Osun Budget and doomsday prediction of political tartuffes

By Adebayo Adedeji

Tartuffe is the title of a satire written by the French comedy writer, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, pka Moliere ( 1622-1673). Tartuffe parodises false piety, hypocrisy and ego of men who believe only them should dictate the moral, religious and political standards. These are the Zadokites, the Sadduces, in the Jewish tradition. Their reincarnation are the Raufists, devotees of the former governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola.

If hypocrisy were to be a Corporation, its headquarters, no doubt, would be sited right there in the heart of the supporters of the Rauf Aregbesola who see themselves as compass for economic and political direction.

Strangely, these are people who left the state economically ramshackle. These are people who met the state with N15 billion debt and left it with over N200 billion debt. These are political "compass" who obtained N16 billion to renovate 10 secondary schools when teachers to transfer knowledge in the schools were on the streets engaging in babialaism. These are people who, even while the state was lying prostrate financially and could not pay more than 20 months workers' salary, appropriated N500 million for Children's Day Callisthenics and jamboree. These are people a popular advocacy group, BudgIT, described their government as one that committed loans on projects that could not generate repayments. On the account of financial hemorrhaging suffered in the hands of these political and economic tartuffes, Osun was grouped alongside few states that exceeded their debts to net revenues by more than 400 per cent. The state, specifically, came second with 650.94 per cent Debt-to-Total Net Revenue, in clear violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. The same people that ran the state into economic abyss are the ones currently pointificating and foul-mouthing the state's 2022 Draft Budget submitted to the state assembly some weeks ago.

In their estimation, the document submitted to the Osun State House of Assembly by Governor Oyetola is bogus, simplistic, recklessly ambitious and unimplementable. They claim this administration does not have the history of implementing a pro-capital expenditure project of N76 billion in view of the 2020 actual capital expenses of N40 billion. To them, the N16 billion allocated to Health Sector to "renovate" 10 general hospitals at N1.8 billion ( sic) per hospital is misplaced and unnneccsary. They are of the opinion that the state has invested too much in the hospital (sic) sector in recent time, so devoting additional resources to this sector is not commensensical. They even make subtle attempts to set the people of Osogbo against the government when they assert that the state, which is bound to run into financial hitches going by the submitted proposal, will abandon the Osogbo Master Plan. But note: From budget of N88 billion, with 19% allocation to Capital Expenditure, in 2011, Osun budget under Aregbesola jumped to N234 billion, with 57% of it, N134 billion, going to Capital Expenditure, even though the state assembly had earlier chided that government for poor implementation of the 2013 budget. What informed the jump? What history informed the jump from 19% in 2011 to 57% in 2014? In this piece, this writer shall make efforts to address the doomsday projection of the political sadduces.

Osun 2022 Budget Estimate, it must be understood, was not induced by whims and caprices. It emanated from a series of interaction and engagement with the people of the state who, in the true sense of the word, own the budget. Following the usual Mid-Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) process, the state government held a 3-day stakeholders' meeting across three senatorial districts in the state between 3rd and 5th August this year where contribution of the citizens were aggregated and later made to reflect and define the position the appropriation bill would follow. So the budget is the request of the people towards their social, material and economic well-being.

The government of Oyetola is deliberate about changing the pejorative narration of Osun being a civil servants' state. This action of his is daily reflected in the policy framework and policy implementation of his government. He understands that the process of economic prosperity must start with installation of culture of prioritising capital expenditure over operating expenditure.

What Are Capital Expenditures?
Capital expenditures, otherwise known as CapEx, are funds used by a government to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, plants, buildings, technology, security equipment, schools, hospitals, roads, etc, etc.

In 2022, Osun is proposing to give higher comparative priority to investing in CapEx compared to operating expenses. This decision is the panacea to building a sustainable future for the citizens.

Osun's CapEx, of N76 billion ( 59% of the budget), for 2022, is an improvement compared to that of 2021 which is N60 billion ( 54% of the budget). And to realise this lofty and ambitious idea, the government is enplacing all the needed structures. It is noted that the state government, in the face of shrinking fiscal space, has adopted a custom and innovative model of financing the public projects. The government, as it is doing in 2021, would continue to deploy the Alternative Project Financing model to deliver on the key infrastructure projects in 2022. This model has proven to be an effective strategy to shore up capital project deficit occasioned by heavy deductions on its statutory allocations on the account of loans obtained by the previous government of Aregbesola. Therefore the claim of the cavilers, to the effect that the administration of Oyetola has not signposted its readiness to successfully implement a CapEx budget in 2022, is scientifically bedraggled.

Since November 2018, when the Oyetola-led government was inaugurated, many developments have taken place to suggest the state is on its way to financial freedom, nothwithstanding the humongous debt inherited by it. One: economic activities are shaping up at Dagbolu International market. Dipson Plastics Company, for example, is rounding off its project there. When completed, most possibly in some months' time, the company would be a mass-labour spinning one. It would also generate income for the state through PAYE of its workers.

Two: activities going on in mining/solid minerals industry in the state have indicated there would be more job opportunities for the citizens of the state next year. For instance, Segilola Gold has commenced operation in Atakumosa and begun to employ workers. The state has equally executed agreements with Badger Mines. The company is about to complete its exploration campaign and declare commercial valuation soon. When all these activities are concluded, the government of Osun would generate more fund to finance its budget.

Three: the government of Osun is intensifying its IGR drive. From N10 billion it met it in 2018, the government of Oyetola is now making about N20 billion in IGR. That is about 100% improvement. The target is N36 billion and one is confident that with commercial and economic activities on-going in the state, there would be a leap in the IGR next year. The positive ranking of the state as Number 15, from number 26 in previous years, in the Country's Ease of Doing Business index, is an encouragement that more business ventures, that would employ citizens and generate IGR for the state, would come on board.

Four: to bridge infastructural deficits in the state, the government is partnering with foreign and local investors and development partners. Peculiar Concerns Limited is being encouraged to provide potable water in Ile-Ogbo and environs. The PEWASH (Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) arrangement, which took off in 2019 and which has already led to completion of 41 motorised boreholes and 10 handpump boreholes in addition to rehabilitation of 40 motorised and handpump boreholes in rural areas across the state, would be given more vent in 2022. Lions Club International is establishing a Comprehensive Eye Care Centre at the State Specialist Hospital, Osogbo. Other partnering NGOs are also helping and have promised to be more active and do more in 2022. Many development partners are stepping out because they have identified the potentials in the state. They are identyfing with the state government because they are aware of the deliberate efforts of the administration to make life more meaningful for the citizens of the state. The recent Global Health Grant of $15.6 million ( N6 billion), extended to the state to fight Tuberculosis and Malaria, is a big testament to the respect serious development partners accord the state. Such grants are not extended to governments with "no focus," as some pessimists would, regrettably, want to describe the current administration.

A lot went into preparing the 2022 budget estimate presented to the state assembly and bad mouthing it on the radio, TV and pages of newspapers or inciting the House of Assembly to vary it, as some cynics are clamouring, is a great disservice. It is most unfortunate. Because one is not connected to/with a Vision does not make the vision unrealistic.

When Moliere first presented “Tartuffe” to Louis XIV at Versailles in 1664, the king liked the play, but the church did not. The king was pressured to ban it because it was perceived as a wholesale attack on the clergy. One critic even described Moliere as “a demon in the flesh . . . who should be burned alive.”

To diffuse this criticism and make clear that he was attacking only false piety, Moliere revised the play and changed the title to “The Impostor” in 1667, when it was again produced. His critics, however, descended on the play once more and succeeded in persuading the king to ban it. But in 1669, Moliere, after all the odds, was allowed to produce the play as it now exists. Since that time, the play has become popular with readers and viewers who enjoy seeing self-serving hypocrites exposed and blind zealots restored to sight.

Because the idea behind the Osun 2022 budget is despised by the mob of cynics, as Moliere's Tartuffe was, does not make it entirely bad. A time may or will come in the day when such an idea is celebrated. Osun 2022 Budget will, plausibly, prove tartuffes, zadokites, sadduces, cynics, pessimists, hypocrites and other enemies of the current government wrong. So shall it be. Amen.