By Waheed Adekunle
I read with consternation the statement issued yesterday by the spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, Mr. Olawale Rasheed, quoting his principal to have accused the opposition of deliberately withholding Osun State local government allocation so as to stylishly stop the completion of critical projects by his administration. This statement is considered not only fallacious but one that only exists in the figment of the imagination of the governor and his co-travellers in the government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the statement, the governor was quoted as saying; “almost N100 billion of Osun fund is unjustly seized in a bid to stop the completion of Ile Ife flyover, Ilesa township dualisation, Iwo township road dualisation, Ila Orangun township road dualisation, reconstruction of Iwo-Osogbo road and the Lameco flyover bridge among others. The opposition have unfortunately chosen to play politics with the urgent need of our people to exit from decades of under-development.” This statement is not only ridiculous but a display of ignorance on the part of the government as it shows that the governor was ill-advised to have uttered such a statement otherwise the governor and his appointees ought to have known that no penny belonging to the local government is meant for state expenditure as being done in the past under joint account disguise.
It is quite unfortunate that the incumbent government in the state that had far lost governance grip and its unmerited overhyped popularity since the commencement of the present administration has resulted to mere blackmail and political pettiness reducing the supposed serious business of governance to ignominious and unwarranted cacophonic exercise.
It is on record that the Adeleke administration started on a wrong footing as exhibited in its callous issuance of obnoxious and anti-masses Executive Orders targeted mainly to clamp down on the members of opposition in the state. This is a government which first official assignment was the removal of already installed traditional rulers, sacking thousands of state workers recruited in different sectors by its predecessor among other administrative malfeasance and political maladroit.
The reckless claim by the government that the allocation due to the local governments was withheld by the Federal Government on the account of the opposition to prevent Governor Adeleke from completing projects is a clear testimony of the imminent failure of the current government in the state.
Assuming without conceding that the allocations were withheld as being wrongly claimed and peddled by the state government, the puzzle remains that what concerns the state government with the allocations meant for the local government areas? Is the Governor Adeleke-led PDP government in the state erroneously creating impressions to manipulate public psyches, mislead and deceive unsuspecting members of the party into believing that the local government allocation are the same as state allocation? Has the government forgotten that the Supreme Court judgment on the Local Government autonomy is in full force? Is the current government yet to awake from its slumber and live by reality? Has Governor Adeleke’s government forgotten that the era of using local government resources to finance state governments’ projects is over?
The reality remains that whenever the fund due to the local government is released, the same will be paid directly into the accounts being operated by each of the 30 Local Government Areas and Ife-East Area Office, Modakeke not the obnoxious joint account of the local governments and state where the current government had drawn billions of naira meant for the councils to execute state projects under unknown pretense in the past.
It is obvious that the tooth and nail fight orchestrated by the state government over the legal suspension of the release of the Osun State local government allocations was due to its inaccessibility of the funds to lavish and waste on palpable inflated contracts that have no direct impact in humanity except the fulfillment of axiomatic tendency of securing ‘jobs for the boys’ and political stooges.
Unequivocally, at the risk of sounding immodest and for the avoidance of doubt and possibly misconception, since the administration of Governor Adeleke came into being, the state government has been receiving steadily the allocations due to Osun State as same has been on the increase since the removal of fuel subsidy by the current administration at the centre led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The scenario remains that Osun State that had at the best of time received 2.5billion naira during the erstwhile Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administration is conveniently taking into its coffers a whooping sum of 12billion naira on monthly basis as federal allocation to the state.
This humongous fund i.e monthly allocation drawn from the Federation Account (FAAC) is totally different from grants, aids, support among other remunerative gestures and emoluments being received from the Federal Government and international agencies by the Adeleke government in the last 35 months of being at the helms of affairs in the state.
It is grossly incongrous that same government that has been receiving on the average close to 13billion naira on monthly basis has reduced governance to mere amusement and political jamboree to spite suspected members of the opposition. Such reckless claim is not only anti-people but a swipe taken too far in order to undermine the principles of good governance and patriotism expected from the government officials holding forth of public treasury.
No doubt, the current government has demonstrated gross incompetence, incapability and incapacity to administer the affairs of the state. If not for shamelessness, ridicule and self-deception, how on earth can a government that receives what is due to it, on monthly basis, without interference, will be throwing tantrums and shifting blames over its incompetence to deliver much expected needs of the people to the opposition. This is nothing but nemesis catching up with such an obnoxious government.
As a political observer and discerning mind craving for good governance, it is crystal clear that the incumbent government that has received close to, if not more than, a total sum of 1trillion naira from all sources in the last three years, is yet to deliver on its 100bn first phase infra-plan projects and 159bn second phase infra-plan projects respectively.
For the purpose of clarity, the current administration that claimed to have set aside N100bn for the execution of capital projects in 2024 is yet to deliver on any of its promised projects to date. It is still fresh in public memories that till now, the current government has done nothing on Owode-Ede and Ikirun flyovers, parts of the projects touted to be completed with first phase of 100bn naira worth infrastructural projects by the Governor Adeleke’s government.
Despite the fact that the suspicious 159bn naira infra-plan projects are yet to see the light of the day, the incumbent government could lavish billions of naira to the tune of 65bn naira to service the Governor’s Office for ‘menu menu’ – feeding and other unconnected things. The current government could spend 1.7billion naira for feeding within six months, expended 3.1billion naira on local and foreign trips without meaningful justification ‘at least to bring a single investor or using same to impacting in people’s lives.’ The same government could purchase billions of naira vehicles for the unproductive government officials who had practically failed to jerk up the revenue generation of the state.
We are keenly watching and playing the role to ensure restoration much desired for good governance in Osun State.
May God heal our land!