Oyo State Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, has recalled how former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo stopped him from shutting down the state’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he misses Osinbajo’s leadership and that governance is no longer the same in the current administration.

Mr Makinde spoke on Saturday in Ibadan at the 60th birthday celebration of Samson Ajetomobi, president of The Men of Issachar Vision Incorporated (MIV) and overseer of the Redemption Faith Churches. Osinbajo was also present at the event.

The governor said Osinbajo’s intervention at a meeting of the National Economic Council in early 2020 shaped his decision not to impose a total lockdown on Oyo State during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Recalling the episode, Mr Makinde said he was only about 7 months into office when the pandemic hit Nigeria.

“There was COVID-19, and we came in for the National Economic Council meeting. It was a hot meeting,” he said. He explained that Osinbajo, who chaired the council at the time, had proposed that governors return to their states and impose lockdowns.

READ ALSO: Netizens to Momodu: Obi can’t be Atiku’s VP in 2027

“But for Oyo State people, why I did not lock down during COVID-19 was because of his decision,” Gov Makinde said, suggesting that Osinbajo’s leadership allowed room for alternative approaches.

Speaking directly to the former vice-president at the event, Mr Makinde said he missed him in office. “Sir, I personally miss you in that position,” the governor said.

He added that the absence of Osinbajo’s style of leadership partly explained why “things are not really the same” in the current administration, stressing that his remarks were not meant to be political.

Mr Makinde went on to contrast his experience under Osinbajo with what he described as the rigidity of the present government, particularly in handling the controversial tax reform bill introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

According to him, governors had asked the federal government to withdraw the tax bill to allow for broader consultations, but their concerns were ignored.

“We said, ‘Bring the tax bill back; let us all have an opportunity to look dispassionately at it,’ but you cannot speak truth to power in this dispensation. The tax bill will go ahead,” he said.

Mr Makinde has been a consistent critic of Tinubu’s tax reforms. In September, he refused to sign the tax bill into law after it was passed by the Oyo State House of Assembly, arguing that it would place additional pressure on poor Nigerians already struggling under harsh economic conditions.

READ ALSO: Nigerians hit back at Umahi over remarks on Makinde’s road scrutiny

COVID-19 began in late 2019, killing millions of people globall. About 7,107,739 had died of the viris as of January 24, 2026.

Tax reforms’ opposition

Mr Makinde has always been seen as a great opposer of the tax bills. He had said that the tax bill would impose more burden on cash-strapped Nigerians struggling to make ends meet.

In December 2025, Mr Makinde diclosed that 36 state governors had demanded wider consultation on President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform bills in order to carry the entire nation along, given the far-reaching implications of the reforms.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Mr Makinde said he was not opposed to the tax reforms but only presented the reservations raised by the governors to the press.

“At the NEC meeting, we asked the chairman of the Presidential Task Force about the status of the bills, and he confirmed they were already at the National Assembly,” Makinde said. “I asked, ‘If that’s the case, why are you just coming to us for approval?’ It amounted to putting the cart before the horse.”

Mr Makinde said governors had agreed that the bills should be withdrawn, enabling broader consultations with stakeholders. “This could lead to alignment, whether in their original form or with necessary adjustments based on stakeholder feedback.”

Meanwhile, Minority Caucus of Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Friday said its investigation confirmed that the tax reform laws passed by the National Assembly were altered after enactment.

The caucus accused the executive arm of government of illegally tampering with the laws, describing the action as a direct assault on the constitutional authority of the National Assembly and a serious threat to democratic governance.

In an interim report, the caucus, led by Mr Kingsley Chinda, said it constituted a 7-member fact-finding committee on January 2 to get to the root of the scandal following public outrage over alleged discrepancies between the versions of the tax laws passed by parliament and those later gazetted.