On Osun PDP’s New Year ‘resolution’

by YOMI OBADITAN 

The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has promised a new lease of life for the people and the state in 2014 if elected. That is a good wish. Under the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), every individual is free to aspire to any elective office.
However, in this aspiration, the PDP has made a very big mistake: rubbishing the performances of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration and associating it with high debt profile. Another lie bandied by Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, the state PDP chairman, is that the economy of the state has collapsed under Aregbesola, promising that if voted into power the PDP would turn it around.
Let me address the two prongs of PDP’s attack. Since the last 38 months in the State of Osun there has been an unprecedented socio-economic renewal that has touched all facets of life that caught the attention of even the World Bank, which adjudged it as a model state for youths and job creation. What the PDP cannot ignore is the obvious fact that Aregbesola has done more than any governor since the creation of the state.
Alhaji Olaoluwa has forgotten so soon that his PDP spent 90 months in power in the state without anything to show for it. When it was voted out, there was jubilation in the state. The Aregbesola’s Six Integral Plans with the people have continued to be executed and the transformation there from has been profound.
On the so-called high debt profile, there is no state in Nigeria that does not owe, not even the Federal Government. However, the good news is that the state has maintained high level of prudency in managing its limited resources. It is on record that the Central Bank of Nigeria and Debt Management Office have excluded the state from the list of debtor states in Nigeria. But then, did the previous administration not borrow N19.6 billion for white elephant projects? It was the Aregbesola government that renegotiated the loan. If this administration borrows, the impact of what the loan is utilized for is being enjoyed by all. All state schools with modern facilities; state of the art infrastructural development; refurbished state health facilities, and massive economic development and many others are visible fruits of prudent loan management, if any.
The 2012 presidential election in the United States of America is a good example for us to learn one or two things on how not to play bad politics. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate could not even manage his own delusional campaign or fine-tuned a formula to sell his own brand. Romney’s campaign, scrambling to catch up after a protracted GOP primary, was not only outclassed by the incumbent, but held too long to the mistake and assumption that the election amounted to a referendum on Obama’s economic policies. By the time the candidate and his top adviser, Stuart Stevens, realized the demonization of Obama wasn’t working, it was after Labour Day and too late. So he lost woefully.
The Osun PDP is trailing the same path of Romney; instead of canvassing for votes with what they can offer the people better than what the incumbent has done they are now daydreaming, claiming that the administration of Aregbesola is a disaster to the state. You can deceive the people sometime, but you cannot deceive them all the time. The election will decide on whose side the people are.
The governor has robust relationship with all religions in the state. The building of Interdenominational Worship Centre by the state government is born out of the need to encourage the Christian leaders to hold their crusades and other annual programmes in the state. It is hoped that by so doing, they shall bring revival to the souls of the people; the various religious leaders will also boost the economy of the state through the presence of thousands of the congregants that will be visiting the state for the crusades and revivals. The Centre is not just a sudden proposal, it is an ongoing project surpassing any personal gain. It is unfortunate for anybody to read sinister motives for the building of the Worship Centre. When the Osun Osogbo-Groove was being built in order to attract tourism to the state why didn’t the PDP and their members kick against it?
The Osun people are conversant with the Aregbesola’s effort at moving the state forward; they are more than impressed by the projects that have been completed within the last three years, especially within the context of the wasted years of PDP, who majors in merry making and wanton destruction of lives and properties. The peace that has continued in the state since PDP was sent packing is incomparable. The people will never again trade their liberty, and peace with anarchical power mongers now or in the future.
Obaditan wrote from Osogbo, Osun State