Basiru: Aregbesola’s Achievements Guaranty His Re-election

Basiru: Aregbesola’s Achievements Guaranty His Re-election

Interview

Osun State Commissioner for Regional Integration, Hon. Ajibola Basiru, in an interview with Yinka Kolawole, insists Governor Rauf Aregbesola has outperformed his predecessor and that gives him an edge in the August governorship election in the state. Excerpts:

How prepared are you for the governorship election in August?
We are very prepared for it. We were prepared for it from November 26, 2010. We began to think about the next four years and this is why from that day, Ogbeni Aregbesola hit the ground running and he had run very splendidly to the conviction of everybody in Osun.

What is your impression about the APC registration in the state?
It was marvellous. People came out in their thousands and even on the last day, we could not register all the people.

Do you think the achievements of Governor Aregbesola are enough to make people vote for him again?
If you have done well in the class and you reached the level where you have to be promoted, they will promote you; they won't retain you in that same class. Aregbesola will earn the second term not because he is the governor but because he has actually performed as the servant of the people.

When the current governor took over, the state was on the edge of bankruptcy. Education had not only collapsed; the infrastructure in most schools and colleges were decayed. Massive environmental degradation was already causing deaths in numbers throughout the state. The governor declared a 90 day state of environmental emergency immediately he came to power. Road infrastructure was in a parlous state, and the situation in Osogbo especially was totally disgraceful. Youth unemployment at that time was in serious crisis, which threatened peace and stability. In summary, Osun was in meltdown when Aregbesola assumed office in November 2010.

How did it happen?
Before Aregbesola became governor, Osun was at the bottom of the scale of performance at both internal and external examinations. But today the state is amongst the first eleven across the federation, just within 38 months! How did he do it? He restructured, refocused and massively funded the institutions, employing 54.8 per cent more teachers than he inherited.

In all, Aregbesola employed 10,407 new teachers to all categories of schools. Currently, there are 12,715 teachers in primary schools and 7,848 teachers in secondary schools. You also need to understand the implication of the following financial investment in education that Ogbeni has made. Every year, his government pays ₦16.8 billon for salaries and pensions of primary school teachers, and ₦10.3 billion is similarly spent on secondary schools. As incentives for parents and students alike, ₦3.6 billion is spent yearly to feed students in primaries one to four with very rich meal a day.

Besides, ₦900 million was used to provide all students in the state new uniforms. To ensure that there was adequate furniture for students and teachers, Aregbesola’s government has also committed ₦2.5 billion naira. No state owned school in Osun had instructional materials when Aregbesola assumed office in 2010. But since then, he has spent ₦503 million providing the schools with instructional materials. Now compare this: during PDP’s administration that ran for over seven years, they spent ₦122 million on grants to schools but within three years, Aregbesola has spent ₦856 million on the same item (grants to schools).
Added to this is the massive difference in the payment of examination (WAEC) fees. Oyinlola’s PDP government in seven years paid ₦38 million while Ogbeni’s government paid as much as ₦400 million.

One of the outstanding signatures of the Aregbesola achievements on revolutionising education in the state is the electronic tablet for learning (Opon Imo), which envious people have criticised but the world has acknowledged as a model.
So far, on this learning aid the government has spent ₦1.2 billion. And on capital projects, involving the construction of 13 brand new elementary schools, 14 middle schools and 12 high schools (all brand new), Aregbesola’s government has spent ₦14.4 billion; while the sum of ₦1.6 billion has been spent on renovating old structures.

What about other areas?
In the area of road infrastructure, though some so-called engineers brandishing spurious PhD qualifications have been shouting hoarse that Aregbesola has not commissioned a single project since he assumed office in 2010, let it be stated clearly that Aregbesola, unlike some governors in the past, does not take pleasure in commissioning projects which fall within the purview of routine government functions.

But for the information of the public and those so-called engineers who look but don’t behold, since Aregbesola became governor, we have completed more than 3,100 kilometers of roads across the 30 local governments, including Modakeke. There is limited space to name all the roads here, but Osun challenges any doubting Thomas to come over and see things for themselves. What has been done so far on road projects is not only astonishing, considering the limited resources of the state; it is also unprecedented since the state was created.
We should not forget that the more queer elements demonise Aregbesola, the more accolades he gets from the world and institutions of superior assessment abilities. They know better than demonisers of Aregbesola could ever fathom. They saw a model in his OYES programme that so far has taken 40,000 youths off the streets and the unemployment market. Even the British Parliament invited Aregbesola to share with the world his approach to feeding thousands of children in primary schools across the state. And those who know its value were moved to give an award to Ogbeni for his Opon Imo.

What went wrong with the reclassification of schools?
There is nothing wrong with the reclassification. It is some people who tried to influence certain things. Whatever you have seen, either protest or something else cannot be regarded as a crisis; is not a crisis. Reclassification in the first instance is a policy that is aimed at actually transforming our students to first class people in the world. There is nothing in the reclassification that has anything to do with religion. The results of the reclassification will come up gradually and then people will know that the policy is in tandem with the best practices in the world.

The opposition said Governor Aregbesola has taken too much loans and fears that he might be unable to sustain the repayment?
Any intelligent and literate mind will know that no bank, even if the Managing Director is your father, will give a loan you do not have the capacity to repay. It is other people’s money for God’s sake.  When a bank gives loan to a state government, it looks at its income which largely is based on what you take from federation account.

Let’s take the maximum to calculate:  In the last three years, the Osun State income has not gone beyond ₦5 billion a month. To any bank, you have a term of four years. So five times 12 months multiplied by four years, that is ₦240 billion. Will a bank give you all that? No! Won’t you pay workers? Won’t you run government? And since when did taking a loan become a bedroom arrangement? Won’t the Central Bank, the Federal Ministry of Finance and or Debt Management Office know about it? Those brandishing these outrageous figures are very lazy.​

The election is less than seven months, what do you think could be the advantage for returning Governor Aregbesola for a second term in Office?
As far as the government of Aregbesola is concern, we have kept our promise to the people of the state by ensuring that we deliver on our campaign promises. In terms of rural electrification, we have also provided rural electrification to more than 136 communities in the state. In terms of our commitment in the area of agriculture through our O’Reap programme, we have provided access road under our rural access and mobility programme to virtually all rural communities in the state in order to have access to take out their farm produce to the market.
In the area of health, we not only provide free medical care, we provide free drugs, immunisation programme; we are presently rehabilitating nine general hospitals in the state. Tablet of Knowledge (Opon-Imo) is to regularise teaching and is recognised as one of the best in the world. We have engaged in serious reconstruction of our basic education infrastructure. As I’m speaking, more than 20 of new modern schools have been completed across the state.

Your mandate, which is regional integration, is to propel political development, how far have you gone on this regional integration and would it assist in the second coming of Aregbesola?
The idea of regional integration is not political, it is for economy, social welfare and social economy of our people and in this regards, it has helped us in the region. So if you go to Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti come to Osun, Lagos you will see that we are developing infrastructure and developing the economy as if it is the same government that is in those places and when you deliver on this very important mandate of ensuring that our societies develop, there is no doubt that it would help you get the mandate of the people.

Senator Omisore has said he would set aside all Aregbesola’s policies and programmes if elected governor; do you think he stands a chance?
He has said it all. He said if elected and which I do not pray for. The truth is that Omisore can never get elected in Osun State again and so he will not be in position to dismantle Aregbesola’s policies. But assuming he has the opportunity to dismantle it, the question is that what does he want to dismantle?

Have you any message for the people in view of the governorship election in August?
They should just remain committed and wait for the best party that will be based on mass welfare and that is our party, APC. That they should resist rigging because that was the opposition stand and God will not allow them to succeed.