional, pro-South leader. Is he trying to score cheap political points or deliberately discredit the president?

To put his headless allegations to rest, the vast majority of the head of security chiefs involved were Northerners. So what exact point was Makinde trying to make? All of this posturing appears designed for cheap political relevance ahead of his presidential bid.

Makinde even went as far as claiming that his personal support for Tinubu in 2023 was what delivered Oyo State to the president. Let’s be realistic: Tinubu is a Yoruba man; his victory in Oyo State was virtually certain. I can assure you that Makinde will not secure even 30% of the vote in any upcoming national election even those who voted for him locally need a second look, and one has to wonder how those numbers were secured.

Makinde’s political and presidential ambitions are already blowing away like sand in a desert storm. Key cabinet members are bailing on him, and his strongest political allies are gone. If he possesses any wisdom at all, this should serve as a direct message to take a step back.

The root of Makinde’s problem is that he is power-drunk. You cannot abandon your friends just because you attained the office of governor, you cannot forcefully divest land from farmers, and above all, you cannot recklessly meddle in traditional Oba matters.

Makinde has yet to provide an account for the ₦50 billion allocated for the upgrade of the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport in Ibadan. Following the January 2024 explosion in Bodija, Ibadan, the Federal Government pledged a ₦50 billion support package though Makinde claimed only ₦30 billion was disbursed. Makinde, where is the remaining money? “abi you keep am for personal account like obi ni?” Given that he received a significantly larger payout than other states affected by similar tragedies, why didn’t he benchmark his allocation against what others received?

In Elebu, within Ido Local Government Area, residents are still waiting for a road reconstruction project promised years ago. In other communities housing over 250,000 people, residents have literally abandoned their homes because of impassable roads. A government in power since 2019 can no longer hide behind inherited problems.

As the Tribune reported, internal roads in Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun, and Ogbomoso have become death traps despite endless promises of prioritization. A coalition from the Oyo zone recently complained about being sidelined from a ₦113 billion infrastructure package, noting that virtually all roads across Afijio, Atiba, Oyo East, and Oyo West are in impassable. The Peoples Gazette’s account of Ayegun neglected despite the dividends of democracy reveals the exact same pattern: progress feels like a distant illusion to citizens who see zero state presence.

When residents protested over the Ibadan Circular Road project, Makinde dismissed their grievances as politically orchestrated. For critics, that response sums up his entire leadership style: legitimate complaints are viewed from the prism of political attacks rather than desperate cries from citizens living with potholes, flooding, and broken drainages. Patching roads once a year ahead of a ceremony is not governance. In 2022, the state announced ₦750 million for its road agency to guarantee “zero potholes.” Four years later, the potholes have only morphed into craters.

People are insinuating there is possibility Makinde will be a guest of anti-graft agencies after his tenure as governor, a reason he has been gallivanting with some already crafting lyrics of for him: “Do you know Seyi Makinde ma sewon leyin ijoba, I know Seyi Makinde ma sewon leyin Ijoba”( I know Seyi Makinde will go to prison after his tenure) with other singing: “Allahumma aame Allahumma aamen Allahumma aamen Allahumma aamen, Seyi ti tee ti joná ko ni kone ma titiwa”

Governor Makinde, this is not a North versus South issue, so do not set fire to our country just to fan the flames of your personal ambitions.

Bamidele Atoyebi is the convenor of BAT Ideological Group, National Coordinator of Accountability and Policy Monitoring and a publisher at Unfiltered and Mining Reporting and political social worker