Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has disputed President Bola Tinubu’s assertion that the Federal Government disbursed N570 billion to the 36 states of the Federation. In a newsletter published on the official Oyo State website on Thursday, Makinde clarified that the reported funds were not a direct allocation from the Federal Government.
Makinde explained that the funds received by the states were actually from the World Bank’s COVID-19 Recovery program, with the Federal Government acting as an intermediary. He emphasized that the funding was contingent on what the states had already spent on COVID-19 initiatives, meaning the World Bank was reimbursing the states for their expenditures during the pandemic.
Makinde stated, “I responded to a question from a concerned citizen of Oyo State regarding the claim that the Federal Government ‘gave’ states over N570 billion as some kind of ‘hardship fund’ for citizens. Let me state categorically that this is yet another case of misrepresentation of facts. The said funds were part of the World Bank-assisted NG-CARES project—a Programme for Results intervention.”
Makinde’s remarks came in response to President Tinubu’s recent address to the nation, where he claimed that his administration had disbursed more than N570 billion to the states to support livelihood initiatives and that 600,000 nano-businesses had benefited from nano-grants, with an additional 400,000 more expected to benefit.
