Seyi Makinde Awarded Best Performed Governor 2020

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has been announced winner of maiden edition of the Best Performed Nigerian Governor 2020 contest organised by the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria, GCSDN.

GCSDN is an organisation mostly made up of Nigerians in diaspora with chapters in 40 countries and 21 states in the country, and has goals designed to promote security and democracy in Nigeria.

The result was announced on Saturday, 19th December, and had Governor Makinde emerging winner with 9499 votes while Governor Benedict Bengioushuye Ayade of Cross Rivers State came second with 7223 votes, and Delta State Governor, Arthur Okowa came third with 4321 votes.

Out of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory were Nigerians participated, the Governor of Kebbi State came last with 5 votes followed by the Governor of Niger State who scored 11 votes.

Votes were cast based on certain criteria such as infrastructural development, prompt payment of salaries and pensions, respect for human rights , innovation and level of indebtedness.

During his address, the Global Coordinator of the Coalition, Frederick Odorige, said that, “as we criticize the falure of government, we must also appreciate public office holders that are performing well. In doing this, we shall be promoting good governance and encouraging others to improve on their services to Nigerians home and abroad.”

“For too long, Nigerians have shown dissatisfaction at the poor welfare and security in the country and we felt that it is an opportunity to organize an annual program that could promote service delivery. There are some Nigerian Governors that are very hostile and inaccessible to Nigerians as if they are doing us favour for doing their jobs. In most cases, they siphon monthly security votes which has resulted in frequent kidnapping and killing of our compatriots.”

“Unfortunately, out of the 41,983 votes cast, 712 were declared invalid because voters attempted to vote multitple times with various email addresses and the same IP addresses. Others used invalid e-mail addresses which the system filtered. The system filtered the multiple votes and produced clear results of 41, 271 valid votes.”

“We hope that INEC will ensure electronic voting system in 2023 where Nigerians could vote with their telephone sim cards from the comfort of their homes. Such a system will bring an end to the high cost of organizing elections, rigging, violence, vote buying and other electoral fraud.”

“We also expect that INEC and the national assembly will ensure that Nigerians in diaspora are allowed to vote from 2023. The Nigerian national assembly should also formulate strategies that could reserve 10 legislatives seats exclusively for Nigerians in diaspora.”

“We congratulate Gov Seyi Makinde for his exemplary performance as shown in this poll and we hope that he will improve upon what he has started. We also hope that the other Governors will also improve on what they are doing for the sake of posterity. A certificate of this event shall be delivered to Gov Makinde.