Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji has declared that he delivered on every promise made to the people during the 2022 electioneering campaign, pointing to what he described as excellent budget performance across his four-year tenure as evidence that his administration neither betrayed the people's trust nor took their needs for granted.
Oyebanji made the declaration on Thursday evening at Aramoko Ekiti during a town hall meeting with stakeholders from Ekiti Central Senatorial District, held as part of preparations for the 2027 budget. The event formed part of a series of consultative meetings preceding the annual budget preparation cycle, a process the governor has used to capture residents' requests directly into the state's spending plans.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Olayinka Oyebode, Oyebanji said his administration had fulfilled the promises he made in 2022, citing the quantum of projects executed across the council areas. "Go and check the records; I didn't betray the people's trust in the last four years," he said. "When I made promises, I would fulfil them. I did everything I promised. I am making some promises before you now, which I believe I will fulfil as long as I remain the governor of this state."
The governor's claim rests on the six-pillar development agenda on which he campaigned in 2022, drawn from the state's 30-year development plan. The pillars cover youth development and job creation, human capital development, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure and industrialisation, arts, culture and tourism, and good governance. Oyebanji has consistently framed his tenure as one of continuity with consolidation, building on the foundation laid by his predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, while initiating new projects under his own agenda.
At the Aramoko meeting, the governor disclosed that about 235 kilometres of rural roads were being executed under the third phase of the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, a World Bank initiative implemented in partnership with the state government. He said the roads were expected to commence after the rainy season and that his administration would use the collaboration to deliver 1,500 kilometres of roads across the state to ease transportation challenges facing residents. The governor acknowledged the burden of perennial flooding and gully erosion in Efon, Aramoko and Ado Ekiti, saying his government had understudied the erosion occurrences affecting the state and was on the verge of mapping out a strategy to tackle the problem head-on.
On healthcare, Oyebanji said his administration had renovated a total of 110 health centres to boost quality medicare at the grassroots, with a pledge to undertake more to reduce mortality and morbidity indices among the populace. He also expressed satisfaction with the reduction in security threats in the state, appreciating traditional rulers for taking charge of security situations through intelligence gathering and the vigilance of their subjects in responding promptly to threats and suspicions in their domains.
The town hall meeting was attended by traditional rulers, community leaders, youth representatives and other stakeholders across the district, who in turn pledged stronger support for the governor's second-term administration, set to commence on October 16, 2026. Oyebanji, who was first elected in October 2022 after defeating the Peoples Democratic Party's Bisi Kolawole, won re-election in June 2026 in a contest in which he ran largely unopposed in any meaningful sense, cementing his position as one of the more dominant political figures in the South-West.
The governor also used the occasion to reiterate his administration's commitment to fiscal transparency, describing the state's budget performance as evidence of his commitment to the promises made to the people. Ekiti has been ranked among the top-performing states in fiscal transparency by BudgIT, a recognition the government has cited as validation of its approach to budgeting and project tracking. The state's budget has grown steadily under Oyebanji, with the 2026 estimate presented at N415.57 billion, comprising N221.87 billion for recurrent expenditure and N193.70 billion for capital expenditure. The government has said it maintained transparent and effective budget implementation over the four-year period, including through budget town halls, merit-based recruitment, Treasury Single Account enforcement and audit independence.
The governor's declaration of full delivery is a political claim that will be tested at the polls, but it also reflects a broader pattern in Nigerian politics where incumbents seeking second terms frame their record as the central argument for re-election. Oyebanji's approach has emphasised continuity, citizen engagement and measured claims rather than the expansive promises that often characterise campaign rhetoric. His town hall meetings, which precede each budget cycle, have been presented by his administration as a mechanism for democratising the treasury and ensuring that spending reflects the priorities of residents rather than the preferences of officials.
The context of the governor's remarks extends beyond Ekiti State. The 2027 general elections are less than four months away, with the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, and the governorship and state assembly elections for February 6. President Bola Tinubu is seeking a second term on the All Progressives Congress platform, and Oyebanji has said Ekiti will take the President's re-election seriously, pledging to mobilise support for the APC at the national level. His own second-term inauguration on October 16 will mark the formal commencement of another four years in office, during which he will be expected to deliver on the new promises he has begun making to stakeholders across the state's three senatorial districts.
For the people of Ekiti Central, the town hall meeting offered an opportunity to engage directly with the governor on their priorities and to hear his assessment of the past four years. Whether Oyebanji's claim of complete delivery resonates with voters will be determined not by his assertions but by their lived experience of the projects, services and opportunities his administration has delivered. As he put it, the records are there to be checked, and he invited the people to judge him by them.
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