Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde<\/strong>, on Saturday said he misses former Vice\u2011President Yemi Osinbajo\u2019s leadership style, even as he criticised the current administration\u2019s handling of the controversial tax bill.<\/p>\n Abia Radio News<\/strong> reports that Makinde spoke while delivering remarks at the 60th birthday celebration of Samson Ajetomobi, president of The Men of Issachar Vision Incorporated (MIV) and overseer of Redemption Faith Churches, held in Ibadan, Oyo State capital. Former Vice\u2011President Osinbajo was among the dignitaries in attendance.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Addressing Osinbajo directly, Makinde expressed admiration for how the former vice\u2011president handled leadership responsibilities during his tenure.<\/p>\n \u201cSir, I personally miss you in that position (as vice\u2011president),\u201d<\/em> Makinde said.<\/p>\n He swiftly clarified that his remarks were not political in nature.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cA lot of people may not know why things are not really the same. It\u2019s not a political talk because I\u2019m not on that podium,\u201d<\/em> the governor added.<\/p>\n In a nostalgic reflection, Makinde credited Osinbajo\u2019s leadership for influencing Oyo\u2019s response during the early days of the COVID\u201119 pandemic.<\/p>\n Makinde said he was barely seven months into office when the crisis hit in February 2020, and recalled a crucial National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere was COVID, and we came in for the National Economic Council meeting. It was a hot meeting; the chairman of the council (Osinbajo) came in, and a few of my colleagues. \u2026 They came in and said we should all go back and lock down our state,\u201d<\/em> Makinde recalled.<\/p>\n It was Osinbajo\u2019s leadership that, Makinde said, helped shape Oyo\u2019s eventual path, explaining why his state did not enforce a full lockdown.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, for Oyo State people, why I did not lock down during COVID was because of his decision,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Makinde used the occasion to contrast Osinbajo\u2019s openness to dialogue with what he described as the present administration\u2019s unwillingness to listen to policy matters. He cited the tax bill controversy as evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had the same situation in this dispensation; it was the tax bill, and we said, \u2018Look, bring the tax bill; bring it back; let us all have an opportunity to look dispassionately at it,\u2019 but you cannot speak truth to power in this dispensation; the tax bill will go ahead,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n Makinde has consistently opposed President Bola Tinubu\u2019s tax reforms, arguing that the policies place an undue burden on ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n In September, the governor refused assent to a related tax bill passed by the Oyo State House of Assembly, citing concerns that it would deepen the hardship of residents already struggling with the country\u2019s economic realities.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, on Saturday said he misses former Vice\u2011President Yemi Osinbajo\u2019s leadership style, even as he criticised the current administration\u2019s handling of the controversial tax bill. Abia Radio News reports that Makinde spoke while delivering remarks at the 60th birthday celebration of Samson Ajetomobi, president of The Men of Issachar Vision Incorporated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[1282,2917],"class_list":["post-240221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-seyi-makinde","tag-yemi-osinbajo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Oyo-State-Governor-Engr-Seyi-Makinde.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}