A former Commissioner for Information in Osun State, Mr Adelani Baderinwa, who is now the Supervisor, Ministry of Information and Strategy in the state, tells Bola Bamigbola that contrary to the claims by the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State, Mr Soji Adagunodo, the immediate past governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola performed wonderfully in office, in the following interview:
The PDP candidate in the 2018 governorship election in Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, and his party have accused ex-governor Rauf Aregbesola and Governor Gboyega Oyetola of mismanaging the state. How do you react to this?
You cannot give what you do not have, no matter how hard you try. With due respect to Senator Ademola Adeleke, his obvious limitations…
It is only sheer ignorance, mischief or “bad belle” that will make anybody to say the kind of things attributed to Senator Adeleke. No responsible person will make an un-substantiated claims like this and want to be taken seriously by the community of rational human beings. And like he has been challenged by our party, the APC, he should substantiate his claims…
Recently, the ICPC put to shame haters who bellyache and derive joy from the cheap and random condemnation of the Aregbesola’s government by declaring it as one of the most transparent in the history…
But Aregbesola himself declared before leaving the office that the airport project at Ido Osun had failed. Is this not true?
The MKO Abiola Airport project is dear to all right thinking people. In terms of its historical value, conception, design and expected value additions to societal well being and growth, the airport project was well thought out when we took it over.
While the government of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola initiated the project, the Aregbesola government reworked it to suit every son and daughter of Osun and, indeed Nigerians’ needs. It was meant to complement mainly the Aregbesola administration’s economic programmes which in itself was ambitious and seemingly attainable with the resources available to government and private participation.
But then, the PDP Federal Government of that time bastardised the economy, made it up to look good when in reality it had suffered the greatest setback in history by the act of ineptitude and gargantuan corruption. Osun is part of where the PDP ruled. It was affected like all other parts of Nigeria. The airport project was affected like many others.
The hope in public- private partnership arrangement could not materialise for obvious economic reasons. The attempt to get the airport on track as expected wobbled because the contractor/financier could not raise the necessary funds.
It’s important to make the point here that the amount expended on the project by the Aregbesola government was spent in conjunction with the Nigeria Air Force who was invited to provide technical support. The partnership produced a result as the airport today has a very well made runway. À good airport is about good runway. The perimeter fence of the land area is done which has effectively shielded away encroachment which was rampant before
Despite the promises made by Aregbesola to complete all the projects he initiated, some of the projects have still not been completed. Looking at the debt profile of the state vis-a-vis all these projects, will you say the resources of the state have been properly managed by the administration?
Like I said earlier on, only a sound dispassionate mind will appreciate the great work passionately done in the State of Osun by Aregbesola. Two of the roads are federal roads whose state of dilapidation was awful when Aregbesola took over in 2010. The third was non-existent as of that time.
It was the innate belief of Aregbesola that there was no federal person and that his people must traverse on good roads, hence his decision to reconstruct and rehabilitate the roads. The extent to which the PDP-bastardised economy allowed government to go is what you are seeing. The Aregbesola administraton had planned based on the available resources. What it was meant to do in government was drawn back by the fall in revenue from the federation account and dwindled internally-generated revenue. That was what slowed down work on the road projects. It was never abandoned.
What is the debt profile of Osun State?
The debt profile has been in the public domain for as long as the time we were taking the loans. The government had been sufficiently transparent to the extent that we announced that we were taking loans and stated the purpose for which we were taking them. The Debt Management Office has never failed to state debts owed by the federal and state governments as the situation may demand. One of such was in 2017 when the totality of our debt was put at N146 billion. We acknowledged it and stated categorically that if not for the economic crunch which we didn’t expect, the debt wouldn’t have been of any issue and effect on our operations.
The PDP also accused Oyetola of being a big player in the administration of Aregbesola they claimed looted the state’s resources. Is this true?
Nobody can claim ignorance of Governor Oyetola’s eminent position in the Aregbesola administration. He was the ubiquitous Chief of Staff to the former governor. Aregbesola described him as the engine room of his government. The assets and liabilities of the administration are what Governor Oyetola inherited…
Punch
