Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has slammed President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima over the new tax administration.

This was as the governor said he misses the administration of late former President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Mr Makinde spoke on Saturday during the 60th birthday ceremony of Samson Ajetomobi, president of The Men of Issachar Vision Incorporated (MIV) and overseer of the Redemption Faith Churches in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, where Mr Osinbajo was also in attendance.

“Sir, I personally miss you in that position (presidency). A lot of people may not know why things are not really the same. It’s not a political talk because I’m not on that podium,” Mr Makinde said while facing Mr Osinbajo.

He reminisced about how Mr Osinbajo’s intervention prevented him from locking down Oyo State during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“I remember I was barely seven months into the position of the governor of Oyo State, and that was my very first public service job. And we had a crisis in the country; this was February 2020.

“There was COVID, and we came in for the National Economic Council meeting. It was a hot meeting; the chairman of the council (Osinbajo) came in, and a few of my colleagues. I wasn’t sure whether they held a meeting before that meeting, but they came in and said we should all go back and lock down our state. So, for Oyo State people, why I did not lock down during COVID was because of his decision,” Mr Makinde revealed.

The governor, who had last September declined assent to the tax bill at the state level after it was passed by the state assembly, noted that the situation is different with Messrs Tinubu and Shettima’s administration.

He cited their refusal to withdraw the tax bill that has now been passed into law.

“But we had the same situation in this dispensation; it was the tax bill, and we said, ‘Look, bring the tax bill; bring it 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,” Mr Makinde said.

The Oyo State governor had paid a visit to Mr Tinubu on Thursday. While the details of their closed-door meeting are unclear, Mr Makinde told journalists afterward that he was comfortable remaining in the Peoples Democratic Party.