Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State says his administration will not give people handouts to alleviate poverty but create a conducive environment for them to thrive.
Makinde made this statement on Tuesday in a media chat with some selected journalists.
“For us in Oyo State, we believe that we’re not going to give people handouts. We will create that conducive environment for people to come in, have opportunities, and then they take themselves out of poverty.
“I was working inside where they were sun filling the entire cinema for Nigeria LNG project, all the fishermen and those they took there to build decent houses for them. It didn’t take five years before the whole place was turned into a shanty town.
“I argue this with the World Bank that their preference is to have conditional cash transfer, give people money. And I said, No. What we did was subsidize the productive effort of our people. When we hit this economic headline, a lot of state governments were bringing in palliatives and give food to people.
“What we did here was we created what we call the safer programme. The sustainable action for economic recovery. So part of our safer programme was the transportation sector and transport company. They moved close to 20,000 people every day. And we said, okay, for those 20,000 people, the vulnerable ones in there; students, elderly, physically challenged, they pay discounted price, half the price.
“So we subsidize them with 100 million naira every month. But that 100 million naira is subsidizing productivity. They’re not going to just get on the bus for a ride because it’s half price. You get on the bus for a ride because you’re going somewhere that is important to you, that is likely going to yield something productive,” he said.