Osun: Oyetola and his jokes of 'great strides'

By Ibrahim Sarafa

Last Friday was November 27 but it ended up reminding Osun people of how uninspiring an inept leadership could be. That day marked a year that Gboyega Oyetola took the saddle of Osun state, however, it left people of the state with nothing to cheer about. It was a boring celebration and I'm sure Oyetola knows this himself.

Though, his uninspiring performance in the first one year was not unexpected. Osun people were conscious enough to project abysmal progress under Oyetola and resoundingly rejected him at the poll. But the will of the people were violently circumvented and a callous and inept leadership was foisted on the people through 'remote control'.

The judiciary that ought to be the last hope of the common man, left Osun people more disappointed and devastated with pronouncements that failed to emphasize the sanctity of ballots to decide a leader in a democracy. Here, we are, and confronted with the reality. One year in the saddle and Oyetola has proven majority of Osun people who rejected his choice right.

When you look at the sluggish pace of things generally in the last one year, you'll be left with a sore taste of Oyetola's directionless government. Infact, it is not a thing to be celebrated and calls for sober reflections from citizens on the trajectory of the state under Oyetola.

It's hard to remember when last a governor left many with little or no prospect about his government with abysmal showing in a year. It is a sign that the man in the saddle lacks the emotional and intellectual capacity to find solutions to the myraid of challenges facing the people nor inspire confidence of his ability to deliver.

For the first time in Osun's democratic history, the people felt disjointed with the trajectory of the state, and the reason for their discomfort is right inside the broadcasted speech of Oyetola to commemorate his one year in office. Sound disturbing? Well, welcome to the rule of Oyetola, where "almost achieving" is dubbed "great strides".

If you take your time to study the speech of Oyetola well enough, you would probably understand the precarious situation of the state and get a sense that help is elusive. Osun is facing challenges on different fronts and that explained the vigorous push by the people to elect someone with genuine love and concern for them, that would work for them and not the pecuniary interests of a Lord and Master Ikoyi but their will was violently subverted.

Though, the pain of denying people their rights to decide who leads them is excruciating, it was made worse by the incoherence and distasteful performance of the man who was manipulated over them with brute force and legal technical shenanigans. Except for his politically correct stooges or those trying to curry favour from Oyetola who will not tell him the truth, every sane minded Osun indegene knows his performance in the last one year has been anything far from encouraging. Infact, he aggravated the disappointment of the people by throwing up non-existing, fictitious progress recorded under his predecessor and former boss.

That explained the low interest the broadcast generated among Osun people, who are left disappointed at the clear indication that nothing really changed. The truth, which almost every Osun indigene are well aware of, is that Oyetola was not showing any difference from his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, whose eight years in the saddle demonstrated, on multiple fronts, that he isn't interested in the welfare of the people.

For instance, Oyetola claimed in his speech that "we have begun a remarkable journey of deepening our economy and opening up opportunities to empower our people and create wealth" but this is something anyone living in or who knows Osun very well will find almost impossible to accept.
Also playing Aregbesola's trick on diversification when he declared that Osun is "moving gradually from excessive dependence on the Federal Allocation" and that "we have significantly improved our Internally Generated Revenue", is one thing that cannot easily fool Osun people.

If indeed, there had been 'significant' improvement in IGR, Oyetola should have simply pointed it out to Osun people and let them guage if really excessive reliance on federal allocation is dropping. Just few years ago, Aregbesola painted similar scenario to Osun people by claiming that IGR had grown to an impressive N1.5 billion monthly but it later turn to be inaccurate when National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data could not back up the claim.

This is not a time to throw up figures particularly in the face of the challenges posed by huge debts incurred by Aregbesola's government; of which Oyetola is an integral part of, had sunk Osun into. That fuelled expectations that Oyetola would brace up and look inward for alternate source of revenue considering that substantial amount of federal allocations goes to servicing debt. However, Oyetola is more concerned about fancy political statements than actually making the right impact.

From infrastructures to the socio-economic benefits for Osun people, the stories have not been different from the ugly tales that characterised the 8 years of Aregbesola. But Oyetola would rather ignore the pulse of the public and dish out self-assessed achievements that fails to tally with the reality. Whether in agriculture or infrastructural interventions, Oyetola subscribed to vague descriptions to catalogue his so-called achievements in those areas.

Take, for example, Oyetola said he revitalized farm settlements across the state but that seems to be too excessive and not supported by the situation of most farm settlements in Osun. And, when he said "not less than 55 km roads have been rehabilitated throughout the 3 Senatorial Districts" and that "206 km of rural road have been completed", that was a turnoff to many citizens, who are either worried that the interventions are exaggerated to hoodwink the people or believed they were non-existent.

That is not all. The last one year of Oyetola has not been so cheering and this is more obvious from the scramble for anything that can be portrayed as "achievements", whether visible or not. It is anything short of 'great strides' except it is a joke and as at moment, Osun people are only interested in real things.

Ibrahim Sarafa is a freelance journalist and writes from Osun state. He can be reached on neyoclass09@gmail.com and @SarafaNgr

The main reason why I preferred Oyetola winning the election last year. So that he can pack all the sh¡t his predecessor left behind.

The debt is too huge mehn.

See goffernor wey dey give out cooler and cooking pot as part of his 1yr achievement
Person wey swear for this country don die tey tey .

Good morning osun, it's too early to wail

Yes the man is good for the job cos the other time he donated 5 billion naira to buhari's almajiri

Is like you are smoking lizard dung

Rednaxelot:
The main reason why I preferred Oyetola winning the election last year. So that he can pack all the sh¡t his predecessor left behind.

The debt is too huge mehn.

IbyOneGod:
Is like you are smoking lizard dung

I didn’t smoke your dung

Nooo your father's own

Rednaxelot:
I didn’t smoke your dung

The people chose who they wanted. But they were robbed