PDP berates Aregbesola over alleged Osun economy comatose
As governorship election draws nearer in Osun State, new issues are
cropping up on a daily basis as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had
raised the alarm over the comatose condition of the economy of the state
which was said to have been resulted from the poor leadership style of
the Aregbesola led administration.
In a recent statement by the PDP titled, “Osun State economy has gone comatose” signed by its Publicity Secretary, Prince, Bola Ajao and made available to Daily Newswatch in Osogbo, the party alleged that the state was currently enveloped by a season of despair and that buying and selling (predominant occupation of a vast majority), commerce and all economic activities of the indigenous people has been grounded, adding that the party has serious reservation for the way and manner the state is being run.
However, the State Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro and the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Kunle Oyatomi, a lawyer, maintained that the state was solvent as all the regulatory authorities like the CBN, RAMFAC and other financial agencies had never named the state among the highly indebted states in the country.
PDP added in its statement that, “The seeming forceful personality of the state governor concealed his weakness in leadership and poor economic acumen. No wonder their concept of a virile economy is that built around selling of souvenir, table water, biscuit and sweet around a poorly developed idea of open heavens which is why it was aptly described as a Greek gift in some quarters.”
The party alleged that, “By and large, the conduit pipe for capital flight, kleptomania and profligacy currently ravaging Osun State include but not limited to the following:N500m security vote to the governor every blessed month, what is our security challenge in Osun State we must know? This is kleptomaniac, N25m food allowance for the wife of the governor for government house feeding; l.N8.6 billion Opon-Imo contract to Kabiru Aregbesola. Over invoicing of contracts e.g N2 billion for construction of 1 kilometer of road in an agrarian Osun economy is suicidal. Frequent hiring of helicopters and subsequent lease or purchase, where is the money saved (as claimed by the governor) for non appointment of commissioners for more that 9 months? Incessant visitations to the land of Cuba; Lagos musicians’ e.g wasiu Ayinde K, Saheed Osupa, Obesere etc at N50m per show and their appearances have become a routine. This is sheer profligacy; Endless propaganda on TV and Radio viz; The State of the virtuous-Omoluabi, Ona baba ona, Osun a dara, too numerous to mention; state sponsored burials; N50m, N31m, etc as the case may be; commissioning, inaugurating and unveiling of the one and same Opon-Imo in Lagos, America, Ilesha etc. With a stroke of the pen, approval was given for a whopping N100 m to be paid to a Lagos acolyte in the name of a phantom law review.
“Incidentally, there is virtually no effective leadership an interloper and usurper can give to a people he knows little or nothing about. This is a typical example of latter day colonization. Prior to year 2005 preparatory to 2007 general elections when Aregbesola was transferred to Osun State from Lagos State by the self imposed Asiwaju of Yoruba land, Aregbesola was never a known content in the annals of Osun State socio-political vocabulary. He never schooled in Osun State, he never worked in Osun State, he never paid tax into the coffers of Osun State (commonwealth) treasury, he never participated in any community development service anywhere in Osun State. All we are told is that he claims to come from Osun State. Otherwise he would have been conversant with the sensibilities of Osun people. Our greatest undoing as a people is that brazen manipulation of the judicial process culminating into the ascension to power of Ogbeni Aregbesola. For leadership to thrive, be effective and efficient, it must have vision and mission and must duly emanate from amongst the people. The most visible mission of Aregbesola is to make Osun a vassal state of Lagos. To say that the Osun State economy is in wrong hands is an understatement. The economy of a people or place is the production, distribution and procurement of goods and services as well as management of resources (human and material). It is also the totality of the financial system operational in the place in question.
“Osun State economy at the moment is not an industrial or manufacturing one but an agricultural/rural economy. It is at best a service economy. (Rome was certainly not built in a day). The major artery into our financial system remains the Federal allocation.”
Digging into the root cause of the economic woes in the state, the party further alleged that, “The distortion of our economy in Osun State is brought about under the following sub titles: Our dysfunctional local government administration. It is commonly known and accepted that the local government system of administration is the epicentre of the grassroots socio-economic development. It is the government closest to the people, the artisans, the rural dwellers, the down trodden etc. it derives more than 90% of its revenue from the Federal allocation.
“Currently, the local government system has gone numb in Osun State. For Ogbeni “Aregbesola to continually and continuously appropriate local government funds alongside state revenue is a huge disservice to the local government system. It is also akin to making the local government the proverbial ‘mere consulting clinic’. With this unwholesome situation, the economy of the people at the grassroots throughout the state has become decrepit and decapitated. The local governments are currently insolvent as they cannot award a mere N10, 000 contract.
“This is most unfortunate. For Ogbeni Aregbesola to own up on different occasions that he continues to save the excess crude fund of the local government, leaves much to be desired. This may rationalize the ridiculous attempt to surreptitiously smuggle their pervert parliamentary system into the local government. Others include: incessant delays in the payment of staff salaries-up till the last days of January 2014, the Osun State workers have not received their December 2013 salary. LAUTECH staff have not been paid their salaries for close to six months now. Sometimes, their own O-YES volunteers are not paid for more than five months. Outstanding entitlements of retired civil servants are not being paid as and when due. Other financial obligations are not being met. Denying the Osun workers prompt payment of their salaries deprives them of their legitimate spending power and by extension circumscribing the potentials of our economy. It accumulatively has salutary effect on our overall well being.
“Dividends of Democracy- most of the public office holders in this State of Osun, starting with his Excellency Ogbeni himself, the Deputy Governor, the Chief of Staff, 2 out of the 3 Senators, 7 out of the 9 Reps, 11 out of the 14 commissioners, almost all the special advisers and various other sundry appointees are either Lagos based or non indigenes of Osun State. There is the dividend of democracy content in the overall salary and emolument packaged by the salaries and wages commission and authenticated by the Revenue mobilization allocation and fiscal commission for public office holders. Lack of diligent implementation of this, is tantamount to a shortage of the needed impetus into the economy of Osun State. You will recall a functionary of this State of Osun donated 22 brand new Okada in Ondo State at the last Ondo gubernatorial election.
“Government Contracts: Either at the state government or local government level, this is another veritable platform for equity participation in the state economy via strict observance of local content input. A situation whereby all the major contracts awarded by this State of Osun are to the outsiders further incapacitates and depletes the economy of Osun State. Even the modicum standard practice of corporate social responsibility is lacking. A typical example is in the construction of their so-called mega schools.
“Cement is procured from outside Osun State, iron rods used are brought in from Lagos State, articulated vehicles for ancillary services are brought in from Lagos state, even not too technical personnel are brought in from Lagos State and so on. This leaves their Osun State counterparts who trade in these wares to sit by and watch while all these activities are going on with its attendant consequences on our own economy. Same goes for other contracts they do.”
But Barrister Oyatomi while chiding Aregbesola’s critics called on them to bury their heads in shame as the policies they were attacking has been receiving local and international applauds.
In a recent statement by the PDP titled, “Osun State economy has gone comatose” signed by its Publicity Secretary, Prince, Bola Ajao and made available to Daily Newswatch in Osogbo, the party alleged that the state was currently enveloped by a season of despair and that buying and selling (predominant occupation of a vast majority), commerce and all economic activities of the indigenous people has been grounded, adding that the party has serious reservation for the way and manner the state is being run.
However, the State Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro and the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Kunle Oyatomi, a lawyer, maintained that the state was solvent as all the regulatory authorities like the CBN, RAMFAC and other financial agencies had never named the state among the highly indebted states in the country.
PDP added in its statement that, “The seeming forceful personality of the state governor concealed his weakness in leadership and poor economic acumen. No wonder their concept of a virile economy is that built around selling of souvenir, table water, biscuit and sweet around a poorly developed idea of open heavens which is why it was aptly described as a Greek gift in some quarters.”
The party alleged that, “By and large, the conduit pipe for capital flight, kleptomania and profligacy currently ravaging Osun State include but not limited to the following:N500m security vote to the governor every blessed month, what is our security challenge in Osun State we must know? This is kleptomaniac, N25m food allowance for the wife of the governor for government house feeding; l.N8.6 billion Opon-Imo contract to Kabiru Aregbesola. Over invoicing of contracts e.g N2 billion for construction of 1 kilometer of road in an agrarian Osun economy is suicidal. Frequent hiring of helicopters and subsequent lease or purchase, where is the money saved (as claimed by the governor) for non appointment of commissioners for more that 9 months? Incessant visitations to the land of Cuba; Lagos musicians’ e.g wasiu Ayinde K, Saheed Osupa, Obesere etc at N50m per show and their appearances have become a routine. This is sheer profligacy; Endless propaganda on TV and Radio viz; The State of the virtuous-Omoluabi, Ona baba ona, Osun a dara, too numerous to mention; state sponsored burials; N50m, N31m, etc as the case may be; commissioning, inaugurating and unveiling of the one and same Opon-Imo in Lagos, America, Ilesha etc. With a stroke of the pen, approval was given for a whopping N100 m to be paid to a Lagos acolyte in the name of a phantom law review.
“Incidentally, there is virtually no effective leadership an interloper and usurper can give to a people he knows little or nothing about. This is a typical example of latter day colonization. Prior to year 2005 preparatory to 2007 general elections when Aregbesola was transferred to Osun State from Lagos State by the self imposed Asiwaju of Yoruba land, Aregbesola was never a known content in the annals of Osun State socio-political vocabulary. He never schooled in Osun State, he never worked in Osun State, he never paid tax into the coffers of Osun State (commonwealth) treasury, he never participated in any community development service anywhere in Osun State. All we are told is that he claims to come from Osun State. Otherwise he would have been conversant with the sensibilities of Osun people. Our greatest undoing as a people is that brazen manipulation of the judicial process culminating into the ascension to power of Ogbeni Aregbesola. For leadership to thrive, be effective and efficient, it must have vision and mission and must duly emanate from amongst the people. The most visible mission of Aregbesola is to make Osun a vassal state of Lagos. To say that the Osun State economy is in wrong hands is an understatement. The economy of a people or place is the production, distribution and procurement of goods and services as well as management of resources (human and material). It is also the totality of the financial system operational in the place in question.
“Osun State economy at the moment is not an industrial or manufacturing one but an agricultural/rural economy. It is at best a service economy. (Rome was certainly not built in a day). The major artery into our financial system remains the Federal allocation.”
Digging into the root cause of the economic woes in the state, the party further alleged that, “The distortion of our economy in Osun State is brought about under the following sub titles: Our dysfunctional local government administration. It is commonly known and accepted that the local government system of administration is the epicentre of the grassroots socio-economic development. It is the government closest to the people, the artisans, the rural dwellers, the down trodden etc. it derives more than 90% of its revenue from the Federal allocation.
“Currently, the local government system has gone numb in Osun State. For Ogbeni “Aregbesola to continually and continuously appropriate local government funds alongside state revenue is a huge disservice to the local government system. It is also akin to making the local government the proverbial ‘mere consulting clinic’. With this unwholesome situation, the economy of the people at the grassroots throughout the state has become decrepit and decapitated. The local governments are currently insolvent as they cannot award a mere N10, 000 contract.
“This is most unfortunate. For Ogbeni Aregbesola to own up on different occasions that he continues to save the excess crude fund of the local government, leaves much to be desired. This may rationalize the ridiculous attempt to surreptitiously smuggle their pervert parliamentary system into the local government. Others include: incessant delays in the payment of staff salaries-up till the last days of January 2014, the Osun State workers have not received their December 2013 salary. LAUTECH staff have not been paid their salaries for close to six months now. Sometimes, their own O-YES volunteers are not paid for more than five months. Outstanding entitlements of retired civil servants are not being paid as and when due. Other financial obligations are not being met. Denying the Osun workers prompt payment of their salaries deprives them of their legitimate spending power and by extension circumscribing the potentials of our economy. It accumulatively has salutary effect on our overall well being.
“Dividends of Democracy- most of the public office holders in this State of Osun, starting with his Excellency Ogbeni himself, the Deputy Governor, the Chief of Staff, 2 out of the 3 Senators, 7 out of the 9 Reps, 11 out of the 14 commissioners, almost all the special advisers and various other sundry appointees are either Lagos based or non indigenes of Osun State. There is the dividend of democracy content in the overall salary and emolument packaged by the salaries and wages commission and authenticated by the Revenue mobilization allocation and fiscal commission for public office holders. Lack of diligent implementation of this, is tantamount to a shortage of the needed impetus into the economy of Osun State. You will recall a functionary of this State of Osun donated 22 brand new Okada in Ondo State at the last Ondo gubernatorial election.
“Government Contracts: Either at the state government or local government level, this is another veritable platform for equity participation in the state economy via strict observance of local content input. A situation whereby all the major contracts awarded by this State of Osun are to the outsiders further incapacitates and depletes the economy of Osun State. Even the modicum standard practice of corporate social responsibility is lacking. A typical example is in the construction of their so-called mega schools.
“Cement is procured from outside Osun State, iron rods used are brought in from Lagos State, articulated vehicles for ancillary services are brought in from Lagos state, even not too technical personnel are brought in from Lagos State and so on. This leaves their Osun State counterparts who trade in these wares to sit by and watch while all these activities are going on with its attendant consequences on our own economy. Same goes for other contracts they do.”
But Barrister Oyatomi while chiding Aregbesola’s critics called on them to bury their heads in shame as the policies they were attacking has been receiving local and international applauds.
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