OSUN STATE: HOW WE GOT INTO DEBT

I must state clearly that the facts contained in this piece are verifiable and all feedback will be well appreciated. Comments and feedback can be directed to the author on ibuckresources@gmail.com or on 08067361945.

1.       Aregbesola recently claimed his government amassed a total of just 204 billion income in the last four years. Ironically, this same government made a total budget of 655 billion within the same period i.e. 88 billion in 2011, 150 billion in 2012, 183 billion in 2013 and 234 billion in 2014. One is constrained to ask, that while Federal Allocations steadily took a dip over the years, why did Osun State budgets maintain a steady but very rapid rise? How did he plan to fund 655 billion proposed expenditure with 204 billion? Or was his government just making phantom budgets and embezzling as much as they can?

2.       Aregbesola awarded the construction of 18km Osogbo-Ikirun-Ilaodo dual carriage way at 17.1 billion to Sammya Nigeria Limited on Contractor financing (debt) basis. This figure stands at 950 million per kilometre. This very expensive cost of construction does not apply anywhere else in the world. It is to be noted that the Oyinlola administration awarded the first phase of the project (17km) at 3.5 billion. How Ogbeni and his cohorts came about this phantom cost remains unknown.

3.       This administration sold the land upon which Fakunle Comprehensive High School stood (a six acre expanse of land) to an unknown buyer without due process for 111 million, a ridiculous amount for a parcel of land located in such a competitive area of Osogbo. He yet went ahead to use State funds to help the buyer demolish the structures that belonged to Fakunle High School.

4.       Ogbeni Aregbesola through the Ministry of Environment embarked on the roadside fencing of the Okefia - Orita Olaiya dual carriage way. Nowhere in the world does a government decide to fence a public environment especially a road way. This was another wasted fund.

5.       Spent huge State funds on the demolition of the Old Governor’s office to make way for the construction of Ayegbaju International market. Funds spent on both demolition and construction remains unjustified as the high rate of rent has repelled market people from taking up the shops. It is to be noted that Ayegbaju International Market was constructed under a loan agreement with Unity Bank Plc.

6.       Aregbesola purchased a unit of Opon Imo for 35000 at a time gadgets possessing same specifications were selling for between 9000 and 15000 on the very accessible online marketplace; needless to say that the gadgets would have been sold for far cheaper due to the bulk purchase condition. How his government arrived at this cost remains a wonder.

7.       Expended several millions of naira on the construction of the giant Ori-Olokun statue at Mayfair junction in Ile-Ife. It is to be noted that the Lagere road leading to this junction is ironically filled with ditch-sized potholes.

8.       Ogbeni purchased a helicopter for 500 million purportedly for security surveillance. Aside the fact that this same helicopter is being used for his personal transportation, the cost of the aircraft equals 1/7 of the total wage bill of the Osun State Government in a month. It is sad to say then that Aregbesola happily gallivants around with an aircraft capable of paying the salaries of 1/7 the population of Osun workers.

9.       This government constructed 11.1km block-wall fencing of the Ido-Osun aerodrome. This wasteful contract running close to a billion in State funds stands against the globally accepted style of demarcating very large expanses of land with just wire fencing. He ignored the more prudent solution for the very expensive and wasteful one.

10.   Ogbeni phased out all the official vehicles the immediate past administration used. Aside being a waste of government resources to abandon functional vehicles just for the purpose of luxury, it is also pitiable that these vehicles are now in the possession of cronies of Aregbesola in Lagos and Ibadan. Yet, at no time was it recorded that the State Government leased its vehicles to the public.

11.   It still stands to huge questions why Aregbesola dedicated around 4 billion in Osun State funds to the election of Chief Rotimi Akeredolu in Ondo State.

12.   In a show of hypocritical magnanimity, Aregbesola’s government has been paying a monthly stipend of 10,000 to some elders in Osun State in the name of social welfare. This would be good if his priorities were placed right but in a situation where pensioners are deprived of the rewards for their long years of service and their rights sacrificed for political gains, this is irresponsible.

13.   Aregbesola in a bid to establish a firm hold on the minds of the state people either by force or by devilish political manipulations convened a group of young men (touts as a better description) and called them State Boys. In recent times, this group of terror agents have been sighted maiming and severely injuring innocent persons in many areas of Osogbo. The monies being spent on this group alone is a major contributor to our financial mess.

14.   Aregbesola again contracted the collection of revenue to unknown consultants when there is an existing and very functional revenue board in place. The consultancy charges of these revenue collection companies and the general secrecy in which their activities are covered shows that the entire revenue collection contract is a major direction in which Osun State loses billions monthly.

15.   This government took a loan of around 4 billion from Guaranty Trust Bank to fund the Igi-Iye project. This project is dead presently and the borrowed billions remains a huge burden for our State.

16.   Rauf’s government expended almost 1 billion on the construction of the Hassan Olajokun Civic centre in Gbongan. This project remains an unnecessary expenditure and a total waste of the billions committed to it. It remains clear that the centre is not generating any meaningful revenue to justify such wild investment.

17.   Aje International Market for which the Osun State Trade Fair complex was demolished has remained a major sink hole for government revenue as the project remains uncompleted for three years running while it is yet to generate a dime in revenue.

18.   Expended 1.5 billion on the O’Callisthenics programme in 2011. It remains a huge question why a prudent and progress-minded government will expend such huge funds on a project that had nothing to contribute to the development of the State.

19.   Aregbesola personally donated millions of naira to the re-election of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State. This includes a donation of 1 million naira each to all serving members of the House of Assembly at the time. Why a struggling State will donate to the re-election bid of a person in another State remains a question sensible Osun indigenes should ask Aregbesola.

20.   Earns a total of 500 million in security votes monthly. Deducting such huge amounts from a total monthly allocation of something a little less than 2.9 billion makes one think the Governor is deliberately pushing the State into huge indebtedness.

21.   All the billions in state funds expended on the O’REAP Agricultural Project; O’CLEAN Cooking Gas waste recycling project and the O’CLEAN plus project remain wasteful spending as they have generated no revenue for the State Government. Successes achieved from these programmes remain unknown while these projects are beginning to look like huge financial scams.

22.   All billions expended on the OSUNWON OMOLUABI project remain unseen. The scales are not in the market neither are the expended funds accounted for.

23.   Aregbesola scrapped the School of Medicine in Osun State University and opted to sponsor the almost 200 students of the faculty to Ukraine to complete their study. The funds expended on this scholarship would have successfully been utilized to standardize the College of Medicine while government would at the same time have generated revenue from the fees these students would have had to pay.

24.   Ogbeni frustrated many potential tax-paying SMEs out of business with huge taxes and mindless demands through the revenue collection consultants. This move has deprived the state of huge revenue these SMEs would have paid in the near future.

25.   The 1 billion Agricultural loan he took from First Bank Plc remains unjustified, unaccounted for and has generated no returns. Yet, the State has to pay back.

26.   Though the State sank deeper into debt in 2013 via the 10 billion Sukuk bond, the ends to which the funds was utilized remain unknown.

Aregbesola has indeed exhausted his manipulative ideas. We must keep speaking out and raising social awareness as this alone is the means through which we can liberate our State from his stranglehold and yet make better electoral decisions in the rapidly-approaching future.

ODERINU ADEDAYO

ibuckresources@gmail.com

08067361945

OSUN STATE AND THE GOVERNOR WHO RAN IT AGROUND!

Please note that the facts stated herein are verifiable and the author will welcome all manner of feedbacks, while being ready to defend the facts and figures as stated. By the enlightenment I am hoping to achieve, I believe Osun people will become capable of making more informed electoral decisions in the future.

FINANCES

1.      Aregbesola upon assumption of office increased the Security Vote being paid monthly to the Office of the governor from 250m naira to 500m naira. In the face of obvious financial hardship in the country, he has continued earning the same amount without recourse to the state of the economy.

2.      Ogbeni received around 3.14bn naira from the SURE-P allocations within 2011 and 2015. This allocation was paid to facilitate special projects as stipulated by the SURE-P guiding principles. These funds were neither utilized for any special projects nor were they properly accounted for.

3.      Ogbeni Aregbesola has from the inception of his administration refused to allow Local Governments manage their own allocations. The State Government has been doing the sharing and dividing.

4.      He claimed he raised Osun IGR to 1bn naira monthly sometimes in 2012. It means Osun has made at least 36bn naira in IGR between that time and now. The ends to which these funds were utilized are yet unknown.

5.      This administration abandoned the Free Trade Zone Project of the immediate past administration thereby failing to complete a project that held enormous growth potentials for our dear state.

6.      Osun is currently owing $67million foreign debt one of the highest in the country.

7.      Osun currently has a domestic debt profile of 41.4bn Naira being money owed banks and other financial institutions.

8.      Osun State under Ogbeni Aregbesola took a 30bn Naira bond (a long-term loan) from the Security and Exchange Commission in 2013. This will mature for repayment in 2019.

9.      Osun also took a 10bn naira Sukuk bond in 2014 with a 16.75% interest.

10.  The Osun State Government also owes a number of contractors due to its various contractor financing agreements. Major in this category is the 17.1bn naira owed to Sammya Nigeria Limited, the company handling the Osogbo-Ikirun-Ilaodo dualization project.

11.  The figures above suggest that Osun now has a total debt profile of something around 111.2bn Naira. This is in light of the fact that Ogbeni himself publicly declared that his government earned 204bn Naira in the last four years. This implies that his government has a debt profile significantly more than his total earnings in four years.

12.  The above explains why no bank is ready to loan him money again. His earnings against liabilities does not give much hope for lenders.

EDUCATION

1.      Fakunle Comprehensive High School, the pride of Secondary School Education in Osun State has been demolished and the land sold to unknown investors for the purpose of constructing a shopping centre. Sacrificing education for monetary gains!

2.      Opon Imo has been withdrawn from the possession of the sparse population of Osun Students who got the gadgets in the first place due to deficiencies unknown to the public.

3.      As against his noisy claims, it was not his administration that commenced feeding of school pupils. O’Meal was named Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme under Oyinlola, with secretariat in Abere Osun State.

4.      He unified School uniforms to create a large market for Sam & Sara Nigeria Limited, owners of Omoluabi Garment factory. The unified uniforms has led to degeneration in school discipline while parents are being made to buy sub-standard single pair uniforms at 1,750 and above! Where on earth does all schools wear the same uniform?

5.      As against the United Nations’ stipulation of thirty (30) students to a teacher, Aregbesola merged Osun State schools, fusing a school Fakunle Comprehensive High School Osogbo (with a population of up to 3000) into Osogbo Grammar School.

6.      Unity Schools Ejigbo which stood out as a model government school in the country and even beyond has been reduced to a terrible shadow itself. The school now runs on day and boarding, wears the same uniform with all other secondary schools in town and a reign of truancy has been established in that school.

7.      Aregbesola created the TEPO offices in the three Senatorial District to oversee Schools under their district. The heads of these offices are at Permanent Secretary Ranks and as such often constantly have a clash of authority with Permanent Secretaries of the Ministry of Education, TESCOM and SUBEB.

8.      Subventions to these schools are so heavily defaulted that teachers resort to writing examination questions on the board and are forced to issue results on plain sheets of paper as against the use of report cards. Funny it is, that at the end of every session, you always have more than ten first-position students per class since there will be no physical evidence to confirm such claims.

9.      There is an extreme shortage of workforce in the Teaching Service Commission; this forced the Permanent Secretary to withdraw all TESCOM teachers in Ministry Schools back to TESCOM schools. As it stands, up to at least 14 subjects are without teachers in most Ministry-owned schools. Example is Unity School Ejigbo.

10.  Under Aregbesola, Osun disconnected from the National Education standard and the state thereby runs a 3:6:3 method. (Elementary School – Pry 1-3; Middle School – Pry 4,5 & JS 1-3; High School – SS 1-3). This is applicable in no other Nigerian State.

11.  Students who sat for external examinations this year can only hope for a miracle as they have had close–to-zero academic engagement this session.

12.  The UNIOSUN vision has been so bastardized due to the failure of the State Government to effectively manage the crisis situation in the school. This has led to the sack of certain principal officers including the Vice Chancellor and the instability of the management and administration of the school system.

13.  The State Government took over the responsibility of deducting monthly re-payments for staff cooperative societies that it recognizes some years back. For close to two years however, the deductions made on behalf of the societies have not been remitted.

14.  For the past two years, the State Government has not remitted a single kobo of its own 5% contribution to the Pension Fund Managers of workers under the contributory pension arrangement.

15.  Worse still, for more than a year now, the State Government has refused to remit the 5% contributions of the workers themselves which the State Government deducted from their salaries on behalf of the Pension Managers.

16.  The mega schools built in all the Local Government headquarters has not been put to use since the commencement of this botched project. This means that the financial commitments made towards these needless projects are lying in waste!

ADMINISTRATION

1.      The Aregbesola administration has abandoned the principle of hierarchy in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries and Head of Service. The administration has resorted to the use of some ‘kangaroo’ aptitude test for Senior Civil Servants which has allowed favouritism and unwholesome practices where Junior Officers loyal to Ogbeni’s administration are now being lorded over their superiors.

2.      The Aregbesola administration has so rubbished the Local Government Administrative System by running this very vital arm of government with Executive Secretaries, a term alien to the Nigerian Constitution. The set of Executive Secretaries enthroned in 2011 have had their six-month tenures renewed five times.

3.      Osun has completely abandoned the principle of Due Process in the Award of Contracts. The processes of pre-qualification, tender and competitive bidding has been completely disposed. Ogbeni virtually awards contracts to cronies majority of whom are from outside Osun State.

4.      This administration demolished a strategic administrative complex; the Old Governor’s office to build a modern market whereas there is land available in locations around the said area.

5.      Ogbeni renamed Osun State and began addressing a federating unit under the Federal Government as ‘State of Osun’. This has led to ambiguity as external relations with Osun State bear the constitutionally allowed Osun State and not his local State of Osun nomenclature.

6.      Osun State Government now pays majority of its contractors in cash, completely against the principle of due process.

7.      This government has refused to pay the severance gratuities of political office holders that served under the previous dispensation despite knowing it is their constitutional rights.

8.      The Osun State Governor goes about in the helicopter his administration purchased which he claimed was meant for security surveillance. This helicopter instead is being used for his personal transport.

9.      Taxes are being collected by unknown consultants whereas the State has a Revenue Board in place which is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of revenue collection.

10.  Bola Ahmed Tinubu publicly declared at the unveiling of the ‘Opon Imo’ that Kabir, the first son of Aregbesola should be commended for helping the State procure the multi-billion naira gadgets. It means the Aregbesola government deliberately ran the affairs of the State as a nuclear family affair, completely disregarding the principles of due process and the laws guiding Government Procurement.

11.  Osun State Government embarrassed the collective reasoning of Osun people by indiscriminately using copyrighted intellectual material on the Opon Imo gadgets without prior permission from the copyright owners. This led to a number of embarrassing lawsuits.

INFRASTRUCTURE

1.      Ogbeni’s administration awarded the re-construction of Ejigbo-Ede via Ara; Ejigbo-Ede via Awo, Ejigbo-Oguro and Ejigbo-Iwo roads to Perfect Structures Nigeria Limited, also on a contractor financing agreement at 3.5bn Naira. The award was done without due process but was given as a reward to Remi Olowude for his support towards his election bid in 2007. The project died upon the death of the awardee since proper organizational structures were not in place in the first place. God rest his soul.

2.      The use of such Lagos-imported contractors such as WestMidlands Construction Company without the normal due process of pre-qualification, tender and bidding has also successfully killed the Local Content approach that was used by the immediate past administration.

3.      The Akoda-Gbongan dualization project terminating at the Gbongan trumpet interchange has been ongoing for three years now. It is sad to note that no reasonable amount of work has been done on this project to justify the billions that has gone into this phantom project.

4.      The O’RAMP programme is an initiative of the Federal Ministry Ministry of Works tagged ‘Rural Access and Mobility Project’ aimed at opening up the rural areas and providing access. The allocations for the programme being paid to Osun State culminated into Aregbesola’s O’RAMP. The programme is today dead.

5.      The Dagbolu Industrial Project is a fake, a huge scam and an insult to the consciousness of Osun people. Bushes on that site were not cleared let alone construction work beginning. This is against the claims of Aregbe’s government that work is ongoing on that site.

6.      This administration has woefully failed to maintain major access roads. Examples are Ejigbo-Iwo, Osogbo-Iwo, Osogbo-Ede, Iwo-Oluponna, Iwo-Ikire, Osogbo-Ilobu-Ifon and many others left in deplorable states.

7.      All major projects awarded within the last four years have remained uncompleted till date. Examples are: Akoda-Gbongan interchange, Osogbo-ikirun-Ilaodo dualization, Aje International Market, Osogbo West Bypass and a host of others.

8.      Aregbesola further decided to fool our collective reasoning when he embarked upon the block-wall fencing of the 11.1km expanse of land upon which the Ido-Osun aerodrome is situated. Today, nothing is being heard of the Airport project, just the fence which signifies our wasted billions.

AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE

1.      We may want to ask ourselves today, Where is O’Beef? Remember that programme that was supposed to raise enough cattle for Osun people to feed on? What are the successes achieved so far?

2.      Where are the farm settlements? What gains were made from the settlements one of which was situated in Ifeodan, Ejigbo Local Government?

3.      What interventions has the Osun State Government given to farmers in the State in the last three years?

4.      How far has this government gone in its promise that it will revive the Cocoa Industry?

5.      Where is the widely publicized O’Clean Cooking Gas that was to be made from wastes?

6.      Where is Osuwon Omoluabi today? Remember that widely publicized scale that was to be introduced to markets?

7.      Where is our Osun State Trade Fair Complex? Yes, demolished to give way for Aje International Market….when will Aje International Market begin to generate income for the state?

8.      What has happened to the promises by Ogbeni Aregbesola to generate income for the state via the abundant presence of mineral resources in the State?

9.      Who are the miners currently working in Ilesa? Were they licensed by the State Government? Are they paying tax at all?

MANPOWER

1.      Osun State Government claimed it employs 20,000 youths in the O’YES scheme for each batch. Unfortunately, this is a huge lie from the pit of hell. Participants in the O’YES scheme has not at any point in time exceeded 10,000. A quick analysis of the number of participants present in each Local Government will give quick insight to this.

2.      All Ministry Schools in the State are so understaffed that they have to rely on the use of PTA teachers whose salaries are being sourced from parents. TESCOM and SUBEB are not spared but they have survived better because they have more hands than their Ministry of Education counterparts.

ODERINU ADEDAYO

Ibuckresources@gmail.com