Grant Aregbesola loan at your own risk, Omisore warns banks
Senator Christopher
Iyiola Omisore was the Deputy Governor of Osun State between 1999 and
2001. He was chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation. He is a
gubernatorial aspirant in the state on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). In an interview with journalists in Osogbo,
Omisore spoke about his ambition to rescue the state, just as he berated
the policies of incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola, which led to a
budget deficit of about 72.9%. MICHAEL OLANREWAJU was there. Excerpts:
Sir, can you tell us the roll call of dignitaries that will attend your declaration to contest the 2014 guber election?
The PDP is the largest party in Nigeria today. All the same and despite all the hoax and attempts by the other parties, they are still far from matching PDP’s strength. So, you should expect PDP from all walks of life in the country including those in government and the party. The people that are in the government, local, state and federal government, even senators are to grace the occasion.
What strategy do you want to use to emerge as the candidate of the party in the forthcoming primaries in the state?
The issue of emerging as candidate at the primaries, I have said several times that I’m relying on my network, my grassroots’ support, my antecedents, my experience and integrity among the party members and followership to emerge as the candidate of the party in the state.
You are a member of the Afenifere, what exactly is the position of Yoruba leaders and in particular, Yoruba Renewal Group (ARG) on the 2015 elections?
Let me reiterate that Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) is fake. Comrade Wale Oshun who is their leader was expelled by Papa Abraham Adesanya before he died. We were all at the meeting when he was expelled. So, how can an expelled person come and create another fake ARG. I’ve told them there is nothing like Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). What we have is just Afenifere. Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) is a group of fake people who were expelled from Afenifere by our leadership and they decided to parade themselves and deceive Nigerians and Yorubas. Afenifere itself, we still have our interest in it. We supported the national confab of the federal government because it has been our wish for the past 50 years that Nigeria must come to talk on the table. If they are not talking to us, we want to talk. By extension, we are supporting what we have for 2015.
Your campaign organisation had applied to use Nelson Mandela Freedom Park for your declaration. My question is: will you feel comfortable using the structure that was put in place by your opponent for your campaign?
The freedom park is a railway bay. So, the authority to hire it out belongs to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) under the Ministry of Transport. So, it was just out of the magnanimity of the federal government that it allowed Osun State Government access to it in the first instance. And when you are a tenant in a place, that does not stop you from allowing the landlord to use the place if need be. Then, the issue of someone repairing or beautifying railway does not arise.
Aregbesola inherited the Government House where he is living now. Did he bring his own house from Lagos? So, everything is built with Osun State people’s money. The road he is passing was done by another government. So everything he does today is the people’s money and we are all free to do it and we have access to it. It is only lack of proper education and orientation that can make people think that they don’t have access to the facilities provided by government. Jonathan is using Nigeria’s money to provide power for the people. So anything done by the government of the day is meant to last for the people. It is our property and we have the right to use it. I also want to correct the impression that collection of toll at the park is illegal. The place belongs to the Nigerian Railway Corporation and we are not supposed to pay to access it.
There is this impression that you rely on the federal might to win the election in the state, how true is it?
There is nothing like federal might. What is important to us is that we want a free, fair, convincing and acceptable election in Osun State. People are afraid because of Aregbesola’s antecedents of rigging. Remember what he did in Ondo State where people were arrested. The latest is in Anambra where people were also arrested. People are now wondering ‘what will happen to us in the state if he is sending riggers to other states’ or sending rigging ambassadors to other states? So, people are afraid that he wants to rig the election compulsorily by August, and we are going to resist that maximally. Aregbesola’s main rigging strategists is Osun REC, Mr. Akeju which we have established to court that he was a staff of (Bola )Tnubu and is an APC card carrying member. Up till date, Akeju is still forcing himself on Osun State INEC. He wants to come and conduct elections here, but this time around, we will not allow him to rig the election anymore, and this is a note of warning to Aregbesola and Akeju to adhere to the court’s ruling.
Is it true that you succeeded in pocketing the State Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state?
The issue of pocketing PDP in my state does not arise at all. PDP is a democratic party and you are all aware of that. PDP does not belong to anybody. PDP belongs to Nigerians. PDP was not formed to fight or counter anybody, unlike APC that was formed to fight PDP. PDP was formed to unite Nigerians and so, there is nothing like pocketing anybody. It is about the number of followers behind you. It is about experience, good network, perseverance, integrity and courage over the years. The party structure in Osun state is there and it will be hard to change that structure. All other aspirants are just coming into the structure.
So we are not pocketing anybody, but the people of the state, particularly the PDP members know who and who we are and that is why we are where we are. I can assure you that we are going to witness a clearest, freest and fairest primary that has never been experienced before. Look at our last congress on March 19, 2012 where the current state executives were elected. That is how to produce an executive body that is united. It should be known to everybody that when you are trying to get a position, there is vacancy for only one post and the only way to make it credible is to be fair and transparent, which the executive of PDP will ensure from the top to the bottom by God’s grace.
You mention that you are on a rescue mission now what are the alternative agenda and your manifesto for the people of the state?
Part of the rescue mission includes the issue of debt, because the finances of every state matters in governance. As at today, the 2013 budget of Aregbesola has a deficit of 72.97 percent. That means that you have budgeted N100, out of which you don’t have N70 to spend. In 2014, he has a deficit of 67.40percent in the budget. The multilateral debts and the bonds we have in Osun state is N51.08 billion. The total debt is N413 billion, with the multilateral and bond issues, exclusive of other things. It means Osun state owes 150 percent of Ondo state debt and 300 percent of Ogun state debt and these two states have about 60 percent more revenue than Osun state.
With our multilateral, bilateral and bond issues alone, apart from the local debts, Osun state is owing more than Ondo state which is oil producing and has more revenue than our state. So, we are in total crisis. And the standard of PDP when I was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation is that my deficit must not be more than three percent every year. I ensure that maximum deficit was three percent. But in Osun State now, it is now 72.97 percent. So, you can see that we are in serious problem. With my experience in budgeting, I know that the entire product of any factory depends on what you have on ground, and if as at today, you have almost everything as deficit, I wonder where you want to go from there.
And of course, the regular things you see for example in education; recently, the cultists in one school clashed in Ejigbo. About a month ago, students attacked a principal at Ejigbo and these are issues emanating from merging Paul with Solomon and Solomon with Hammed. You know we pride ourselves as leading in education and we attach importance to our identities. Before now, St. Charles’ uniform was black and white; Aderogba High School was green and blue. Those were the identity you see on the streets. The identity gives pride and confidence to the people learning and gives behaviour too. Because all these students will not want to misbehave knowing that the bad behaviour will be attached and traced to their school.
Now that the uniform is the same they behave anyhow knowing full well that it will not be traced to them. So, it is already a problem to us. If we return school back to their uniforms, everybody will bear their identity and maintain order. We all co-exist in this state before now. There is no need to cause confusion among these students in the name of making them feel like one and all the noise about merger schools. We are yet to see any difference. An average class today is about 80 students and more in some places. UNESCO says it should not be more than 45 students per class. It is just like taking studies under the trees or under the sun. Of course, the students must have already trekked about two or three kilometers to school. We have a lot of drop outs, thugs, motor-park boys and the people become recalcitrant. And of course the economy of the place cannot carry parents giving their children N100 every day to go to school. UNESCO also says that the children must not trek more than one kilometer to go to school in this country. So we are in a serious problem as far as education is concerned in this state.
When you go to health sector, there is no additional institution to health facilities as we speak today, either tertiary, primary or secondary. Proper diagnosis is not even done. Whether it is prostate cancer or pelvic cancer, they don’t even know. The economy of this state is in comatose. Every penny spent here is from Lagos because the artisans and everybody is working in Lagos. So the wealth creation and the economy are already in bad shape. At the end of the day, we have a problem in our hand.
When you say employment, every parent wants their children to go to school up to tertiary level so that they can get gainful employment and dignified jobs, not the kind of OYES we have on the streets today where they are degrading and dehumanizing our youths. What kind of future do they want to give to these youths? Assuming Aregbesola started his career as OYES, he won’t be governor today. That is it and he is busy ruining these people’s future and career. If you can employ them, employ them in their right qualification and capacity.If you cannot, empower them to go or leave them to go and get better ones elsewhere. All these are political deceptions.
The idea is propaganda, deceiving our people everywhere. I’ve said it before; the Ede water head works through which water is supply in the state supplies 18 local governments. The last investment there was the one that yielded three billion naira to do the water pump, electricity and everything. Since that time, there has not been additional thing done to water supply in this state. All you see is road construction of federal government roads highly inflated for financial and deceptive reasons. Take Osogbo to Kwara road for instance, this contract was awarded to the federal ministry of works in 2011 at N8.9 billion, but Aregbesola gave it at N19.7 billion and stole N10 billion. When you go to Gbongan junction, all these are federal government roads and the money will be refunded back to Aregbesola. He is not spending any money. Let him go to do Iwo – Osogbo, it is a major problem in this state.
There are many other inter-city roads in this state. The road originally designed from Sekona to Gbongan junction was cost at N13 billion. I approved that one in my budget in 2010 and I have the documents, I called it section 1, section 2 and section 3. The title of the project is section 1Gbongan junction to Sekona, Section 2, Sekona to Osogbo, and section 3, Osogbo to Kwara boundary. So he is doing nothing and he knows.
All the schools they are building now, as at today, they have just built 11 schools, after destroying more than 1000 schools built before. Now, they cannot catch up, they are trying to repair the old schools by force. The communities were insisting that they should not destroy their schools. So, in fact, they are been driven by the money they can get into their pockets. The costing of the whole thing shows that even the uniform project was just a way to make money. If they start doing small uniforms, he will not make much money. That is why they have to change the uniforms to one which cost N2, 400 per student. Multiply N200 gain by 200,000 students in Osun state, you will see how many billions.
Look at the computer tablet “Opon-Imo”, he promised to give the students, as at today, we only have 900 Opon-Imo through-outs the whole state. I’m sure all of you have children, have you seen Opon-Imo all over. He launched it with N8billion and gave it to his son Kabiru to do the design. So these are the problems we’re having.
Now talking about manifestoes, for me, I will restructure the education; provide gainful and genuine employment for the youths, there will be agriculture, health sector reforms, genuine wealth creation, and human-faced infrastructure development in the state, environmental sanitation, and security including water and food. All these are the cardinal programmes of the government that is coming in 2014, to take care of everybody and make everybody look like human beings.
Do you have an idea as at January 2014, the debt profile of the state? Especially if you win the election and dislodge the incumbent governor, do you think this debt will disturb your programmes and projects?
On the issue of programmes and projects, government is a continuum. You don’t have to continue from where one governor stops, you just have to move ahead. So if there are issues to address based on over-inflation, pricing, or un-budgeted provisions, we will find a way around it in the best interest of Osun people, so as not to stall, stagnate or destroy the state.
On the issue of alternative agenda, the budget deficit and the other debts, what they are borrowing now; all the multilateral bonds they are borrowings is for the future. S, along the line, Osun state government will now find a way of taking what belongs to them, where they will give them an overall package. But the local banks that they are owing, I’m warning those banks, any bank that does not collect their money before the end of August will have themselves to blame. They still have time to collect their money back. If they still continue to do such borrowings, it is at their detriment.
What will you do if the INEC and the federal government fail to change Akeju as the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) because the argument that they are putting up is that the INEC has appealed against the suit and judgment has not yet been delivered on the appeal.
It is unfortunate that the section of the law that appoints Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) says that any electoral officer that has a semblance of doubt, should not be allowed to conduct election because if such a person is allowed, it is going to bring crisis to the state because all the parties in this state may want to reject the exercise. In case of Osun State, we will not allowed Akeju to conduct 2014 election in the state because we don’t have confidence in his headship and we shall do all possible within our power to seek his removal from the state.
The PDP is the largest party in Nigeria today. All the same and despite all the hoax and attempts by the other parties, they are still far from matching PDP’s strength. So, you should expect PDP from all walks of life in the country including those in government and the party. The people that are in the government, local, state and federal government, even senators are to grace the occasion.
What strategy do you want to use to emerge as the candidate of the party in the forthcoming primaries in the state?
The issue of emerging as candidate at the primaries, I have said several times that I’m relying on my network, my grassroots’ support, my antecedents, my experience and integrity among the party members and followership to emerge as the candidate of the party in the state.
You are a member of the Afenifere, what exactly is the position of Yoruba leaders and in particular, Yoruba Renewal Group (ARG) on the 2015 elections?
Let me reiterate that Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) is fake. Comrade Wale Oshun who is their leader was expelled by Papa Abraham Adesanya before he died. We were all at the meeting when he was expelled. So, how can an expelled person come and create another fake ARG. I’ve told them there is nothing like Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). What we have is just Afenifere. Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) is a group of fake people who were expelled from Afenifere by our leadership and they decided to parade themselves and deceive Nigerians and Yorubas. Afenifere itself, we still have our interest in it. We supported the national confab of the federal government because it has been our wish for the past 50 years that Nigeria must come to talk on the table. If they are not talking to us, we want to talk. By extension, we are supporting what we have for 2015.
Your campaign organisation had applied to use Nelson Mandela Freedom Park for your declaration. My question is: will you feel comfortable using the structure that was put in place by your opponent for your campaign?
The freedom park is a railway bay. So, the authority to hire it out belongs to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) under the Ministry of Transport. So, it was just out of the magnanimity of the federal government that it allowed Osun State Government access to it in the first instance. And when you are a tenant in a place, that does not stop you from allowing the landlord to use the place if need be. Then, the issue of someone repairing or beautifying railway does not arise.
Aregbesola inherited the Government House where he is living now. Did he bring his own house from Lagos? So, everything is built with Osun State people’s money. The road he is passing was done by another government. So everything he does today is the people’s money and we are all free to do it and we have access to it. It is only lack of proper education and orientation that can make people think that they don’t have access to the facilities provided by government. Jonathan is using Nigeria’s money to provide power for the people. So anything done by the government of the day is meant to last for the people. It is our property and we have the right to use it. I also want to correct the impression that collection of toll at the park is illegal. The place belongs to the Nigerian Railway Corporation and we are not supposed to pay to access it.
There is this impression that you rely on the federal might to win the election in the state, how true is it?
There is nothing like federal might. What is important to us is that we want a free, fair, convincing and acceptable election in Osun State. People are afraid because of Aregbesola’s antecedents of rigging. Remember what he did in Ondo State where people were arrested. The latest is in Anambra where people were also arrested. People are now wondering ‘what will happen to us in the state if he is sending riggers to other states’ or sending rigging ambassadors to other states? So, people are afraid that he wants to rig the election compulsorily by August, and we are going to resist that maximally. Aregbesola’s main rigging strategists is Osun REC, Mr. Akeju which we have established to court that he was a staff of (Bola )Tnubu and is an APC card carrying member. Up till date, Akeju is still forcing himself on Osun State INEC. He wants to come and conduct elections here, but this time around, we will not allow him to rig the election anymore, and this is a note of warning to Aregbesola and Akeju to adhere to the court’s ruling.
Is it true that you succeeded in pocketing the State Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state?
The issue of pocketing PDP in my state does not arise at all. PDP is a democratic party and you are all aware of that. PDP does not belong to anybody. PDP belongs to Nigerians. PDP was not formed to fight or counter anybody, unlike APC that was formed to fight PDP. PDP was formed to unite Nigerians and so, there is nothing like pocketing anybody. It is about the number of followers behind you. It is about experience, good network, perseverance, integrity and courage over the years. The party structure in Osun state is there and it will be hard to change that structure. All other aspirants are just coming into the structure.
So we are not pocketing anybody, but the people of the state, particularly the PDP members know who and who we are and that is why we are where we are. I can assure you that we are going to witness a clearest, freest and fairest primary that has never been experienced before. Look at our last congress on March 19, 2012 where the current state executives were elected. That is how to produce an executive body that is united. It should be known to everybody that when you are trying to get a position, there is vacancy for only one post and the only way to make it credible is to be fair and transparent, which the executive of PDP will ensure from the top to the bottom by God’s grace.
You mention that you are on a rescue mission now what are the alternative agenda and your manifesto for the people of the state?
Part of the rescue mission includes the issue of debt, because the finances of every state matters in governance. As at today, the 2013 budget of Aregbesola has a deficit of 72.97 percent. That means that you have budgeted N100, out of which you don’t have N70 to spend. In 2014, he has a deficit of 67.40percent in the budget. The multilateral debts and the bonds we have in Osun state is N51.08 billion. The total debt is N413 billion, with the multilateral and bond issues, exclusive of other things. It means Osun state owes 150 percent of Ondo state debt and 300 percent of Ogun state debt and these two states have about 60 percent more revenue than Osun state.
With our multilateral, bilateral and bond issues alone, apart from the local debts, Osun state is owing more than Ondo state which is oil producing and has more revenue than our state. So, we are in total crisis. And the standard of PDP when I was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation is that my deficit must not be more than three percent every year. I ensure that maximum deficit was three percent. But in Osun State now, it is now 72.97 percent. So, you can see that we are in serious problem. With my experience in budgeting, I know that the entire product of any factory depends on what you have on ground, and if as at today, you have almost everything as deficit, I wonder where you want to go from there.
And of course, the regular things you see for example in education; recently, the cultists in one school clashed in Ejigbo. About a month ago, students attacked a principal at Ejigbo and these are issues emanating from merging Paul with Solomon and Solomon with Hammed. You know we pride ourselves as leading in education and we attach importance to our identities. Before now, St. Charles’ uniform was black and white; Aderogba High School was green and blue. Those were the identity you see on the streets. The identity gives pride and confidence to the people learning and gives behaviour too. Because all these students will not want to misbehave knowing that the bad behaviour will be attached and traced to their school.
Now that the uniform is the same they behave anyhow knowing full well that it will not be traced to them. So, it is already a problem to us. If we return school back to their uniforms, everybody will bear their identity and maintain order. We all co-exist in this state before now. There is no need to cause confusion among these students in the name of making them feel like one and all the noise about merger schools. We are yet to see any difference. An average class today is about 80 students and more in some places. UNESCO says it should not be more than 45 students per class. It is just like taking studies under the trees or under the sun. Of course, the students must have already trekked about two or three kilometers to school. We have a lot of drop outs, thugs, motor-park boys and the people become recalcitrant. And of course the economy of the place cannot carry parents giving their children N100 every day to go to school. UNESCO also says that the children must not trek more than one kilometer to go to school in this country. So we are in a serious problem as far as education is concerned in this state.
When you go to health sector, there is no additional institution to health facilities as we speak today, either tertiary, primary or secondary. Proper diagnosis is not even done. Whether it is prostate cancer or pelvic cancer, they don’t even know. The economy of this state is in comatose. Every penny spent here is from Lagos because the artisans and everybody is working in Lagos. So the wealth creation and the economy are already in bad shape. At the end of the day, we have a problem in our hand.
When you say employment, every parent wants their children to go to school up to tertiary level so that they can get gainful employment and dignified jobs, not the kind of OYES we have on the streets today where they are degrading and dehumanizing our youths. What kind of future do they want to give to these youths? Assuming Aregbesola started his career as OYES, he won’t be governor today. That is it and he is busy ruining these people’s future and career. If you can employ them, employ them in their right qualification and capacity.If you cannot, empower them to go or leave them to go and get better ones elsewhere. All these are political deceptions.
The idea is propaganda, deceiving our people everywhere. I’ve said it before; the Ede water head works through which water is supply in the state supplies 18 local governments. The last investment there was the one that yielded three billion naira to do the water pump, electricity and everything. Since that time, there has not been additional thing done to water supply in this state. All you see is road construction of federal government roads highly inflated for financial and deceptive reasons. Take Osogbo to Kwara road for instance, this contract was awarded to the federal ministry of works in 2011 at N8.9 billion, but Aregbesola gave it at N19.7 billion and stole N10 billion. When you go to Gbongan junction, all these are federal government roads and the money will be refunded back to Aregbesola. He is not spending any money. Let him go to do Iwo – Osogbo, it is a major problem in this state.
There are many other inter-city roads in this state. The road originally designed from Sekona to Gbongan junction was cost at N13 billion. I approved that one in my budget in 2010 and I have the documents, I called it section 1, section 2 and section 3. The title of the project is section 1Gbongan junction to Sekona, Section 2, Sekona to Osogbo, and section 3, Osogbo to Kwara boundary. So he is doing nothing and he knows.
All the schools they are building now, as at today, they have just built 11 schools, after destroying more than 1000 schools built before. Now, they cannot catch up, they are trying to repair the old schools by force. The communities were insisting that they should not destroy their schools. So, in fact, they are been driven by the money they can get into their pockets. The costing of the whole thing shows that even the uniform project was just a way to make money. If they start doing small uniforms, he will not make much money. That is why they have to change the uniforms to one which cost N2, 400 per student. Multiply N200 gain by 200,000 students in Osun state, you will see how many billions.
Look at the computer tablet “Opon-Imo”, he promised to give the students, as at today, we only have 900 Opon-Imo through-outs the whole state. I’m sure all of you have children, have you seen Opon-Imo all over. He launched it with N8billion and gave it to his son Kabiru to do the design. So these are the problems we’re having.
Now talking about manifestoes, for me, I will restructure the education; provide gainful and genuine employment for the youths, there will be agriculture, health sector reforms, genuine wealth creation, and human-faced infrastructure development in the state, environmental sanitation, and security including water and food. All these are the cardinal programmes of the government that is coming in 2014, to take care of everybody and make everybody look like human beings.
Do you have an idea as at January 2014, the debt profile of the state? Especially if you win the election and dislodge the incumbent governor, do you think this debt will disturb your programmes and projects?
On the issue of programmes and projects, government is a continuum. You don’t have to continue from where one governor stops, you just have to move ahead. So if there are issues to address based on over-inflation, pricing, or un-budgeted provisions, we will find a way around it in the best interest of Osun people, so as not to stall, stagnate or destroy the state.
On the issue of alternative agenda, the budget deficit and the other debts, what they are borrowing now; all the multilateral bonds they are borrowings is for the future. S, along the line, Osun state government will now find a way of taking what belongs to them, where they will give them an overall package. But the local banks that they are owing, I’m warning those banks, any bank that does not collect their money before the end of August will have themselves to blame. They still have time to collect their money back. If they still continue to do such borrowings, it is at their detriment.
What will you do if the INEC and the federal government fail to change Akeju as the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) because the argument that they are putting up is that the INEC has appealed against the suit and judgment has not yet been delivered on the appeal.
It is unfortunate that the section of the law that appoints Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) says that any electoral officer that has a semblance of doubt, should not be allowed to conduct election because if such a person is allowed, it is going to bring crisis to the state because all the parties in this state may want to reject the exercise. In case of Osun State, we will not allowed Akeju to conduct 2014 election in the state because we don’t have confidence in his headship and we shall do all possible within our power to seek his removal from the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment