One doesn’t need an interpreter to know the capacity of those at the helms of affairs in our dear state. It is quite unfortunate that we found ourselves in this avoidable quagmire!
We were all told lies and fed with pseudos just because a fraction of the people wanted change in government structure in 2022. Though not with the mission to serve but to be served. They brought all manners of maladroitness to quench their thirst…they propounded theories of insufficient statistics to hoodwink members of the public in order to ascend power. Instead of going for capacity, competence and integrity, they chased other routes that plunged us as an entity, as they resolved for mediocrity, ineptness and gross incompetence that was too obvious to ignore.
When they were canvassing for support and seeking for undeserved votes from the electorate, they told several lies and brainwashed the good people of the state into believing falsehoods just because they wanted to govern them at all cost. They pledged to turn Osun State to an eldorado, reposition the economy by bringing local and foreign investors to the state. They went as far as cajoling the innocent citizens of an upsurge in the state Internally Generated Revenue, IGR to unimaginable status, lo and behold, the reverse has been the case, instead, the state IGR remains the least in the entire Southwestern Nigeria as the state failed woefully under them to attract a single investment be it local or foreign since they assumed office.
It is no longer news that the allocation of Osun State like other states has tripled if not more, since the official removal of subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023, but it is regrettably disheartened that no effect of such in the life of the state other than cosmetic decorations aimed at deceiving the residents of the state. Alas! Our dear state has been taken far back considering the wastages and lack of political will and competence to deliver the much desired needs on the democratic dividends, and the need to meet the people’s yearnings by the incumbent government has practically become impasse.
As of today, the state is receiving triple allocation amounting to seven to eight billion naira every month since the subsidy removal, but nothing reasonable to show for it by the Adeleke administration. It is on record that since November, 2022 that the incumbent government took over the mantle of the state’s affairs, Osun State had gotten nothing less than 600 billion naira from all sources but yet the state government had done nothing meaningful to justify these humongous resources, instead, our commonwealths are centered on frivolities as manifested in the crazy resources budgeted and expended in the Office of the Governor thus far.
No doubt, as at today in Osun State, the only unit or section in government that performed creditably is the Governor’s Office where a unit of a computer laptop is purchased for millions of naira; where over 19 billion naira was expended carelessly in the Governor’s Office in 2023 after same was reviewed from 6 billion naira initially budgeted by the immediate past Governor Adegboyega Oyetola but later increased to 13 billion naira by Governor Adeleke’s government whereas over 19 billion naira was eventually expended.
Same thing in 2024, where Governor Adeleke, through his office, reportedly expended 24.5 billion far above the budget of 13 billion naira captured in the appropriation to cater of his office. It is surprising to know that the incumbent government had budgeted a whooping sum of 38 billion naira as expected expenditure in the Governor’s Office for the year 2025 at the expense of other sectors such as education, agriculture, commerce and industry, health and human capacity building and development etc.
Today, Osun remains the only state in the Southwest geopolitical zone of the country if not in Nigeria where the inflation rate has come to stay. Genuine regulatory mechanism has become a thing of the past and people have been subjected to untold hardship and ridicule because those at the helms of affairs lack capacity to manage the situation as being done in other states. It is highly uncongrous that the incumbent government has failed the people of Osun and practically subjected the masses particularly poor of the poorest to retrogression.
Instead of telling us the truth as regards the affairs of the state, they chose to compound circumstances due to their pathological nature characterised with lies and insincerity. They kept mute on several supports received from Federal Government through statutory allocation to both the state and her councils as well as grants of different nature being championed by Bola Tinubu led central government among other goodies. They chose to badmouth the federal government at every now and then, condemn its futuristic pro-masses politicies that had benefited the purse of the state.
They equally instigate and incite public against the government, practically waging war of value to discredit and demarket the APC led federal government at every point in time. They blame federal government on the present socioeconomic reality occasioned by fuel subsidy removal, pretending as if they are not part of the direct beneficiaries of the subsidy removal’s largesse in the country. Instead of being sincere and factual in submissions, they brainwash the unsuspecting members of the public on the state of the nation. Hypocrisy of the highest order!
They failed to tell the citizens what has come to Osun as a result of subsidy removal in the last two years. Instead of channelling the available resources adequately and judiciously to meet the people’s yearnings and advance the cause of the state, they are playing blame game. No doubt, that is the basis of their woeful failure in all sectors of the economy. They are running the affairs of the state like secret court where tangible information about governance could only be made available to their cronies and allies. The opposition party has challenged the state government to come clean on who is running the affairs of the state, that is a topic for another day.
They came up with humongous infra plan project but failed to get their facts right and statistics accurately. The government that failed to deliver all the projects claimed in the first phase of infra plan surprisingly conceptualised another phase rolling out figures in millions and billions as if their is no one somewhere to challenge the status quo. As widely reported recently, the opposition party punctured the uncharitable figure therein in the list of infra plan projects enlisted and found the holes. Billions of naira discovered to have been added without any project to be executed using the humongous resources. Though the state came up with a statement to justify palpable maladroitness in governance, but it holds no water as it amount to afterthought.
Today, the prices of staple foods such as rice, garri, indomie noodles, spaghetti, semovita and beverages in Osun State are on the increase on daily basis due to government incompetence to advance the people’s cause. Many items have skyrocketed in prices and government is doing nothing to salvage the situation rather they attend social events and continue to dine and wine with associates and allies in government on the account of the state.
No reasonable commitment to agriculture to boost food production capacity in the state, instead, a whooping sum of 8 billion naira had gone into the thin air which the government claimed to have used to purchase ‘audio’ tractors. Till today, our 8 billion worth tractors are no where to be found but the government officials are living large on our common patrimony and glowing in skins, smiling to the banks and eating fat on public resources.
Over eleven billion naira has been spent to purchase vehicles for the unproductive elements in government. Over 40 billion naira had been expended so far to cater for the Governor’s Office and billions of naira had been claimed to have been spent on infrastructure without justifiable reasons. For instance, the Adeleke administration claimed to have awarded a seven-span flyover at Okefia area, Osogbo at a contract sum of 10 billion naira plus before a variation was allegedly made. Likewise, the ongoing Lameco flyover was awarded for over 8 billion naira while Ile-Ife flyover was said to have been contracted out at a sum of 14.9 billion naira. We all know the implications of these in actual sense. We all know the gimmick behind all these abracadabra! In any case, the contract sums had exposed the government’s uncharitable inconsistencies and intents.
The funniest part is the Akoda-Oke-gada dual carriage road that was awarded for over 23 billion naira and that of Enuwa-Brewery express road in Ilesa that was awarded for billions of naira. A road that has no single major bridge!
Honestly, wastage under this government has no bound.
Back to foreign trips and uncharitable foreign investment, we were told some days ago that our governor jetted out to the United Kingdom to attend a supposed serious event but what we saw aftermath had justified the intent of the trip. I know all these are in the public domain already which I don’t need to delve into further. However, the meeting held with the UK Prime Minister to which the video was attached was a pointer to the gross incompetence in government and the calibre of people administering our affairs as a state. I leave that as it is.
The composition and component of it is a subject of debate which has been generating reactions since, but the focus here is that, what had been the results of the previous foreign trips? Has Governor Adeleke attracted any investor since he has been traveling abroad claiming to turn Osun to industrial/commercial hub of Western Nigeria? Has Mr Governor forgotten that he promised us as an international man, he had brought local and foreign currencies to complement the development of the state?
Where are the foreign currencies that he was lying about in his campaign addresses? Has he forgotten what he told us about his capacity of international and multinational connections to bring investors to Osun? Where are they? Where are our audio mass transit buses promised citizens in 2023? What happens to digital economy project that the state lavished resources on? It is consequentially and incongruously pitiable that we found ourselves in this situation as a state and as a people.
The reason being that the state that could hardly pay wages, salaries, pensions, gratuities and emoluments of workforce due to paucity of fund and humongous debts profile but rescued and stabilised by the immediate-past Governor Adegboyega Oyetola through his inimitable tenacity, can-do spirit and financial re-engineering mechanism put in place can now boast of close to 17 billion naira as monthly allocations for the state and her 30 Local Government Areas and Ife-East Area Office.
The question now is, where is our money going into? How has Governor Adeleke and his cohorts been spending the huge resources of Osun State? To whose account does the state IGR go into? What happens to the 8 billion naira worth of tractors that were only purchased on the paper? Where is the 2 billion naira palliative fund freely given to our state by the Federal Government in 2023? Where are the NG-CARE funds running into billions? Where are our Allocations thus far? What happens to the failed digital economy projects that the state budgeted billions for?
The government should justify the crazy resources spent on yet-to-be-actualized flyovers? The government should clear the air on the primary motive of this current trip to England? A day of reckoning is fast approaching and the people of Osun State are watching and ready to oust incompetent administration for competent people to govern the state come 2026.
May God heal our land!
