FULL ADDRESS BY THE OYO STATE COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATION AND ORIENTATION, PRINCE DOTUN OYELADE, AT THE MAIDEN MATRICULATION CEREMONY OF THE IMPACT SCHOOL OF BROADCASTING AND COMMUNICATION (ISBC), HELD AT THE IMPACT HOUSE, AKOBO, IBADAN, ON THURSDAY 3RD APRIL, 2025.

FULL ADDRESS BY THE OYO STATE COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATION AND ORIENTATION, PRINCE DOTUN OYELADE, AT THE MAIDEN MATRICULATION CEREMONY OF THE IMPACT SCHOOL OF BROADCASTING AND COMMUNICATION (ISBC), HELD AT THE IMPACT HOUSE, AKOBO, IBADAN, ON THURSDAY 3RD APRIL, 2025.

I am very pleased to be here, to witness the maiden Matriculation Ceremony of the Impact School of Broadcasting and Communication (ISBC).

I am most delighted to be here for some specific reasons:

The first one is that, being in a broadcast environment such as the Impact Business Radio (IBR) represents. I cannot but feel settled-in, in my natural habitat, which is Broadcast Journalism.

The second reason is that I also like to be in the midst of dreamers who actualize their dreams.

I'm referring to Mr Oladejo Owolabi, the Chairman and Chief Executive of IBR, who in spite of the challenging issues in the broadcast industry is doggedly forging ahead and impacting on a business that is fraught with challenges and he's making a difference.

I should add the third reason why I am delighted to be here, and this is because I feel and perceive the ambition and determination of these young students who are  striving to create a bright future for themselves at a time when dreaming big seems daunting

I do not know if you ever heard of me but I have been in the business of broadcasting for 48 years, served in four administrations and a quintessential example of a professional in politics but never a professional politician.

If the reason for my being here is to kindle your hope in the future and to have you more determined to succeed in life, then I need to drop one or two hints.

As students, your curiosity to learn even beyond your formal study engagements must be a permanent catalyst in your daily lives.

Right from today, you must seek to conquer the world through knowledge and raw determination.

Your tutorials in the classroom are only knowledge impacted on you to give you the ability to expose yourselves to the labyrinth of opportunities that abound in life.

You must see yourself as coming to IBR to gain knowledge and prominence that will make you excel beyond this narrow confines.

As pioneering students, the responsibility on you is even more daunting because you will be the face of this Institution in more ways than one.

You are its ambassadors.

If you succeed in doing this, you would have written your names in gold as part of a project that has stood the test of time.

Let me give a brief insight into the contemporary politics of Oyo State.

In 2019 when the Seyi Makinde administration started, many thought that governance will be a huge challenge, given the hydra headed situation we met on the ground, particularly finance, but Governor Seyi Makinde had clearly shown that where there is a will, there is a way; much more so, when the way is driven by prudence, data, science and smartness.

The first four years of his administration set unprecedented records while the first two years of the second term surpassed those achievements. 

The general belief is that when an administration succeeds in its re-election bid, it becomes complacent to the promises it had made.

Instead, the frenetic pace in the provision of infrastructures and keeping faith with the welfare of government workers has given the impression that Governor Seyi Makinde is running for a third term.

Of course, this is laughable and impossible, but inadvertently, in passing the performance test, Seyi Makinde has created another challenge for himself and that challenge rears its head in the issue of succession.

Even as an insider in this administration, I cannot but pity whoever will take over from Seyi Makinde as Governor in 2027.

In December 2024, a few weeks after Governor Seyi Makinde promised the ₦80,000 minimum wage for the over 130,000 State workers, two permanent secretaries came to my office and asked me confidentially, how the Governor was going to implement the promise which amounts to over ₦14billion every month and still able to continue with ambitious infrastructural plans.

I told them jocularly that if a man says that he has bitten the bullet for the people of Oyo State, he must have a magic wand in his sleeve.

Well, as we all know, he has paid the ₦14billion three times between January and March this year, and he will continue to do so till the end of May, 2027.

As I talk to you, the 32.2km East Wing of the Ibadan Circular road which will be the first Motorway in Nigeria will be commissioned in the near future.

Apart from this, 334 km of roads have been constructed and rehabilitated across the State: More than half of them in the last two years.

Paradoxically therefore, Governor Seyi Makinde has inadvertently sprung up the issue of succession, mainly because of the unequalled performance template he would leave behind by 2027.

It is up in the air if the Game changer Governor will succeed in persuading the people to follow his gubernatorial nominee if he has any, or the people will follow their own heart as they did in 2019, or even take a gamble into the unknown? Only time will tell.

But one thing is certain, this Governor will not give the impression of a lame duck because he will perform till the wee hours of May 29, 2027.