Ademola Adeleke, Executive Governor of Osun State. It is wonderful and pathetic when you see a state as buoyant as Osun being led by a State Governor that has to be told what must be done and what must not be done.
Constitutionally, not even the President of the country has the power to tell a State Governor what he must do, and what he must not attempt to do but in Osun State, the case is sorrowfully reversed.
Whose faults? Blame the Civil Servants, blame the aggressive politicians, and do not blame the ordinary people residing in Osun State.
Before raising questions, let's quickly do a recap!
Before the Osun 2022 Governorship Election, former Governor Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola did everything within his administrative and intellectual capacities to ensure prompt payment of workers' salaries in full, with provisions of social amenities to create a balance in how the state resources are allocated to the people majorly comprising the Civil Servants and the Residents.
Arguable though, as Oyetola paid workers' monthly salaries as and when due, settled Pension Arrears owed by the previous administrations, lifted embargo placed on workers' promotions, appointed Permanent Secretaries, the civil service ranking position that was violently replaced with Coordinating Directors by the previous administration; provided loans for the civil servants; employed more residents to the education and medical sectors, amongst others he also laid asphalt on strategic road networks, provided modern farm inputs for the farmers, constructed and rehabilitated Primary Health Centres across the 332 political wards in the state. He rejigged the educational sector in the state and did wonder when he increased the state's Internally Generated Revenue from about N10 billion to around N20 billion, annually without increasing tax but expanding the tax net by ensuring that the avoiders and evaders of tax are minimized. As he was doing all this, he was also dealing with repayment of what many analysts described as "bad debts" that had almost left the state bankrupt before the coming of his administration in 2018.
Recall this, at the end of 2018, the state was the sixth most indebted of the 36 states in Nigeria. The external debt of Osun State was $101.5 million in 2018, while domestic debt stood at N148.1 billion. Despite the debt burden, Oyetola improved Osun state’s IGR per capita from N1,378 in 2018 to N3,678 in 2020 which he kept to build on.
Arguably, according to the records kept by the statistics bureau, NBS, repayment of debt cost Osun State an average of N24 billion, annually; N2 billion, monthly, and a total of N97 billion over the four years of Oyetola's administration.
Not satisfied with the track, the Civil Servants insisted they must be given 100% priority at the detriment of the residents. They wanted a state Governor who would use all the state resources, after payment of debt, to settle their bills. Instead of setting off part of the government's debt to them, monthly, they wanted a Governor who would pay off everything at once or within six months. Don't forget, some of the civil servants, mostly the Senior staff were owed up to 36 months cumulative of half salary debts.
They went all the way to demarket the administration of Oyetola banking on an agreement they had with Ademola Adeleke which he promised them, within six months, he was going to clear the backlog of salaries owed to them; pay their promotion better that Oyetola was paying them and appointed more Permanent Secretaries among them.
As one of them confided in some of us, the civil servants went all the way to visiting marketplaces pretending to buy something but began to speak negatively of Oyetola just to demarket him among the market women.
Besides, another section of the civil servants claimed Oyetola was too rigid and blocked their ways in what they believed was a tradition. They foresaw the incompetence that the state is currently experiencing, and they saw it as an avenue for them to cut corners. This may be hard to come out and affirm but it burns in their hearts.
The aggressive politicians in the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) would give kudos to Oyetola, despite their political differences but insist he must be ousted so it will be their turn, irrespective of the regression that their decision would bring on the state. It was even a popular says among the Osun PDP members that "let us destroy it first, we'll repair it later," making jest of the calamity that await the state.
Today, Osun State goes through an administration that is not remarkable. And an administration that prioritizes a nuclear family ahead of the ordinary residents and the civil servants in the state. An administration that collects the highest monthly allocations since the creation of the state, and spends it before looking for a project to wrap it around. An administration that sees the sacking of teachers and medical personnel as the only means to keep settling the salary bill of the state. An administration that is doing everything to cut the wage bill digging for more retrenchment of the state workers following a jamboree cover-up exercise they termed "Staff Auditing".
A State that has accumulated around N400 billion since its inauguration in November 2022 and has wrecked projects to be referenced after gross misappropriation.
Take for instance, within the first 100 days of Governor Ademola Adeleke in Office, the state received “N11 billion from Siftas; N5 billion from NG CARES; N6.7 billion federal government parastatal tax liability; N3.2 billion Nigeria for women project; N4.9 billion state Ease of Doing Business Reforms and the N14 billion left in the state's account by the administration of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
“Also, the state received N4 billion IGR in November 2022, December 2022, January, and February 2023; November 2022 FAAC allocation after deduction was N6.37 billion; December 2022 FAAC allocation after deduction was N6.93 billion, and January 2023 FAAC allocation after deduction was N5.34 billion.
Below is the summary of the Osun State Local Government allocations within the first 100 days of Senator Ademola Adeleke: "November 2022 FAAC allocation after deduction N6.2billion; December 2022 FAAC allocation after deduction N4.8 billion; January 2023 FAAC allocation after deduction N5.7 billion; first tranche of Sure P left by Oyetola administration N3.5 billion; second tranche of Sure P N2.6 billion.
The above was the money received by Osun State over the first three months of Ademola Adeleke as Osun State Governor, by the 26th of this month, he would be marking his first year in office.
Go through the state and look for yourself, Is there any collection of projects worth N100 billion aside from salary payment? Challenge the handlers of the administration to come up with a list of the projects and the cost of implementation.
Unfortunately, the state government may only boast of repainting the Government House with about N5 billion; repainting the inherited state's coastal buses with billions of Naira with the vehicles still rotting on the field. None of the vehicles has plied any road in Osun since the inauguration of Ademola Adeleke.
The same administration claimed to have sunk boreholes across the 332 wards in the state; many of the boreholes were never sunk with over 90% of those sunk never producing a drop of water. You can run an independent investigation on this same project that about N100 million was used to purchase Generators which they initially intended to use in powering the borehole before they dropped the idea. Now, the generators have been moved to the Houses of party ward chairmen across the state, and they have been ordered to sell off the generators and share the money among themselves. N100 million was wasted on the procurement of 332 generators, alone.
Most regrettably, the state administration under the leadership of Ademola Adeleke is relentless in violating the constitution of the country and the state's extant law of public procurements.
Take, for instance, the dualization of Akoda-Ede to Osogbo through, Ede and Ofatedo towns; the construction of the road started about five months ago but the advert for bidding only came out last month. This is absurd and amounts to a gross violation of the state's extant law on Public Procedure.
What could be the cause of this incompetence is not far fetch from the known facts that the Osun State Civil Servants and some members of the PDP banked on, to give their support to Ademola Adeleke during the electioneering campaign. That was the fact that they knew Adeleke wouldn't be in control and projected the possibility of being favored in hijacking the government from Adeleke if elected.
Today, Ademola Adeleke cannot boast of being in control of his administration and this is why none of the appointed Commissioners and Special Advisers, cabinet and non-cabinet rankings could give you a piece of outright information on what is happening within the administration.
Take for instance, it took all the political appointees under Adeleke's administration, including his Commissioner for Information, more than four months after they claimed to have completed the sinking of 332 boreholes in Osun with an unstable claim of how much it was awarded following allegations that the administration awarded the boreholes at N14 million per borehole.
Another instance is the dualisation of the Akoda-Ede-Ofatedo-Osogbo road which started about five months ago, and it is being included in the "Osun Infra Plan" which the same administration claims it is just about to embark on.
Sincerely, a plotter(s) of the palace coup that has taken place within the administration of Ademola Adeleke could best be unveiled by the Governor, Ademola Adeleke, and presumably his Chief of Staff, Kashim Akinleye, and the Secretary to the State Government, Teslim Igbalaye while his deputy, Kola Adewusi is considerably innocent as he was alleged to have been settled with the Ministry of Youths where he was given free hand to operate with whatever amount of money the cabals decide to shift to the ministry.
Category: World-News
Tag: Ademola Adeleke Incompetence Osun 400 billion
Written by Omooba Alekuwodo (omoobaalekuwodo)
Published 11/1/2023 11:30:54 AM