The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has accused the state governor, Ademola Adeleke of making mockery of governance and taking the state back to primitive age through his ideas and policies.
Addresing a press conference to review how Adeleke’s administration has fared in the last two years, the opposition party described his government as “motion without movement.”
The party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, said despite the “staggering revenue accrued to his government” in the last two years, Adeleke has been paying lip service to the well-being of the workers.
He said Osun is one of the few states in the country reluctant to issue circular regarding the new National Minimum Wage, which he ssid some states have even covenanted to pay in arrears up to July this year.
“The government of the day has proven that it despises accountability and transparency as each time it is confronted with fact that the increased revenue has not reflected on the mass of the people, it is always quick to romanticize payment of half-salary owed by the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as what is drawing down the humongous allocation.
“Given the N630 billion revenue ( both states and 30 LGAs) that has come the way of the current administration, the government should not have got any excuse not to have fully settled the modulated arrears.
“Specifically, the state government received from January 2023 to September 2024 a sum of N385 billion from federal allocation, grants, IGR, etc. This include N4.3 billion UBEC and N1.3 billion TETFUND grants received from the federal government in 2023 to uplift infrastructure in our primary and tertiary institutions. All these FG grants do not form part of the federation allocation which has doubled since 2023 when subsidies on fuel and forex were removed by the federal government.
“By all estimates, Osun has been lucky with revenue, particularly with the federal revenue which has recorded 100% rise in the last 12 months. The federal allocation in 2022 before the inauguration of the current government was N73 billion ( before debt deductions). Meanwhile, as of end of third quarter of 2024 ( September), the state had already received N153 billion federal allocation, N50 billion above the N99 billion projected for the whole year. In spite of this financial windfall, Governor Adeleke has refused to fund the key sectors of the economy, safe for the allocation to his office which has recorded 170% performance thus far,” Olabisi stated.
“Of the N82 billion earmarked for Personnel this year, only N39 billion, representing 47% of the projection for the year, was released as at September. This is according to the budget performance record for the third quarter. It is strange to note also that out of N20.5 billion earmarked for pension and gratuity in 2024, only N4.8 billion, representing less than 20%, had been released as of September. In fact, out of N11.4 billion budgeted for pension and gratuity arrears, no Kobo was released as at end of third quarter. The picture here is that the claim of Governor Adeleke of offsetting backlog of pension and gratuity is all fat lie from the pit of hell. There is nothing to justify the claim in the official document of the state government,” he added.
On education, Olabisi argued that Adeleke’s government has proven to be “an irredeemable failure ranging from the sack of 1,500 teachers employed by his predecessor without replacement yet, to satanic fees in public schools, it is obvious the government does not mean well for the people of the state. In the whole of Atakumosa East, for instance, there exists just one Physics teacher. The implication of this lack of teachers to teach core subject is that medical doctors, engineers, scientists can’t be produced from this local government. The situation is the same in other local governments as many of the parents are decrying the ugly development.”
He said the incumbent government has also been a fantastic failure in health in the last two years.
“Rather than devoting resources to rehabilitate health centres in dire need, the government continues to pour huge fund to paint and decorate health facilities previously revatilized by the Oyetola government. Just of recent, gory pictures of dilapidated health centres in Ayedaade and other local government areas in the state surfaced on the internet, confirming the poor state of the health sector under Adeleke’s watch.
The performance of the administration in Agriculture and Food Security is also nothing to write home about. There is acute food shortage in the state because of lack of political will on the part of the leadership in the state to formulate the right strategy in Agriculture.
“In summary, the two years of Governor Ademola Adeleke has been a motion without movement. No impactful effort to drive the people out of poverty to financial prosperity. The only sector that has been adequately funded is the Office of the Governor where one computer laptop was bought for N2.1 million, N3 billion was allocated to buy 20 Landcruiser Jeep for unproductive politicians,” Olabisi maintained.
