A group in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds, has warned the immediate past governor of the state and Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to desist from “public displays arrogance” which “shows his unapologetic stance about the several crisis that his administration landed the state in”, AMILOADED reports.
The group also warned that Aregbesola “should not rub salt in the injuries that he inflicted on the poor masses” of the state.
The Executive Director of Osun Masterminds, Dr. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, said this at a press conference he addressed in Osogbo, the state capital on Monday.
He added that “Aegbesola must admit responsibility for the problems we are in today and let the people know, that he is willing to join hands with relevant stakeholders to put the state back on track.”
This is just as the group called on Governor Gboyega Oyetola to immediately plan for feedback programmes, where he will physically interact with people of Osun State at the grassroots and make them aware of the “nature of government he inherited and the direction he has steered it”.
Oyedokun-Alli stated that Aregbesola administration embarked on several “wasteful” projects which threw the current administration into a huge debt.
He added that several actions of the Osun State Government under the Aregbesola administration were inspired by “wastefulness, corruption and in some other cases, overambition emboldened by arrogant ignorance”.
The group’s director said: “It must be recalled that these issues of financial mismanagement have affected several areas of the lives of our people and are today effectively inhibiting the growth and development of the State.
“The ugly effect of this became very evident recently, when the State received a negative allocation from the FAAC, further reminding everyone of the recent profligacy-infested past of the State and the consequently slow-paced present.
“In April 2016, Osun received same deficit allocation of 361million out of a possible 2.03billion that was the gross allocation for the month. This deficit was carried over to the following month and the State had to pay the deficit by the following month.
“It brings back the question of how sustainable the debts incurred by the immediate past administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola are. We said in the recent past, as many other persons said in the past, that several actions of the Osun State Government under the Aregbesola government were inspired by wastefulness, corruption and in some other cases, overambition emboldened by arrogant ignorance.
“Several projects that were not of immediate benefit to the State, were initiated with loans that ended up being unsustainable and are today constituting financial problems for the State.
“We begin to recall now, the several white elephant endeavours that the Aregbesola government got itself into. The memories are fresh in the minds of every keen watch of the polity, but for posterity’s sake, we will quickly remind everyone of these legacies that we must as a matter of urgency, reverse and set Osun back on the path to growth.
“It will be recalled that the Osun State Government, under Ogbeni Aregbesola claimed it expended over 8billion on Opon Imo for schools. The gadgets are today nowhere to be found, after gulping such humongous figures.
“Without clear understanding of usefulness and future benefits, the Aregbesola administration expended a whooping 248million on construction of the Hassan Olajokun park in Gbongan. Less than a year after Ogbeni Aregbesola himself commissioned the park, it became home to reptiles and other wild animals, having been left unused and in a State of disrepair.
“In March 2018, Ogbeni Aregbesola himself confessed that the concession arrangement for the construction of the MKO Abiola Airport had failed, after the State Government had spent 3.5billion on nonexistent ground works that cannot be seen today.”
Oyedokun-Alli added, “For years, the Osun State Government, under Ogbeni Aregbesola also expended over 1.2billion on the O’Callisthenics programme that had neither economic benefits nor immediate gains for the education sector. In four years, Osun thus spent close to 5billion on a poorly thought-out project that it neither had the finances for, nor could gain anything meaningful from.
“The above and several others were the reasons Osun not only ran into debt, but also became unable to foot its salary obligations at some point and had to resort to salary modulation. The State therefore became indebted on several fronts, locally and internationally.
“Retrogression has been proved to be way easier than progress, especially in cases where the acts of backward movement has pushed the entity into a whole, that it now has to dig itself out of. Recovering from such retrogression requires financial and moral healing that take years to deliver.
“We will take our recommendations from the areas of moral healing and progress into financial healing that will eventually set the State back on the path of progress.
“The Governor, Alh. Gboyega Oyetola, must as a matter of importance and the very near future, speak about the State of the Government he inherited. The State’s people deserve to know why their State is in the state of affliction that it presently is. When the people can rightly appropriate blame, working together to get out of the quagmire becomes easier.
“The State Government needs to as a matter of urgency conduct a financial sustainability exercise that will look into the core areas of finances of the State, the capacity it has for survival and the steps it needs to take to correct past errors. Such exercise may necessarily include a probe of the past administration’s financial actions, with a view to issuing necessary white papers where necessary, to reprimand persons found guilty of poor actions.
“The governor needs to immediately plan for feedback programmes, where he will physically interact with people of the State at the grassroots and make them aware of the nature of government he inherited and the direction he has steered it.
“Relevant political stakeholders must as a matter of urgency, speak to Ogbeni Aregbesola to not only stop talking, but also desist from public displays of arrogance, that not only shows his unapologetic stance about the several crisis that his administration landed the State in, but also goes to show that himself and his co-travellers think that the State must continue in that direction towards total bankruptcy. He should not rub salt in the injuries that he inflicted on the poor masses of our State.
“Ogbeni Aregbesola, with his own mouth, needs to apologize for the several wrong decisions that he took as Governor. He must admit responsibility for the problems we are in today and let the people know, that he is willing to join hands with relevant stakeholders to put the state back on track.
“The present Government must seek all avenue to increase the State’s capacity for revenue generation, as a shock absorber for the heavy deductions that are now rendering the State broke. The Government can look in the areas of tourism and manufacturing.
“The Osun Masterminds take cognizance of the fact that several interest groups in the State are interpreting our efforts to be State-sponsored assault on the certain individuals. We understood this risk when we undertook the task to be the conscience of the State’s political leaders.
“However, we must state that it does not matter what supporters of people who are culpable in the impoverishment of the State think, if a person is guilty of certain actions or inactions that may have brought the State to its present sorry State, we will not hesitate to mention them,” he said.
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