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Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, on Tuesday told members of his cabinet to feel free to challenge any of his views whenever necessary as he too will not hesitate in doing same in order to arrive at a robust decision in the overall interest of the people of the state.
The governor stated this in his opening remarks at the maiden meeting of the State Executive Council(SEC) at the Executive Chamber of the governor’s office,Secretariat, Agodi.
His words: “I personally like to say up front that even within my own family, I’m not the brightest and not the smartest, so also here, I won’t think my opinion should be taken all the time, please challenge it.
“So also whatever any one of you is bringing to the table we will challenge, but at the end of the day, we want to align for the interest of our people, so we shouldn’t allow our personal interest to weigh in so much on our official conduct, we should hold ourselves accountable.”
While welcoming the SEC members to the inaugural meeting, the governor urged them to be passionate about their contributions, noting that they are only privileged to serve the people of the state in their various capacities.
“I, first of all, want to congratulate the commissioners and I also want to say that for all of us seated here, it’s a privilege that we have to serve the people of Oyo state and I want to say welcome on board.
“This is the first exco meeting for this administration and I want to say to everybody that be passionate about your contributions, nobody is going to hold anybody to ransom for your contributions here. You should be dispassionate and you shouldn’t hold anything back because the more robust the discussion the more robust the arguments, the better the decisions that will come out of this executive chamber.
“So, I use this opportunity to welcome you and I’ll look forward to decisions that will impact the lives of our people and will bring accelerated development to Oyo state, decisions that will make us the true pacesetter state,” Makinde said
The meeting had in attendance the Deputy Governor, Engr. Rauf Olaniyan; Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun; Head of Service, Mrs Amidat Agboola and all the newly sworn-in 17 commissioners in the state among others.