LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. National Publicity Secretary of pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Yinka Odumakin on Thursday said Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has plunged the state into financial mess through lavishing tax payers money on projects that have no direct bearing on the lives of the people.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent, he said having launched O-YES, O-MEAL, Opon-Imo and other products, the governor has now plunged the state into O-DEBT.
Odumakin, who was one of the conveners of ‘Osun Summit’, organized by concerned stakeholders in Osun with the aim of proffering solutions to the financial crisis in the state said rather than give the summit its cooperation, the state government did all it can to frustrate it so that the true state of things.
He added that the summit, which was chaired by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Olu Adekeye and attended by political parties, religious bodies and various civil society organizations at the end, agreed that the anti-graft agencies should be invited to look into the financial status of the state.
“The summit rose and decided that we should invite the EFCC and ICPC to come and look into Osun finances, and very soon we are sending a request to these two bodies to come and check Osun’s books in the last five years. As at now, the APC is jittery because they have mismanaged the state under Aregbesola. They have bankrupted the state”.
‘Osun finances was not this good under Bisi Akande as governor, yet he managed it well without running the state into bankruptcy. He even built a massive state secretariat. Oyinlola who took over from Akande also did his own part without running the state into financial mess. But under Aregbesola, Osun has become totally bankrupt and state of insolvency”.
He said contrary to the impression being created in some quarters that the governor is replicating most of the projects in Lagos in Osun without taking cognizance of the financial strengths of both states.
“It is not projects that the governor is replicating in Osun, it is the Lagos lifestyle that he has taken to Osun state. Whereas Lagos economy can afford this lifestyle, Osun cannot. What is the governor doing with two helicopters? Ondo state that is an oil producing state does not have a helicopter. Ekiti, Ogun and even Oyo do not have helicopters. At a point, the governor was chartering flights from Lagos to Ibadan before he bought the helicopters”.
“He created all kinds of ‘Os’ in the state, Opon- Imo, O-YES, O-REAP, O-MEAL, O-QUIP. The end result of all that today in Osun is O-DEBT or O-GBESE as people are saying. What many people don’t know is that the water loan Bola Ige took in 1981 in old Oyo state for water projects, Osun is still paying its own part today. So, what it means is that with all the debts Aregbesola is generating for us now, our grandchildren will pay” he said.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
