Here is a section of the 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo road constructed by the Gboyega Oyetola Administration.

Bash92:


I guess part of the good work that doe not need pictorial evidence is the osogbo to ifon Road. More than 8 years now the roads have not been fixed. The other day Ooni was complaining of the bad roads in Ife. You know why Ede people voted massively for the PDP in 2018? It's because of the bad roads in Ede, at a point 80% of the roads were not motorable.

Apart from the fact the Adeleke's are from Ede, the people believe he was the only one that could help fix the roads and that he will not want to spoil the good name of the family.

Truth be told, i prefer Oyetola to Aregbesola anytime any day, at least he his not collecting loan up and down and managing the meager state budget well, due to the frivolities by Aregbe(May God judge him). He his doing the projects he can and finishing them so that there will be no abandoned project later.

But in a free and fair election in Osun today between Adeleke and Oyetola. Adeleke will beat him. People still feel cheated because of the stolen mandate, so this time people will not give them a chance for rerun.

You are being economical with the truth. You claim Oyetola has not done any road in Ede. What of the 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo road?


Again, you hype the Adelekes as if they are the only family in Ede. Do you know Matrix Energy? Do you know Ambassador Adejare Bello? These are two of many personalities in Ede that are equally loved by the people. The 2019 senatorial election result in Ede, which is the only election under Oyetola, has proven that APC is penetrating the PDP stronghold. That APC won Osun west senatorial election in 2019 is an indication that the Adelekes are losing the grip on the electorate in their stronghold. The election held barely 5 months after Oyetola's inauguration when he was just settling down is a pointer that Ademola Adeleke will find it difficult now that his government has rehabilitated more than 20 health centres in Ede.

Are you aware some of the grassroots mobilisers helping the Adelekes win election have joining APC? Do you know Zobo Lotto? Do you know Imam? These were folks that worked for Ademola the last time. Today, they are with IleriOluwa.

badoh:
Oyetola will never pray to have Adeleke contesting against him cos he knows Adeleke is a big threat to him. Instead of you people to showcase with pictorial evidence what the current governor has achieved so far for people to judge his performance, you're saying he will win. With the current hardship in the country, any APC governor that is unable to deliver dividends of democracy will definitely find it difficult winning a second term.

Do you live in Osun? If you do, you won't ask for pictorial evidence?

Kundagarten:

Liar! You're rather praying the PDP don't field Adeleke again.
Remember Adeleke beat him the first time round before INEC shenanigans. It will be impossible for Oyetola to beat Adeleke considering the division in Osun APC.

There is division in APC but there is unity in PDP, isn't it?

Osun 2022 and endorsement galore for Oyetola

By Adebayo Adedeji

If teachers, road transport workers, NLC, TUC, babalojas, iyalojas, Christian priests, Imams, and organised indigenous religion practitioners endorse you for re-election, you do not need to ache your head further, for God has really answered your prayer. You only need to vocalise your Amens to claim it. This should be the case for the incumbent governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, whose re-election bid has become a project enlivened and promoted by all the movers and shakers in the state.The endorsements keep pouring in daily. The organised labour unions represented by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Nigeria Labour Union, Trade Union Congress, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, etc, have, on different occasions, thrown their weight behind the 2nd Term ambition of the man many have described as not only a performing governor, but also a governor with human face.


The latest in the endorsement galore is that of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW. But as expected, the cynics and the rejected politicians are struggling terribly to foul-mouth the road transport workers' open display of love for the Oyetola government. The invidious politicians who, in the years past, purchased premium slots in the newspapers and Television to broadcast a similar endorsement, are commissioning fiction mercenaries to downplay effects powerful endorsements, like that of the NURTW and other groups, would have on the gubernatorial campaign of Oyetola.

What is endorsement and what causal effect does it have on election?

Fernanda Leite Lopez, in "The Tuesday Advantage of Politicians Endorsed by American Newspapers" published in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, describes an Endorsement as a formal way of signaling and mobilising group support for a candidate. It, he stresses, is a real commitment, rather than an empty statement, that promises concrete actions by groups and members. It is an essential part of campaigning as it can add credibility and validate a candidacy. It improves a candidate's reach and encourages voter turnout for him. It gives positive optics to a campaign. It is on record that the May 2013 endorsement of Rauf Aregbesola by the NURTW improved his public rating and encouraged a battalion of opposition party leaders to join the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2014 gubernatorial contest. Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Isiaka Adeleke, two former governors of the state and PDP chieftains, are ready examples of those who joined APC because the public perception was favourable to the ruling APC. Nobody wanted to be left behind in Siberia. Everyone wanted to identify with the winning team. The bandwagon effect: that is what an endorsement does.

The public, definitive and stated preference of Oyetola by influential unions like NLC, TUC, NUT, NURTW, will boost the governor's chances in the next year's election. There is a vast body of literature that shows a strong and positive relationship between votes and received endorsements, including Erickson (1976), Coombs (1981), Bullock (1984), Lieske (1989), and Krebs (1998).

In Osun State, two blocs determine votes: the Formal workers and Informal workers. The Formal workers are the government workers ( active workers and pensioners).

The Informal workers, in this context, are workers in the structured and unstructured private employments. They are the artisans, the road union workers. The Iyalojas, the babalojas. What shaped the opinion of the Formal bloc? Timely payment of their salary and pensions. What do the Informal workers want? Projects. Road projects. Empowerment programmes. Infrastructure that would ease stress of plying their trade. Chief Bisi Akande lost the Formal, but had the Informal. He lost his re-election in 2003 to Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Oyinlola seemingly had the Formal but lost the Informal, he again lost his re-election to Rauf Aregbesola, a pan-Osun candidate in 2007, even though Aregbesola was a debutant in Osun politics at the time. Aregbesola, in his first term, had the two blocs in 2014 and won his second term election convincingly, notwithstanding the federal resources deployed by the opposition PDP. Unfortunately, Aregbesola faltered along the way. He lost the Formal but had the informal. Aregbesola's inability to sunstain an amitie with the workers, pensioners and their unions, made the 2018 election strenuous for his party's candidate, Gboyega Oyetola. The governing party did not only lose bunch of his votes in its strongholds, it also lost in Ijeshaland, Aregbesola's acclaimed place of origin.

The party was defeated in four of the six local governments in Ijeshaland to obtain 46,140 votes as against PDP's 48,859 votes. In the same Ijeshaland in 2014, APC had cleared all the six LGs, obtaining 65,039 votes as opposed to PDP's 36,488 votes. The 2018 election was a definite resentment to Aregbesola who, immediately after his re-election, chose to experiment with the welfare of the civil servants and pensioners by activating a modulated salary, otherwise known as half-salary. As at the period the 2018 election was conducted, the Aregbesola government was owing workers and pensioners close to 30 months of their entitlements! This impacted on the negative rating of APC.

But today, the story has changed. Oyetola has got both the Formal and Informal blocs. His performance is as profound as it is inspiring. In the last 35 months, over N150 billion has been released to settle pension and salary commitments. Regardless of the debt burden bequeathed to it by Aregbesola government, debt amounting to over N200 billion as at inauguration in November 2019, Oyetola government continues to steady the state to economic prosperity. Of the debt, the current government has offset about N70 billion of it. With the financial challenges occasioned by the heavy deductions, the state, since last November, has begun to implement the N30,000 Minimum Wage. The civil servants are happy. So also the pensioners.

As the government is amenable to the demands of the civil servants and pensioners, so it is closing the Infrastructure deficit. Moro-Yakoyo-Ipetumodu-Ife-Ibadan expressway, first constructed in 1976, has been rehabilitated. The project, described as the biggest construction project in the history of Ife-North Local Government, was done in a record time of nine (9) months, in line with the principle of the administration that completion time for all projects should not exceed 10 months. The 25km Ede-Ara-Ejigbo has been done. 13km Ada-Igbajo road has been done. The 4.1k Ilesha Roundabout-Sabo-Akure Expressway has been done. And according to Oluremi Omowaiye, the state's Commissioner for Works, 10 roads, alongside the 0.64km Olaiya Flyover, would be ready for inauguration by end of the year. Again, in the coming weeks, contracts for reconstruction of six networks of roads in Ifeland would be awarded.

In equal breath, the government has constructed/rehabilitated primary health centres in nearly all the 332 political wards in the state. The contract for the last batch of 17 health centres has been awarded. This is in addition to the nearly completed 120-bed project in the State Specialist Hospital at Asubiaro, Osogbo.

The Osun Food Support Scheme, inaugurated in April of this year, is another social intervention programme of the Oyetola administration that is connecting it to the people of the state. The scheme, targeted at the most vulnerable citizens of the state, is aimed at improving the well-being of the beneficiaries. Since take-off of the scheme in April, 210,000 beneficiaries have been covered. And the government is not slowing down. The government, according to the Commissioner in charge of the project, Olalekan Badmus, is planning to increase its reach so more citizens can be serviced. Badmus similarly assured the citizens of the government's commitment to sustain the project. He also indicated the government's plan to initiate a monthly cash-support progamme for the senior citizens and widows in the state. The programme would be code-named "Itoju Agba, Itoju Opo."

Oyetola's exemplary leadership is reflected in every facet of governance in the state, including in the traditional institution and local government administration. He believes communal peace is much needed if the drive of his government to attract investors is to have any headway. It took the leadership of Oyetola to settle the 34-year-old obaship tussle in Ikire in March this year. Similarly in April this year, the Owaloko of Iloko-Ijesha tussle was resolved by Oyetola, 9 years after it was declared vacant at the transition of Oba Oladele Olashore in June 2012.

In the words of Prince Adebayo Adeleke (Banik), the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, " It took the God-given sagacity of Governor Oyetola to restore peace into the Apomu Kingdom, leading to the installation of Oba Kayode Afolabi. Governor Oyetola has also resolved the issue of Alara of Ara in Egbedore Local Government which began at the exit of Oba Sunmonu Omolaoye Ekundayo in February, 2010. The tussle sorrouding the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu stool of Ife North, which began in November 2017, has also been put to rest by this government. We have been able to create this harmonious relationship because the governor is deliberate about bringing a lasting peace in the state. He addresses issues without political bias and fixation."

The achievements so far are what have endeared Oyetola to the people of the state. The acheivemnts are the reason for the floodgate of endorsements currently turning the stomach of the naysayers and detractors. The achievements in the last 35 months, no doubt, would speak glowingly for him in the next year's gubernatorial election. Governor Oyetola has worked to deserve a 2nd Term in office. And by God's grace and overwhelming support of the people of Osun State, he will get it. The trending endorsements -- the public display of affection for his person and government -- are just icing on the cake. No foul-mouthing can stop an idea whose time has come.

Osun APC and ravaging political Absalomists

By Adebayo Adedeji

Events of recent weeks are beginning to prove right speculations about a faction of Osun APC, loyal to Rauf Aregbesola, having a working relationship with the opposition PDP. Unlike before that they were hiding the fondness, leaders of the Rauf Aregbesola group in Osun APC now openly frolic with the opposition PDP, like two love-birds. These APC splinters have made themselves opposition within the governing party. With reckless abandon, they peddle seditious materials to undermine the government of Oyetola and cast aspersion at its effort to chart a sustainable economy prosperity for the state.

The allegation was rife, some weeks back, about leaders of the group receiving a humongous amount, running to N150 million, from a leading PDP aspirant. The purpose of the funding, no doubt, was to continue to sow seed of discord within the party and wet ground for the installation of the said opposition member as the next governor of Osun, to prove a point that the life, soul and structure of APC belong to them. Rather than proving their innocence of the grave allegation of anti-party, the Raufists are daily becoming more emboldened and boisterous about their flirtatious affairs with the sanguinary party that was roundly and soundly rejected by Osun electorate in 2007.

These characters are so engrossed in this terribly antagonistic geste that they do not even give regard to canonised leaders of the party in the persons of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande. Asiwaju Tinubu is reputed to be the political godsend of Rauf Aregbesola, sponsor of the renegade group. Tinubu, it is said, took Aregbesola from squalor of Alimosho, made him a two-term commissioner in Lagos before literally installed him as Osun governor. But today, at every provocation, leaders and members of the splinter group, plausibly on the behest of the interior minister, would curse and disparage the person of Tinubu. In equal measure, it has become their pastime to pour invectives on the old age and grey hair of Chief
Akande. Efforts to rein them in and make them behave responsibly as decent and committed party members have been refuted. Even when the party's National Working Committee warned that their purported parallel congresses were futile activities and outlandish, they continue to constitute nuisance in the party.

Of recent, there were multiple intelligence reports suggesting some disgruntled elements were planning to degrade the on-going Olaiya flyover with corrosive chemicals. To thwart the nefarious and beastly plan, the state security agents moved to action by beefing up the site of the construction with more security men. The intention of the schemers, it was learnt, was to create negative optics for the state government who since inauguration in November 2018 have been receiving positive review by all and sundry. It was reasoned that the admiration the Flyover, among other ambitiously lofty projects being executed by Oyetola-led government, is fetching Governor Oyetola has become a cause of concern to those who are bent on denying him a re-election in 2022. It is gratifying to know that security agents are closing in on the scoundrels behind the plot to destroy the public property.

The question: why are those made by the party spoiling for war with the intent of destroying the party? One should look no forward. It is for pecuniary gains. When the wrangling first started, it was thought as an expression of ideological differences. It was this stance that enamored a great majority of innocent party men to the "struggle." But today, emerging happenings are suggestive of the devilry behind the plot to make Osun State ungovernable to score undeserving and needless political points. It is now clear to many followers of Rauf Aregbesola that the plot against Oyetola's re-election is self-serving and impish. Many of them have begun to back out from the subterfuge, particularly after the revelation that some top leaders in the Raufist movement met with leaders of the opposition PDP in a popular hotel in Ile-Ife on Thursday, 28th October, 2021.

It is hoped that other emerging politicians in the splinter group, politicians who have never benefitted profoundly from the characters leading them to political Golgotha, would review their position and beat an immediate retreat. It is better to reconcile with the governing group now that the falcons can still hear the falconers. Journeying with politicians, who are beneficiaries of party appointments and contracts at the federal level, to destroy the party in Osun would lead to political point-of-no-return. This reminds one of Absalom.

The story of Absalom, King David's third son, by Maacah, is well narrated in the Holy Bible. Absalom rebelled against his father. But contrary to his expectation, he did not profit from the rebellion though he violated family purity and declared himself King in stead of his father. He did not only declare himself the King, he forced David to take refuge beyond the River Jordan. But based on deft strategy and manouvering of the experienced King, David came from disadvantageous position to launch a sorte against Absalom. At the battle of Wood of Ephraim, Absalom and his army were completely routed by Joab-led King David's Army. While trying to fled from David's army, his head was caught and his heart was pierced with Joab's darts. This story is instructive. It can be likened to current conflicts in the Osun APC. No more word.

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.

Oyetola, Budget of Sustainable Development and Endorsement Galore.

By Adebayo Adedeji

In September 2020, an Ekiti-born communications expert, Temitope Ajayi, had advanced some reasons attention should be paid to Osun State. In his words, " . . . Governor Oyetola is making some real difference quietly." Paucity of funds and the state's inherited debt burden nothwithstanding, Osun State, Ajayi believed, had been creditably managed under the headship of Oyetola. Ajayi marvelled at the speed in which Oyetola was turning the state around. According to him, " I have seen images of roads across the state, both completed and ongoing. Read a media report moment ago that Oyetola started 13.5km Ada-Igbajo today too. Olusegun Michael Fafore will be particularly happy about the Igbajo road ahead of his future coronation."

The foregoing is one of dozens of pleasant views informed commentators hold about Osun government under the stewardship of Governor Oyetola. Those who once doubted Oyetola's competence, because of his hushed mien, have begun to have a change of heart. Those who doubted his humanity before the last governorship election, hence felt comfortable gifting their votes to a nondescript loafer with tainted academic and professional credentials, now see him as a credible and presentable administrator. The encomiums are everywhere. And they are daily showered on him.

According to a civic advocacy and accountability group, BudgIT, in its 2021 State of States report recently released, Osun State was ranked 8th in the Fiscal Responsibility Performance index ahead of all states in the south-west Nigeria, with the exception of Lagos. Ogun was ranked 9th; Oyo was ranked 16th, Ondo 28th and Ekiti 31st. The state was touted to have comparatively limited dependence on the federally distributed revenue for its operation and thus has greater viability if it were to theoretically exist as an independent entity.

BudgIT also grouped Osun alongside six other states that have complied fully to the Treasury Single Accounts policy, " an otherwise critical fiscal strategy that gives states more control over their revenues and could help them reduce leakages."

To arrive at its 2021 findings, the group examined the fiscal health of states, using four metrics namely, " the ability of states to meet their operating expenses with IGR and VAT, states' ability to cover their operating expenses and loan repayment with their total revenue."

Does anyone think this ranking is a product of happenstance? No, please. The attestation is a result of quality leadership Oyetola has been providing in Osun State. . . . The ranking attests to the ingenuity, openness and financial discipline he has entrenched in government business since November 2018 when he became governor. Oyetola's boardroom experience, spanning over 30 years, daily reflects on how he conducts activities of his government.

In his time, Osun no longer appears in the news for the wrong reasons as we used to experience some years back. Since 2018, the state civil servants, for example, have not gone on strike. Teachers of higher institutions have not gone on strike. Students in the tertiary institutions have not embarked on violent aluta which was commonplace in the past. Half-salary, which used to be a pejorative epithet for Osun, has become history because workers not only receive their pay in full, they receive it as and when due, even ahead of many states. In the last 33 months, over N150 billion has been released to settle pension and salary obligations. The state has also defrayed about N70 billion of the close to N200 billion debt bequeathed to it by Rauf Aregbesola government. His commitment to welfare of the state workers is one of the reasons he continues to enjoy the workers' love, support and understanding. The love was,again, in display on Tuesday, 5th October, 2021, when the state teachers singled him out for laudation. The teachers also endorsed him for re-election next year. The teachers, during the event marking this year's World Teachers' Day, hailed Oyetola passion for educational transformation. Speaking on behalf of the teachers in the State, Comrade Adekunle Adekomi, state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, appreciated the governor and his government for giving teachers adequate training and providing them with neccesary infrastructure, instructional materials, remunerations, career progression and incentives to meet the challenges and demands of today's realities.

Regardless, Oyetola and his team are not resting on their oars. They are making leaps each day --- working assiduously to surpass current achievement. As the teachers celebrated their day at Osogbo City Stadium on Tuesday, on the hope that Education sector in the state would experience more positive turnaround as time went by, Governor Oyetola, on this same Tuesday, submitted his 2022 budget estimate to the state assembly. Oyetola, in the budget he christened "Budget of Sustainable Development," devoted N26.6 billion, representing 21% of the total expenses for next year, to Education sector. This is an improvement on the 2021 budget for this sector. N10.7 billion, representing 18% of the 2021 budget, was allocated to Education.

The 2022 Draft Budget of N129.7 billion, over N20bn higher in size to that of 2021 of N109.8 billion, is tilted towards capital expenditure. Going by the draft, Total Recurrent Expenditure would be N53,593,627,990.00, representing 41.30%, while the Total Capital Expenditure would be N76,162,822,800.00, representing 58.70% respectively. In 2021, 46% of the budget was earmarked for recurrent expenses while 54% was to take care of capital expenses.

The Appropriation Bill also revealed that Infrastructure, Health and Agriculture sectors are other top priorities of the government. Infrastructure got N19.9 billion, Health N16 billion and Agriculture N7 billion. There is a substantial improvement on allocation to Infrastructure sector. In 2021, the sector got N4.2 billion. This is more than 400% improvement on allocation. Implication of this improvement on allocation to Infrastructure sector is that more capital projects --- capital projects which hasten development --- would be undertaken by the government. More roads would be built. More hospitals would be built.

The 2022's budget proposal for Health is also an improvement on the 2021 budget which was N10.6 billion. So also Agriculture which got N3.7 billion in 2021.

On Tuesday, Oyetola used the event of the bill presentation to inform the assembly that contract for 17 health centres in the state, being the last batch of operation one health centre per ward, had also be awarded. So at the completion of the 17 health centres, 332 health centres across length and breadth of the state must have been constructed/renovated by Oyetola government.

Oyetola equally updated the legislators on the activities of his government to cushion the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and well-being of the people of the state. He addressed the assembly on the issue pertaining to Osun CARES, a World Bank assisted programme designed to assist the poor and the vulnerable in the state. Through COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus ( CARES), the government of Osun, it has been noted, continues to assist 3,000 vulnerable citizens with N20,000 bimonthly. This is in addition to the Osun Food Support Scheme designed to provide food items/supplements to 30,000 vulnerable and poor citizens every month. Since April this year when the scheme went live, 150,000 persons, according to Olalekan Badmus, ( special duties commissioner in the state and chairman of the committee in charge of the scheme), have been covered.

The Osun CARES, similarly, is planned to engage 4,000 semi-skilled workers next year to carry out environmental and janitorial services across the state. Workers employed under this scheme would work on part-time basis and would be stipended with N20,000 every month.

The governor also disclosed to the assembly that an approval had been given for the comprehensive rehabilitation and renovation of the dilapidated buildings of the Comprehensive Health Centre, Apomu, Isokan Local Government and Comprehensive Health Centre, Fadilulah, Osogbo. He again revealed that a Grant of $15m had been given to the state by the federal government to fight Tuberculosis, Malaria, etc. This Grant is to salute and support the state government fight against HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Tuberculosis in recent time.

The governor expressed the readiness of his government to complete construction, in no distance time, of the 120-bed ward in the State Specialists Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, even as he stated that 30-unit Doctors' Quarters built by his administration had been completed.

The 2022 budget proposal exudes hope and reassures the citizens of the state that the economic prosperity promised by Oyetola is achievable, practicable and is in sight. The hope of this better tomorrow is buoyed by the record of consistent performance of Osun governor. Oyetola, available records have shown, is not a political leader that submits appropriation bill for showmanship. No. He walks the talk and does everything to deliver on his promise. For the 2020 budget, the state recorded over 95% performance. And for the 2021 budget, as at Q2 of this year, 77% of the expenditure for the projected period had been recorded. This is cheering in view of the fact that the budget performance in 2018, when Oyetola came on board, was 58% and 66% in 2019. No one would have this public service credentials and would not be a darling of the people he governs. Osun budget performance under Oyetola is what gives a community leader like Otunba Abiola Oloke hope that the 2022 budget proposal, as submitted by the governor, is achievable. In his opinion on a WhatsApp channel of the Forum for Nation Builders and Social Development, Oloke, a publisher and prominent traditional chief from Modakeke, believed the governor meant well for the people. In his opinion, " . . . the Government of Oyetola is trying to work within the available resources, and augmenting the lean resource base with funds from international donors and local partners."

Oloke, who opined that the 27-page Governor Oyetola's address during the budget presentation undercounted the government potentials and did not give true account of the notable performance of Oyetola administration, believed Osun 2022 budget at N129 billion was not elephantine; thus there was every hope it would be delivered as proposed. This is the measured sentiment of many citizens of the state, including yours sincerely.

Res Ipsa Loquitor: Only fools will see and still doubt.

https://docpetinfo.com/2021/10/11/oyetola-budget-of-sustainable-development-and-endorsement-galore-by-adebayo-adedeji/

Oyetola and the Shadow Boxers

By Adebayo Adedeji

Each time a piece of positive news is reported about Osun State under the leadership of Gboyega Oyetola, cynics and enemies of progress are often pained and insidious and quick to diminish it with the stroke of their negative energy. At every breath, they claim Oyetola is doing well because more funds are available to him. They do not want to agree sheer creativity, ingenuity and prudence, of the Governor and his finance team led by finance commissioner Bola Oyebamiji, are some of the factors responsible for the somewhat availability of fund for government business. In tangible and empirical terms, how do capital projects, which the previous government borrowed money from commercial institutions at cut-throat rate to install, impact on the success story of the current administration? Does Oyetola government enjoy more statutory allocation than the previous government? Attempts would be made in this piece to address these questions.

First, it was the financial recklessness of the government superintended by Rauf Aregbesola, 2010-2018, that led to the myriad of difficulties experienced by the current government. The period under discourse was when loans, most times, were obtained to make some contractors and cronies of the juggernauts happy. Or how would one explain the situation where monies were borrowed without defined projection to repay them?

It is on record that Rauf Aregbesola borrowed N16.5 billion at almost 20% interest rate to renovate 11 secondary schools. He called the selected schools Mega Schools. Schools with massive facilities but no content. Big body, as the street parlance goes, no engine. Schools which later became largely unoccupied by students and were never used optimally. This happened in the period of austerity. The period the state expenditure heavily outweighed its revenue. This was also the period the teachers that would transfer knowledge in those schools were forced to engage in babialaism to keep body and soul together. This, equally, was the period the state had to borrow over N36 billion to finance payment of salary, pension and allowances. What direct impacts did/has the investment in the mega schools make/made to education in Osun State? The data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics shows the grand facilities did not have any impact on the performance of education in the state.

For example, in the 2016 WAEC results, 45% of public students presented for the examination obtained 5 credits and above including Maths and English. During this period, however, Abia State obtained 71%, Anambra 70%, Bayelsa 70%, Edo 74%, Rivers 75%, Imo 75%, Delta 62%, Taraba 61%, Ondo 65%, Ogun 52% pass rates. Osun was only ranked alongside Adamawa and other educationally less developed states in the northern Nigeria. In fact, Kogi was rated better than Osun. Kogi obtained 47%! Similarly in 2017, the state obtained 43%. And 2018 was the year of the unthinkable. The performance slid further into abyss. Osun public students obtained 40.8% pass rate in WAEC! Considering the foregoing, it is in order to maintain that the decision of Aregbesola to access huge credit facility to build schools was haphazardly reasoned.

Some of the decisions, lacking in foresight, of Aregbesola and his yes-men, rammed the state into dire straits where, for example, funds meant to be available for the current administration to execute its numerous lofty programmes are taken at source to service debt owed by the defunct administration. It is not in dispute that in the first term of Rauf Aregbesola, the average statutory gross allocation to the state government was N50 billion. Specifically, in 2013, its gross allocation was N55 billion. Note: Gross is the money due to states, while Net is what is eventually distributed to them --- after deductions (i.e loan repayment) have been made. The Net shrinks when debt repayment obligations are fulfilled. Unfortunately, while the state government's Gross allocation from the Federal Account in 2019, during Oyetola governorship, was N51.9 billion, the Net that actually came to the state was paltry N24.2 billion! Where did the balance of N27.7 billion go? It was deducted to settle the debt left behind by Aregbesola government. This same time, Oyo State went home with N55 billion, Ekiti State with N41 billion and Ogun State with N38 billion.

Similarly in 2020, more than N20 billion was knocked off, from what was due to Osun State, to settle loans obtained by Aregbesola government. According to the State of States report for 2021, the State's debt repayment for 2020 was the third largest loan repayment made by any state in Nigeria. Osun debt burden was almost 9 times bigger than the IGR in the year under review. So from where did information being bandied around by the financial concoctionists, to the effect that Oyetola government earn more from the statutory allocation than the previous government, emanate? It is what it is: concoction. Concoction cooked to smell nice. Concoction cooked to taste nice. Concoction cooked to burnish some irredeemably collapsed image. Why should Aregbesolaists continue to wee-wee, whine and cry terribly like the mythological malevolent midget over a situation enlivened by patent profligacy of their principal, an unabashed entrencher of borrowing culture?

Notwithstanding the destructive perception adversaries of current government are labouring to create, the reality is that Oyetola is repositioning the state for financial prosperity. The improved IGR is a testament to this claim. From N10.4 billion IGR in 2018, Oyetola has exemplified leadership that attracted N19.6 billion in IGR into coffers of the state. The almost 100% leap in IGR is not accidental. It is a result of measured and deliberate interventions and sweeping governance reforms of this government. The Oyetola government in the last three years has adopted and intensified the use of Biometric technology and Bank Verification Number (BVN) in its payroll management. The government also continues to plug revenue leakages by operationising its accounts into a single account --- Treasury Single Account (TSA) and by enacting relevant procurement laws.

Another reality is that Aregbesola inherited a debt of N15 billion and left for his successor, Oyetola, a debt of about N200 billion even though Aregbesola received a windfall of N42 billion Paris Club Refund intended hugely for the payment of salary and pension.

All these realities, no doubt, are well understood by the informed Osun populace. And at the appropriate time, the cavilers, the irritating quibblers, the devious pettifoggers, fabricating misleading data and building false case against Oyetola to foul the atmosphere would realise they are only but chasing their own shadow to obscurity.

https://docpetinfo.com/2021/10/04/oyetola-and-the-shadow-boxers-by-adebayo-adedeji/

Today is the Birthday of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, a boardroom guru, an adept administrator and a political megastar. He is wished a prosperous new year in the name of Jesus.

Read his profile below:

*****

Isiaq Adegboyega Oyetola ( often called Gboyega Oyetola or Ilerioluwa) is an insurance tycoon, a seasoned administrator, a politician and the 5th executive governor of Osun State. He is a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Born 67 years ago in Iragbiji, Boripe local government, Oyetola holds BSc (Insurance) 1978 and MBA(1990) of the University of Lagos, Akoka.

He was Area Manager at Leadway assurance company in 1980, Insurance Underwriting Manager at Crusader Insurance in 1985, Technical Controller at Alliance General Insurance 1990 and Managing Director at Silvertrust Brokers Limited in 1991 until 2011 when he became the Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.

Oyetola has been a major stakeholder in many big companies, including a multi-billion naira entity, Paragon Holding Limited which he served as its executive Vice-Chairman from 2005 to 2011.

Paragon Holding Limited is a Pan-African conglomerate with vast interests in strategic sectors of the economy in Africa. The company is involved in power transmission and power generation, transport, shipping & marine, solid minerals management, infrastructural development, hospitality & tourism, oil & gas, financial services, etc, etc.

The group has been involved in developments of Regal Seaview Estate, Glover Road Estate, Pearlstone Towers, Osapa Lekki Shopping Mall, among others.

Regal Seaview is a mixed luxurious estate built on a 10.15 hectares of land, consisting a 5-star hotel, residential/commercial properties and fifty-two (52) terraced houses bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

The Glover Road Ikoyi project consists of two blocks of luxurious apartments with thirty-two(32) three bedroom luxury flats and ten penthouses, swimming pool, squash court and a gym.

The Pearlstone Towers is an ongoing 15-storey complex at Victoria Island with ten floors of open plan office, a penthouse floor, five floors for parking and four elevators.

Osapa Lekki Shopping Mall has a 12,801sqm letting space for offices and supermarkets.

Gboyega Oyetola is married to a 61yo printing technology graduate of Yabatech, Kafayat Oyetola and the marriage is blessed with children.

Kafayat previously was a paste-up Artist for Concord Press, Lithographer for The Literamed Publication, Estimator for The Guardian newspaper and Production Manager for Ibukunoluwa Prints. She is a successful professional printer and Patroness of the printers association in the country.

Written by: Adebayo Adedeji.

https://infotrustng.com/osun-economic-possibilities/

Osun at 30: economic possibilities amidst 2022 plebiscite

By Adebayo Adedeji

The activities commemorating the Creation Day of Osun State climaxed last Wednesday with a state banquet and award ceremony for distinguished citizens and friends of the state whose " phenomenal contributions in the various fields of endeavour, " in the expression of Dr Charles Akinola, Governor Oyetola's Chief of Staff, "have made Osun of our founding father's dream."

28 persons received awards in various categories. The honourees included the first military administrator of the state, Leo Ajiborisa; the first civilian Governor of the state in this Republic Chief Bisi Akande, his successor Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and former health minister, Professor Isaac Adewole. The first civilian governor of the state, late Isiaka Adeleke, was singled out for recognition with a one-minute silence in his honour.

One of the high points of the event was when Oyetola decorated all the former military administrators of the state; while Prince Oyinlola took turn to decorate him in equal breath.

This year's anniversary is an auspicious and a defining moment to celebrate the resilience of the people of the state, broadcast the storied events of recent past and catalogue milestones recorded so far.

As part of the celebration, on September 9, an anniversary colloquium fielding high-profile resource persons was held in Osogbo, the state capital. In attendance were the former state Governor, Chief Bisi Akande; Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar; former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, Babajide Kolade-otitoju, among others.

Each of the speakers took turn to discuss the developmental strides in the state and proffer suggestions for attaining greater heights.

The occasion was also a moment to salute the exemplary leadership provided by Governor Gboyega Oyetola which advented at a time finance of the state was lying prostrate on the account of reduced federal allocation occasioned by deductions on debt owed by previous governments.

According to the Sultan of Sokoto, Governor Oyetola, whom he claimed he had followed closely since his assumption of office, was a deep thinker and a silent reformer and performer, who came into government with Development Agenda hinged on adequate, quality and equitable service in all sectors. In his words, " Governor Oyetola has also introduced people-oriented policies based on inclusive governance and sustainable development."

Similarly in the opinion of the ace journalist and awarding winning commentator, Babajide Kolade-otitoju, Oyetola, nothwithstanding the little resources had done the unthinkable by building inner city roads and bridging the infrastructural deficit in the state. " Some of us, " Kolade-otitoju addressing the governor, "didn't expect what you have done. We thought it would be more difficult."

On the sideline of the colloquium, Reuben Abati, who said he reluctantly participated in a physical tour of projects done by the Oyetola led government, noted that he saw in Osun State, an unusual level of commitment to infrastructure development . According to Abati, "From Alekuwodo in Osogbo, to the Olaiya flyover Bridge at the centre of the town (which the Governor said was prompted by an accident scene that he witnessed and on the spot decided to address the problem), to the newly rehabilitated Osogbo- Kelebe-Iragbiji road, Ada to Igbajo, Ikirun to Eko Ende and other roads in the state, the Oyetola touch was evident. We visited the Osogbo General Hospital, now being reinvented and expanded."

Abati also acknowledged the effort of the governor in the area of mining. He made a reference to a Memorandum of Understanding between the present administration in the state and a company called Badger Mines which was signed in 2019. Abati reported that the physical inspection took him to Badger Mines in Osu where the company is working on 73 exploration belts where gold between 200-300 metres have been found. According to Abati, the company's CEO and his officials, during the tour of the mine, took the excursionists through the gold refining process where high grade technology was deployed and a 25kg good bar worth about 120,000 dollars was produced in their presence.

Abati announced he experienced, first hand, the genuine love the people of the state had for their Governor. Matter-of-factly, no one would do as much as what the Governor has done in the last three years and would not be soundly loved by the people. Since his inauguration 33 months ago, Oyetola has defrayed N67 billion from the almost N200 billion debt left behind for him by his predecessor. The N67 billion repayment is what would have been injected into the economy of the state. Nonetheless, he continues to chart a new, prosperous course for the state hitherto known with a pejorative description of a civil service state. The government has also devoted over N150 billion to resolve pension and salary obligations without giving room for policy redundancy. The government spending which used to be hugely tilted towards personnel payment is now inclined towards capital project and social programme financing. The salutory commitment of the governor to the well-being of the people is one of the reasons the enamoured disposition is always freely given to him. This is the mood the celebrated ideologue, Abati, captured in his write-up.

In the same vein, the Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian newspaper, Martins Oloja, devoted his Sunday's Inside Stuff column of September 26, 2021 to chronicle the mining revolution going on in Osun State . In his opinion entitled " Oyetola: A Governor to Copy on Federalism" went memory lane on how mining project began in the state. Oloja enthused, ". . . . there are more to learn from Governor Oyetola who is immersed in the power of his silence. He has laid a very solid foundation for ‘fiscal federalism’ that has been a recent bone of contention between Rivers State and the Federal Government. The state has built upon a solid economic foundation laid by a former Governor of the State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

As it has been reported, in 2006, former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola got the very poor Osun State to register a solid minerals exploration and mining company named Livingspring Minerals Promotion Company Limited. With that company, the state bid for, won, paid and got ten solid minerals exploration licences and seven mining licences from the Federal Government. Seven of the exploration licences are for Gold fields in Osun and in two far northern states; two of the licences are for Lead and Zinc exploration in identified fields in Eastern Nigeria and in a north central state. The tenth exploration licence is for Feldspar and Quartz, Marble and Granite Gneiss exploration in a north central state covering an area of 200 square kilometers. Three of the mining licences are for Gold mining in Osun State while the remaining four are for Feldspar and Quartz in the north – all covering 233 square kilometers.

It is on this critical infrastructure that Governor Oyetola is building solid superstructure for fiscal federalism.

. . . the Oyetola government has assembled a revival dream for the Osun Gold mines while most of his colleagues are beating drums of war over federalism. Specifically, the state-owned company, in partnership with an investor, has established what we can rightly tag as Nigeria’s first gold refinery.

I was one of those who saw the multi-billion naira gold refinery recently. And the solid minerals sector and other stakeholders including governors most of whom have mineral resources in their states have many reasons to borrow from the brilliance that has emerged in Osun State. The local refinery company has assembled very skilled and educated miners from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Germany. The German team leader has two doctorate degrees in mining relevant disciplines.

So, instead of lamenting, the Osun State Governor is determined to change the Osun Narrative through diversification efforts in four key sectors: Agriculture, Culture and Tourism, and Mining (ATM).
The administration set out seven project streams in Osun Minerals Development Plan. In two years, the results are showing:
Commercialisation of the assets: the administration has executed agreements with Badger Mines & Pan Arabian Mines. Both firms have almost concluded their exploration campaign and will declare the commercial valuation soon.

The Oyetola administration has delivered the first Gold Refinery in Nigeria- to be commissioned soon. It’s to be christened Omoluabi - Badger Commercial Buying and Refining Centre (CBRC), Osu .

Besides, the government has concluded the resource valuation of its assets in Kogi state. This was carried out by the minerals valuation group of South Africa and partners from the UAE will set up a world class mine and quarry for Osun’s asset in Kogi anytime soon. The administration has also set up Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO) to regulate mining activities in the state.

For security of the assets, Osun state has set up a JTF to handle the security in the resource-rich areas. It has also set up an RFID enabled database and has captured over 13,000 miners awaiting the finalisation of the partnership with the PAGMI - presidential artisanal gold mining initiative.

Accordingly, this initiative will encourage the local miners and buy off whatever they (local miners) produce locally. This is a sure source of employment. This is how ‘federalism’ can work for the common good. "

If the foregoing, a seeming testimonial on a governor working silently and assiduously to archive his name in the Hall of Fame, is a tacit endorsement of Governor Oyetola's commitment to sustainable economy of the state which deserves support of every citizen of the state, Abati's explainer is an open backing for Oyetola's re-election. He didn't hide his admiration for the governor well positioned to take the people from economic abyss; same way Dr Festus Adedayo, a popular polemist, in his syndicated opinion piece " My Osun State Story," declared his soft spot for the incumbent. Abati remarked that during his trip to Osu, which he undertook alongside Oyetola, everywhere they went, the Governor was received by crowds chanting "Leekan si, 4 plus 4." He, however, admonished Oyetola, whom he described as a "man of few words and quiet mien" and who seemed to be more interested in development, job creation, making sure salaries were paid, to put up a serious fight to achieve his re-election bid because there is no way one would build a gold refinery and not expect his political adversaries not to court the venture. To him, " . . . the moment Osun State begins to talk about its gold refinery, its future elections could become war by another name. Everyone would struggle to lay their hands on the gold." He wanted Governor Oyetola to finish the good work he started.

Abati's submission is no different from the agreed opinion of many citizens of the state who affirm Oyetola has performed creditably and thus deserves a re-election in grandstyle. One good turn, they say, deserves another.

Osun finance and excitement of economy revisionists By Adebayo Adedeji

http:///s7106de57210925en_ng?link=1&client=news

Osun finance and excitement of economy revisionists

By Adebayo Adedeji

In recent times, a number of Rauf Aregbesola's lieutenants have been falling over themselves to rewrite history of how Osun debt leaped from N15 billion in 2010, when their principal, Aregbesola, took the mantle of authority, and to almost N200 billion when he exited the government in 2018. Some of the interventions are the same jaded and vacuous rhetorics the unsuspecting citizens have been fed with for years. The revision started with Kolapo Alimi, ex-commissioner in charge of local government. It was followed by Sikiru Ayedun, another commissioner in Aregbesola government. The claims of these two politicians have not only been found tainted, misleading and spurious, they have also been found mendacious and seditious. They are capable of provoking the citizens to revolt against the government. The address of Dr Adewale Bolorunduro, spanning over 30 minutes, during the general meeting of a rebel group in the governing All Progressives Congress, is the most disturbing of all. Disturbing not because of the disclosure. Not at all. Any faithful reader of Bolorunduro would not found his commentary new. They are mere rehash of his constant commentaries on Osun finance on his social media pages. However, his current intervention is disturbing because it gravitates towards personally attacking his successor in office, Bola Oyebamiji, a man of friendly mien who silently does his job without paparazzi and media embracement. Dr Bolorunduro, who I am aware Oyebamiji holds in great respect, chose to deride the person of the current commissioner for finance and with unexpected phillipic question his professional competence. Going personally when public policies are discussed should not be the appropriate style to be institutionalised in the public discourse. Political leaders should do well to moderate their emotion in order not to impair amity.

Having said that, the concerns raised by the amiable engineer and banker, who recently declared his support for the rebellious Osun progressives group owned by Aregbesola, are to be looked into.

His remarks are slanted, speculative and aimed at diminishing the good work of the present government led by Governor Oyetola. Whereas, the state internally generated revenue has improved substantially under current government, the state equally undertakes additional responsibilities which demand financial commitment. This is against the claim of Bolorunduro. One of these fresh responsibilities is the Osun Food Support Scheme launched early this year. The scheme provides food items for 30,000 vulnerable citizens monthly. 160,000 citizens have so far been covered and serviced.

Again, since last November, the N30,000 new minimum wage, from N19,001 old wage, has been implemented in the state and commensurate adjustments have been done to emoluments of workers in other cadres. This feat, which the labour unions have described as demonstration of Governor Oyetola's commitment to their well-being, comes at a great price to the state finance.

The mandatory group life insurance for workers is also one of the welfarist programmes introduced by the current government that stretches its finance. Osun State is one of the few states that have complied with the law on group life insurance for workers.

The state finance again contends with bill arising from the Osun Health Insurance Scheme. To make the health delivery service in the state a comprehensive one, the Gboyega Oyetola led government inaugurated a new Osun Health Insurance Scheme with an initial grant of N150 Million and an addition of N477 Million equity grant to fund the Vulnerable Programme of the health scheme. The vulnerable population, numbering 24,712 across the senatorial districts in the state, have been enrolled in the scheme and have, since November 2020, been receiving free medical services in the no fewer than 86 accredited (private and public) healthcare facilities in the state. So on what basis did Bolorunduro postulate that the previous government had more financial commitment than the current government? Did Bolorunduro even consider the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched the finance of the state to the limits? At the height of the pandemic, the government of Osun State made special allocations to provide health facilities and palliatives to the people. The completion of the multi-million infectious diseases diagnostic laboratory in the state university in Osogbo is an ennobled reference to how Oyetola was responsive and creative to fight a pandemic which humbled the best of mankind.

Contrary to insinuations created by Bolorunduro in his address at the referenced meeting about cessation of O'YES and O' Meal in the state, the programmes are still up and running in the current dispensation. In November 2019, no fewer than 2100 O' Meal food vendors were inaugurated by the state government. And plan is also in top gear to commence fresh recruitment into O'Yes Scheme.

Nothwithstanding the disadvantage the State suffers on the account of heavy deductions occasioned by debt owed by the previous government, Osun is doing more because the government has elected to spend its scarce resources on projects that would give value for money. Projects are undertaken based on the Citizen Needs Assessment, a World Bank scientific document, and not based on whims and caprices.

Since inauguration in November 2018, the government of Oyetola has lost N67 billion as a result of debt repayment --- N67 billion that would have been invested in the infrastructure and social engineering revolution going on in the state.

Amidst the financial challenges, as well, the state government in just 33 months of Oyetola at the helms of affairs has released over N150 billion to settle salary and pension commitment. In comparison, it took the previous government 48 months, from 2010-2014, to pay N130 billion to settle the pension and salary bill.

The previous government also had the financial buffers of N42 billion Paris Club refund to cushion the effect of whatever challenges it might have encountered. The refund was given to the state in four tranches. Paris Club refund is a partial settlement of long-standing claims by state governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) payments for external debt service between 1995 and 2002. The funds were released to state governments as part of the wider efforts to stimulate the economy and were specifically designed to support states in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers. The releases were conditional upon a minimum per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. Unfortunately, Doctor Adewale Bolorunduro wilfully left out the narrative in his address and delved into realm of speculation when he curated imaginary figures of what the state would have benefited, for instance, from savings from temporary suspension of deductions from the federal allocation and its equity in the Living Trust Mortgage Bank.

" A social affairs commentator is respected not only because of the elevation of his language and enchantement of his scholarship, but respected because of the sanctity and integrity of his data and relevance of the context in which the data is deployed. When these conditions are not met, the commentator's credentials as a genuine and sincere interventionist are shaded and cast in doubts and eternal opprobrium."

Emptiness of the eclipsing Cuban socialist.

By Ogedengbe Agbogungboro

During childhood, we were regaled with folktales about pig. One of the most popularly told of these tales is one adapted from the Meghalaya. It is between a tiger and a pig. The tiger after a sumptuos meal had gone to a river to drink water to step it down. There he found a pig equally drinking at the river. However, he could not drink because the pig had polluted the water with his foul smell. The tiger left only for the pig to run after him, thinking tiger could not drink at the pool out of fear of him, pig.

Suddenly feeling as strong as an elephant, the pig challenged the tiger to a fight. They fixed a date for the combat. To surmount the challenge, the pig's grandfather hastily worked out a plan to save him.

On the day of the big bout, the pig rolled out in the mud and in elephant's dung and in all the other rubbish he could find. When the tiger sighted him, he stepped back in disgust because the pig was stinking. He could not stand the pig's smell. So tactically, he withdrew from the challenge.

The pig and family and friends realised that being dirty was good for them, so they made wallowing in the mud their pastime. And they continue to do so to this day.

What does the tale teach us?

It teaches us never to go to a brawl with pigs and other beings associated with dirtyness and shamelessness. Siddon look. Do not join a foolish man in the fray for he will overhelm you with his foolishness. This, to me, should be a classic way to handle the country's current Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, a man nauseatingly propelled by hate, envy and pride. He has become so an irritant that only men of low prestige in his abhorable class could tolerate him

Some two days ago, without any provocation from the current Osun governor, Rauf Aregbesola had sent his rottweilers and intellectually impoverished devotees to hurl stinkers on the calm but calculative governor. Their intention was possibly to force words out of the mouth of the amiable governor and relegate him to their abysmal and unfortunate pedestal.

In their new uninspiring write-up, they called out the governor and made fruitless efforts to link him with the failings and failures of the Ogbeni's disgraceful administration.

Seriously, Aregbesola should be advised to gracefully own up to his inadequacies, and romanticise whatever achievement he feels his government recorded between 2010 - 2018.

He should be told that the more the Raufists try to call out his successor and portray him in bad light, the more they impugn his (Rauf's) integrity and the perfidious government he ran. Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola, it must be accentuated, are class apart. Aregbesola was a destroyer. Oyetola is a restorer. Aregbesola was a debtor and a brand eroder. Oyetola is bringing credit to the state. While Aregbesola left humongous debts for the state, Oyetola is busy clearing the debts owed by a fake Fidel Castrolist.

As at the time the ignominious government of Rauf Aregbesola eclipsed in Osun State, the state, according to the records obtained from the Debt Management Office of Nigeria, was in the debts of 142 Billion Naira ( Internal debt) and 102 Million United States Dollars (external debt). These debts did not include the 30 months salary and pension arrears he left for Governor Oyetola. It did not also include the contractual obligations of over 30 Billion Naira his government failed to fulfil to road project contractors. But today, with the masterly intervention of the economic wizard at the helm of affairs in the state, the debts are daily brought down. As at September and June 2020, the state's internal debt has been reduced to 130 Billion Naira and 90 Million United States Dollars respectively. The state equally has paid as much as 30 Billion Naira in resolving lingering pension and gratuity issues. The wicked modulated salary policy ( also known as half-salary) which Rauf Aregbesola's government incubated and experimented throughout his second term in office has become a history in the state because workers and pensioners now receive their full entitlements as and when due. Courtesy of Oyetola.

Oyetola, today, does not bother himself about how to pay worker's salary as Aregbesola found it difficult in his time. That, by God's grace, has been handled by his upwardly mobile economic team. He has devised a workable template that would continually place the state among the league of economically viable states. He is only encumbered by the mindless huge debts left behind by a man who has today become a butt of joke in the country. Aregbesola was and is still a symbol for mindless debt owing, half-salary payment in the country.

Whereas a decent man, who perhaps for a reason of error of commission or omission, has found himself in an unfortunate situation Aregbesola found himself, would have continued to mouth his humble pie, maintain a low profile life and reconcile himself with his Creator; regrettably, the grotesque minister of the Federal Republic continues to throw himself around like a pig with no shame.

He not only wants to always claim the glory of the successes achieved by the current government, he also wants the governor to be seen in his shadow.

Rauf Aregbesola does not want to be held accountable for all his failings in government. He does not want any one to mention the reality of his government leaving a terribly broke and insolvent state for his successor where, for every 100 Naira shared to the Osun State government as revenue allocation from the federation account, 91 Naira is deducted to service debt owed by the reckless government he led.

BudgiT, ( a technology based transparency and accountability organisation), in their report titled " State of States: an analysis on states domestic and external debt" published in October 2017 had claimed that Osun's debt situation was worrisome. The organisation chided the state government supervised by the bogus socialist for obtaining loans for projects that did not add or improve the Internally Generated Revenue of the state for the seamless refund of the loans.

The organisation claimed, among other things, that " the State received 123 Billion Naira in bailout funds -- the biggest in contemporary Nigeria history."

According to them, " Osun's spending plan over the years came with the borrowing of 18 Billion Naira to build six mini-stadia to amuse. . . its youthful population."

Despite the economic crunch, the self-styled welfarist-socialist Aregbesola continued to waste the meagre state resources on frivolities and activities that would burnish only his personal ego. Tales have been told of how he recruited 450 unofficial special assistants, largely from Alimosho, Lagos -- his political base -- to chorus the imaginary achievements of the government he supritended. The refusal of the current governor to shoulder the responsibility and welfare of these unproductive characters actually roughened the feathers of the refrigerator-technician who came to Osun with a lot of goodwill, having manned the works ministry in a state reputed for its acquatic splendour.

If Aregbesola and his hallelujah boys have got any shame in them, they would have come to terms with political reality of today -- reality that the good people of Osun have rejected them for their lacklustre performance in government and that Governor Gboyega Oyetola is now the starboy -- the starboy that is changing the negative narrative created about Osun by the obtuse, jejune, devious and unpatriotic government they ran in the state.

What more evidence does one need again to validate the fact that Rauf Aregbesola and his coteries are yesterday's men? What more evidence does one need to prove that Heaven and the people of Osun have rejected them? As soon as they began to handle with wicked policy of half-salary and mismanagement of people's wealth, the people told them in clear terms they were rejected. In the by-election held in Ife Central in 2016, the people rejected APC. Likewise in 2017, the party was rejected in a by-election in Osun west. And it was by the whiskers the governorship came the party's way in 2018. It was almost over for the party in the gubernatorial contest that year if not for the political sagacity of the party stalwarts who turned the tide around. In the election, against natural expectation, the angry civil servants and pensioners -- whose Aregbesola's policies had driven into penury, hopelessness and depression -- chose to support an intellectually barren candidate of the PDP as against a boardroom guru that the APC presented. It took the personal charisma of Oyetola and men of good conscience to deliver the state to the party.

What further evidence does one need again that Aregbesola is now a political featherweight -- who must force respect and seek attention to confirm his relevance and usefulness -- than the reality that the senator representing Aregbesola in the Senate is a member of the opposition PDP!

What further evidence does one need to pointificate that Aregbesola is now a political orphan who must lash on any situation, including commissioning eternally cretinous loafers to distract a governor who is on rescue mission to cleanse the pigsty to which the State of the Living Spring was turned by him and his grossly incompetent yes-men.

Message: Whether they like it or not, by the special grace of God, Gboyega Oyetola still has the people's mandate up till November 27, 2022 -- in the first instance. And if it is the wish of the people of Osun to renew the mandate, no man born of a woman -- including the boastful Aregbesola and his chains of idlers -- can stop it.