By DAVID ADEOYE

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has said that his priority was to have a capable candidate who can move the state forward to succeed him.

Makinde, who stated this on Wednesday in Ibadan at the International Tourism Summit organised by the state government, said that party colour would not matter in the choice of his preferred successor.

The summit had as its theme: “From Groundwork to Governance: Building Tourism That Endures,”

Responding to critics of his decision to pick Abimbola Adekanmbi, the Commissioner for Finance during the administration of the late Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, and a late entrance into his government in 2025, the governor said “what matters is competence, and provided the candidate is an indigene of the state.

“My role is to recommend a preferred successor for the people of Oyo State. It is the electorate that will decide,” he said.

The governor assured people of the state that the winners of the 2027 election would not be determined by “federal might”.

According to him, the votes of the electorate will determine the outcome.

Speaking at the summit, Makinde said his administration has put in place major policies, actions and economic enablers that would make Oyo State the hub of tourism in the South West and a major tourism destination in the country.

According to him, with key infrastructure development projects connecting towns and communities in the state, improved security as well as ongoing efforts to revitalise major tourist attractions, the number of tourism activities in the state will increase in the next few years.

He explained that another major factor that would make the state a tourism hub was in the area of continuity of policies and ideas.

The governor said that policies underpinning tourism development have been institutionalised, with structures and systems well built and ideas aligned to sustain the sector.

He added that his administration had been showcasing tourism assets and building structures to institutionalise them beyond his term in office, with an approach that was deliberate and strategic, and goes beyond initiating projects.

Makinde added that his administration has created a system where investment was not only possible but structured, protected and enduring for investors in the state.

He said that investors should nurse no fears about leadership changes, as the teeming people of Oyo State would support members of his team in the next election cycle in order for them to sustain policies and ideas that have worked out well in the interest of the state.

Makinde rallied the people of the state, especially traditional rulers, to continue to back the administration and to key into its vision and focus for the continued prosperity of the state.

The special guest at the event, former Ekiti State Governor Dr Kayode Fayemi, observed that tourism thrives only where there was structure, hospitality, clarity of purpose, and continuity.

Fayemi stated that the global tourism sector was no longer peripheral but a strategic instrument of economic transformation, cultural diplomacy, and global positioning.

He maintained that nations spend considerable time projecting themselves to the outside world.

The former Ekiti governor asserted that the graveyard of the country’s tourism was not littered with bad ideas, “but littered with good ideas that were never institutionalised or carefully executed.”

He said tourism succeeds when “the vision becomes policy, when policy becomes systems, when systems become institutions, and when institutions become enforceable frameworks that survive political cycles.”

Fayemi urged Makinde’s administration to mainstream tourism into the state’s economic planning to succeed in the sector.

He also advised the government to prioritise good transportation systems, other basic infrastructure, and effective security.(NAN)

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