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What The Governor Said @ JOGOR’s 60th Birthday
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and the owner of the popular Jogor Events Center, Ibadan, Engr Femi Babalola have ended their rift after about 4 years. And that is the biggest news within the political and social circles of the pacesetter state right now.
According to those in the know, the reconciliation process has been going on at the background for sometime now but was only made public during Jogor’s 60th birthday party the penultimate Saturday. The duo, we exclusively gathered, decided to finally reconcile after some top stakeholders waded into the matter.
Makinde and Jogor, unknown to some people, were political allies untill they fell out few months into Makinde’s first term administration. They became close when Makinde joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the third time in 2018. Jogor who was initially against Makinde being given the party’s ticket later succumbed and worked assiduosly for Makinde’s victory in 2019. The popular socialite (Jogor) alongside other stakeholders within PDP, however, fell out with Governor Makinde shortly after he came to power. They accused the Governor of breaching the agreement reached before the 2019 gubernatorial election.
Since then Makinde and Jogor have become sworn political enemies. In fact, the situation was so tensed that Jogor had in one of his interviews admitted to be Makinde’s enemy. When asked why Makinde described him as a rebel at an event, Jogor said “yes! he in fact saw us as rebels because he sees us as his enemies and I am his enemy, I can’t deny that. As long as somebody will not live by agreement, he is my enemy.”
So, many people were quite surprised when Makinde stormed Jogor’s 60th birthday party recently. Governor Makinde didn’t only attend the party but also regaled the guests with details of how he was pressurized to revoke Engr Babalola’s event center’s CofO when their fight was still hot. In his words “You all know we had political disagreement and during that time, the thought of revoking the CofO of (JOGOR Centre) popped up, but I said no, because government will come and go but our state will remain. “I am there today and I will leave the position one day but what will remain is the relationship we would have built. So, we can disagree temporarily.
“But for those who took ownership of the disagreement, where are they today? When leaders have disagreement, the followers should allow them to resolve their issues naturally. “It is not possible for us not to have disagreements. When we have issues, we just have to resolve them. So, my brother and I are together. “On behalf of the government and people of Oyo State, I want to say congratulations to you. We want to wish you a happy birthday and many happy returns in good health and also in the service to our state and the country. “God will give you the strength to live long. By the grace of God, we will be together when you will celebrate 70, 80, 90 and 100 years.
“I also want to celebrate the wife and children. I am happy to see everybody here today because for most of us, we are like ‘Diaspora Parents’ as most of our children are all over the world. That they can come to celebrate their daddy, it is something major.”
Governor Makinde also commissioned Engr Babalola’s new hotel project (Jogor Hotel) as part of events commemorating the 60th birthday celebration.
-Dare Adeniran
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