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The state government of Osun is very reluctant to respond to the falsehood, irresponsible submissions and cooked up irrelevances contained in an emotion laden report of the Social Democratic Party and the subsequent reaction to it by its controversial governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
Government is reluctant because of the fact that the master-minded report is coming from the camp of Senator Iyiola Omisore, a man with plenty credibility problem and without an iota of integrity.
We state ab-initio that this report is the vituperations of a frustrated group, being led by a man of vaulting ambitions and would seek relevance with untruthful submissions.
The people of Osun are called to attention to remember that Omisore’s politics is incomplete without attention seeking since his foray through the military politics. We note that it is a deliberate attempt to rubbish the eloquent achievements of the Aregbesola administration to pave way for the realisation of his failed governorship ambition.
May we state in categorical terms that the content of the SDP report were nothing but tissues of lies and fabrications concocted by the lay-about who are seeking attention.
In order that the credulous members of the society got tuned to the SDP concoctions and their lies being mistakenly taken for truth, we set the records straight as follows:
Except for a mischievous mind whose intent is to attract forced attention through blackmail, the matter concerning government debt profile of the state is a public knowledge. The debt management office had published it before, the governor had stated and elaborately explained it before while the state Accountant General had enlightened the public on it.
For the avoidance of any doubt, we remind the good people of Osun and other sane minds of the official report of the National Bureau of Statistics which put both the internal and external loans, bonds and other credit line obtained by the State Government to N179bn ($96, 347, 432, 73 and N147, 069, 973, 626.49) in September 2017. This is against the wanton figure of N600bn at a time, N450billion at another and N400billion stated in the false report of the SDP and Omisore.
Besides, the total amount being owed by the government at present is far less than N143bn; this is because the debt is getting reduced monthly as payment is made based on upfront deductions from allocations.
In addition, Governor Aregbesola had stated that the conventional loan obtained by the government would be settled in 2019 while the N11.4bn Sukuk would be fully paid back in 2020. The Accountant General of the state had also in May this year stated that the total debt left for the state to pay was N143.6bn. These are verifiable facts and anybody saying anything to the contrary is only out for mischief for political purpose.
It amounts to gross irresponsibility for the SDP and Omsiore, its governorship candidate who is seeking vote from the people to feed them with half-truths, outright lies and insinuations in a desperate move to seek attention. It is most sad that SDP and Omsiore prefer to lie about shared allocation to Osun otherwise they won’t contend that a whopping sum N7.22billion was deducted monthly from Osun allocation.
It is certain that this group of incompetent people cannot find out the actual amount of monthly fund accruable to Osun, hence the irrational claim that gargantuan amount is deducted. May God forbid that their likes will come to govern Osun as it is certain that the perpetual governorship aspirant, Omsiore, has other motif than people’s welfare and wellbeing and the people are urged to reject him as they have done in the past.
It remains a misery, understood by only the mischievous attention seeking Omsiore and cohort to say N7.2billion is being deducted from the gross allocation of N4 to 5billion. Such fraudulent mathematical calculation can only be possible within the gang of EFCC customers.
On the education development of the state, it is only the naysayers that would rate Aregbesola’s administration low. In recognition of the strategic role of education in the society, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, in his six integral action plan promised to ‘promote functional education’, and since inception of his administration, he has been working assiduously to restructure the public school education and restore the standard, quality and discipline to the schools.
Aregbesola’s bold move to restructure the public education in the state had not just brought new look to the education sector but also bring a new turn of event to the future generations. The state of Osun has gotten her greatest medal, among her peers, in the education sector. Education infrastructure in the state has changed face; the public school system is now functioning.
We don’t want to believe that a person that claim to hold a PhD and aspiring to govern the state would attempt to rubbish the international award winning Opon-Imo. Opon-Imo is the first standalone e-learning system in sub-saharan Africa. ‘Opon Imo’ has saved parents in Osun the sum of N8.2 billion worth of textbooks. The tablet of knowledge was recently endorsed by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in February 2017, and recommended to other states for adoption in Nigeria. Opon Imo has also been endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orgainisation (UNESCO). Over 50,000 students have benefited from ‘Opon Imo’ in Osun since inception in 2013 to 2017. Less than N3billion has been spent on procurement, installation, distribution and maintenance of ‘Opon Imo’ since inception till 2017. Opon Imo’ has helped to improve performance of students in Osun, culminating in 46% pass rate in 5 subjects including Mathematics and English. The best result in a 10 year period. In 2013, ‘Opon Imo’ won the e-learning and science category in World Summit Award, World Congress in Sri Lanka. ‘Opon Imo’ contains e-textbooks, past questions (WAEC and JAMB) and virtual classroom for all approved subjects from SS1 to SS3.
Both SDP and Omisore are sending serious warning to the people of the state by condemning the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) programme which Aregbesola put in place. OYES as at present have absolved 40, 000 youths and another batch of fresh 20, 000 unemployed youths are to be engaged. None of the OYES cadets have resigned and majority of them have started living a good life. 5000 OYES cadets were trained in ICT skills among which 150 were sponsored to Ghana for further training. No fewer than 1500 of the OYES have been empowered to be self-reliant and 100 of them have been employed at the Adulawo Technology City, Ilesa.
Omisore and his party should learn to appreciate good and developmental programme. OYES has been copied by the FG and other states. 10 training centres set-up and maintained across the state
The achievement of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s noble administration in AGRICULTURE is a success story. Over N2,601,669,532 has given to farmers as various loan facilities, about 11,500 farmers have been financially supported through which 16,000 new jobs were created, over 33,200ha of land allocated to 950 farmers across the state and 5,000 new farmers’ cooperatives registered.
120 cribs; 2 commercial and 6 small holder feedlots have been constructed; a new vet clinic in Ejigbo and 8-room (Vet centre) kennel in Osogbo; centralized modern abattoirs at Iwo, Osogbo, Ilesa and Ile-Ife were constructed to support various groups of farmers.
Ten set of cassava processing equipment; 10 set of cassava chipping machines; 3 set of yam flour processing equipment; 4 set of multi-grain threshing equipment and 20 rice harvesting equipment were equally provided to farmers.
Over 300Km of rural roads; 30 bridges; 100 culverts have been constructed by the Aregbesola’s administration to create easier access for the movement of farmers and farm produce.
OBOPS, has produced at least 5 million birds. Osun is now among states with relatively high production in poultry business in Nigeria. About 768 farmers were engaged, cash profit paid to farmers stood at 785million as well as making over 120 broiler farmers who keyed into the initiative millionaires.
Both SDP and Omisore have been blindfolded by sentiment and ambition and as a result, they could not open their mind and eyes to the development in HEALTH SECTOR, and to the fact that 81 Primary Health Centres have beend renovated/upgraded. The establishment of an independent Osun Ambulance Service to provide emergency services anywhere in the State within 10 minutes is an open fact and we are dam sure than members of the SDP and relatives of Omisore would have benefitted from the scheme. 50 ambulances are deployed to all local governments within the state to attend to emergencies on a 24-hr basis, 404 paramedics employed, trained and deployed with dedicated phone lines and 5 ambulances points strategically are constructed in Awo, Ikirun, JABU, Sekona and Erin-Ijesa
Omisore and SDP have demonstrated by engaging in rumour peddling and spreading falsehood, gross incompetence and lack of understanding to run government. This apparent failure is indicative of the fact that Omisore is a failed aspirant whose rabid desire to rule pushes him to tell lies with a view to gain relevance, even when that hurts and disorients the people. The people of the state would remember that Omisore had few months ago lied that the workers drive road in Osogbo was constructed by UNESCO before the organization came out to dismiss the lie and stated that it did not construct the road.
We urged Omisore to desist from deliberate efforts at misinforming the people of the state and face his charges with EFCC, and the good people of the state should again disregard the lies.
Adelani Baderinwa
Commissioner for Information and Strategy
