- says he should be commissioning projects
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ondo State has criticised the ongoing statewide thank-you tour by Goverror Lucky Aiyedatiwa as a charade and an indication of failure.
It said the governor should have been going round to commission completed projects, if he had been a performing leader.
It accused the All Progressives Congress administration in the state of reducing governance to optics and handouts.
In a statement by its Director of Media and Public Communications, Wande Ajayi, the PDP said Aiyedatiwa ought to be embarking on a statewide commissioning tour of completed projects rather than going to communities with token gestures.
The governor had on Monday embarked on a statewide tour of the state’s 18 local government areas to thank grassroots residents and galvanise support for President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Ajayi said the tour was an indication that the government has lost direction with misplaced priorities and has also failed to understand the real mandate of leadership.
According to the statement, “Across the length and breadth of the state, public schools are collapsing, healthcare facilities are in a state of ruin, roads have become death traps, and civil servants and pensioners continue to suffer under harsh economic realities. These are the issues crying for attention, not staged tours and festive rhetoric.
“Beyond press statements announcing the flagging off of projects, the reality on the ground is that none of these projects is up to twenty per cent completion, with the slowest execution pace Ondo State has witnessed in its recent history. Governance has been reduced to propaganda optics and public relations, while development has been completely abandoned.”
It described the tour as misplaced and inappropriate two years into Aiyedatiwa’s tenure as substantive governor.
The PDP said that after two years in office, the governor ought to account for funds accrued to the state, including federal allocations, internally generated revenue and special intervention funds.
It said residents of the State deserve tangible development outcomes such as functional schools, well-equipped hospitals, motorable roads, job creation and economic revitalisation.
Also, the party questioned the pace of project execution by the current administration, stating that projects announced by the government are allegedly far from completion, with contractors absent from sites in many cases.
It described the thank-you tour as a reflection of misplaced priorities, maintaining that governance should focus on delivering results rather than public relations activities.
The opposition party called on the governor to provide explanations for stalled projects and the continued decay of public infrastructure despite what it described as steady inflows of funds to the state.
It insisted that Ondo State deserves accountable leadership and effective governance, not what it termed charity politics, urging the government to address pressing developmental challenges facing the State.
