Oyo state governor Engr Seyi Makinde has asked state governors to focus on how to increase productivity and boost their Internally Generated Revenue for development in the country.

Gov Makinde said this while receiving the National executive members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by the union President, Chief Chris Iziguzo, in Ibadan during his decoration as the Grand Patron of the Oyo state NUJ Council on Thursday

He said it is time for the state governments in Nigeria to focus more on productive activities that can boost their internally generated revenues.

He noted that it was unfortunate that Nigeria cannot feed itselve, saying Nigeria as a country is blessed with arable land and good weather should not be importing food.

” The issue we have is that we’re not producing enough, we’re not productive. Whatever it is that we’re sharing in Abuja, which is what this FAAC is all about, you want to have value for it, but our real problem is productivity”, he said

Gov Makinde added, ” It’s a big shame for this country that we cannot feed ourselves. We should go back to those things that will allow us to bring confidence back to our people and to ensure that this country is back on the path of growth and economic progress”.

“I would say that it (Supreme Court judgment) has nothing to do with us here in Oyo State because since I came in, we’ve conducted local government election twice, and for one day after we held the first election, there’s been no caretaker anywhere, we planned and gave allowance for election process to go on smoothly. So, it’s not a big problem for us.”

Gov Makinde while lamenting the inability of many of the local government areas in the country to generate revenue outside of the federal allocation, said the focus of the country should be on how to increase productivity.

He then charged journalists in the country to always set aside personal and parochial interests but rather focus on overriding national and corporate interests while discharging their duties.

“Whatever anyone wants to become, it is only possible when we have a country. So, all of us, including journalists, must always be guided by the overriding interests of developing our state and the country. Journalists must practise development journalism that stands for the interest of the generality of the people.”

The NUJ President, Dr Chris Iziguzo while speaking tasked journalists to embrace development or solution based journalism rather than over playing challenges confronting the nation, stressing that other nations across the world have diverse challenges also but have attracted investments and people from other parts due to positive projection of their images to the rest of the world.

Dr Isiguzo lauded Gov Makinde’s people-oriented projects across all sectors in Oyo state, which he said had impacted the internally generated revenue of the state positively, adding that the recognition of Gov Makinde as grand patron was meant to identify and appreciate him as one of the leaders that have been impacting meaningfully on the lives of the people.

On the entourage of the NUJ President were the Vice President South-West B Zone, Princess Ronke Afebioye-Samo; National Financial Secretary, Comrade Samuel Dada; National Trustee Member, B Zone, Comrade Adebayo Akamo; Zonal Secretary, South-West, Abdulrazak Alege and the NUJ Chairman Oyo State chapter, Ademola Babalola.
ENDS.