The Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, has disclosed that Oyo State will compete favourably with developed economies within the next 10 years if the Seyi Makinde developmental template is sustained by the administration coming after 2027.
The commissioner made this projection while addressing media stakeholders at the 8th edition of the NBC/Yemi Sonde broadcast media stakeholders forum at the University of Ibadan.
Citing the World Population Review of the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects, Prince Oyelade said the population of Ibadan was a mere 450,000 by 1950 but by 2019 when Governor Seyi Makinde came into power, the population was about 3.4million.
He said since then, the population ratio jumped by about half a million which means that in the past 73 years, the last four years has witnessed the highest number of migration into the city.
It is instructive that while Lagos state has a landmass of about 3,577 square kilometers, Oyo state on the contrary has an awesome landmass of about 28,454 square kilometers with all of them virtually arable land. The implication of which is that the landmass in Oyo state is seven times that of Lagos and almost double that of Ogun state thereby giving investors in the state stupendous opportunities for expansion.
According to Prince Oyelade, the recent proliferation of radio stations in Oyo state is a quintessential example of the impact of good governance on the socioeconomic parameters of the State.
He said apart from Lagos state, Rivers state and the Federal Capital Territory, all for obvious reasons, no other state in Nigeria boasts of a cluster of 50 radio stations with about half of them springing up in the past four years as is the case in the present Oyo state.
Prince Oyelade said apart from the completion of three estates at Bodija and Jericho in Ibadan and the opening up of other housing estates across the zones in the past four years, many estate developers are thronging the state to take advantage of the easy-to-obtain certificate of occupancy within 60 days in Oyo state.
He noted that the beehive of economic activities and the effective networking of roads that has ensured the linkage of all the zones to one another resulting in the construction of about 200km roads and embarking on the construction of 18 new roads totalling 345.86km for his second term in office including the 34.85km recently completed Oyo-Iseyin road.
And of course the magical 110km circular road which will connect Ibadan to all parts of the country have put investors on alert and the results are trickling in.
Prince Oyelade affirmed that Oyo state economy is receiving a boost through the aviation and hospitality businesses due to the foresight of Governor Seyi Makinde.
He stated that in the past three years, the number of airlines taking off and landing at the Ibadan airport has increased from one to three, the latest being Airpeace and Green Africa that were established in the past two years due to personal intervention of the governor.
The last time we checked yesterday, the three airlines are smiling to the bank.
In his ambition to ensure that Ibadan has an international airport, the state government took an audacious step by establishing an aviation fuel depot.
The event was attended by prominent stakeholders in the broadcast media industry including representative of the DG NBC and other prominent stakeholders.