Oyetola and the Shadow Boxers

By Adebayo Adedeji

Each time a piece of positive news is reported about Osun State under the leadership of Gboyega Oyetola, cynics and enemies of progress are often pained and insidious and quick to diminish it with the stroke of their negative energy. At every breath, they claim Oyetola is doing well because more funds are available to him. They do not want to agree sheer creativity, ingenuity and prudence, of the Governor and his finance team led by finance commissioner Bola Oyebamiji, are some of the factors responsible for the somewhat availability of fund for government business. In tangible and empirical terms, how do capital projects, which the previous government borrowed money from commercial institutions at cut-throat rate to install, impact on the success story of the current administration? Does Oyetola government enjoy more statutory allocation than the previous government? Attempts would be made in this piece to address these questions.

First, it was the financial recklessness of the government superintended by Rauf Aregbesola, 2010-2018, that led to the myriad of difficulties experienced by the current government. The period under discourse was when loans, most times, were obtained to make some contractors and cronies of the juggernauts happy. Or how would one explain the situation where monies were borrowed without defined projection to repay them?

It is on record that Rauf Aregbesola borrowed N16.5 billion at almost 20% interest rate to renovate 11 secondary schools. He called the selected schools Mega Schools. Schools with massive facilities but no content. Big body, as the street parlance goes, no engine. Schools which later became largely unoccupied by students and were never used optimally. This happened in the period of austerity. The period the state expenditure heavily outweighed its revenue. This was also the period the teachers that would transfer knowledge in those schools were forced to engage in babialaism to keep body and soul together. This, equally, was the period the state had to borrow over N36 billion to finance payment of salary, pension and allowances. What direct impacts did/has the investment in the mega schools make/made to education in Osun State? The data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics shows the grand facilities did not have any impact on the performance of education in the state.

For example, in the 2016 WAEC results, 45% of public students presented for the examination obtained 5 credits and above including Maths and English. During this period, however, Abia State obtained 71%, Anambra 70%, Bayelsa 70%, Edo 74%, Rivers 75%, Imo 75%, Delta 62%, Taraba 61%, Ondo 65%, Ogun 52% pass rates. Osun was only ranked alongside Adamawa and other educationally less developed states in the northern Nigeria. In fact, Kogi was rated better than Osun. Kogi obtained 47%! Similarly in 2017, the state obtained 43%. And 2018 was the year of the unthinkable. The performance slid further into abyss. Osun public students obtained 40.8% pass rate in WAEC! Considering the foregoing, it is in order to maintain that the decision of Aregbesola to access huge credit facility to build schools was haphazardly reasoned.

Some of the decisions, lacking in foresight, of Aregbesola and his yes-men, rammed the state into dire straits where, for example, funds meant to be available for the current administration to execute its numerous lofty programmes are taken at source to service debt owed by the defunct administration. It is not in dispute that in the first term of Rauf Aregbesola, the average statutory gross allocation to the state government was N50 billion. Specifically, in 2013, its gross allocation was N55 billion. Note: Gross is the money due to states, while Net is what is eventually distributed to them --- after deductions (i.e loan repayment) have been made. The Net shrinks when debt repayment obligations are fulfilled. Unfortunately, while the state government's Gross allocation from the Federal Account in 2019, during Oyetola governorship, was N51.9 billion, the Net that actually came to the state was paltry N24.2 billion! Where did the balance of N27.7 billion go? It was deducted to settle the debt left behind by Aregbesola government. This same time, Oyo State went home with N55 billion, Ekiti State with N41 billion and Ogun State with N38 billion.

Similarly in 2020, more than N20 billion was knocked off, from what was due to Osun State, to settle loans obtained by Aregbesola government. According to the State of States report for 2021, the State's debt repayment for 2020 was the third largest loan repayment made by any state in Nigeria. Osun debt burden was almost 9 times bigger than the IGR in the year under review. So from where did information being bandied around by the financial concoctionists, to the effect that Oyetola government earn more from the statutory allocation than the previous government, emanate? It is what it is: concoction. Concoction cooked to smell nice. Concoction cooked to taste nice. Concoction cooked to burnish some irredeemably collapsed image. Why should Aregbesolaists continue to wee-wee, whine and cry terribly like the mythological malevolent midget over a situation enlivened by patent profligacy of their principal, an unabashed entrencher of borrowing culture?

Notwithstanding the destructive perception adversaries of current government are labouring to create, the reality is that Oyetola is repositioning the state for financial prosperity. The improved IGR is a testament to this claim. From N10.4 billion IGR in 2018, Oyetola has exemplified leadership that attracted N19.6 billion in IGR into coffers of the state. The almost 100% leap in IGR is not accidental. It is a result of measured and deliberate interventions and sweeping governance reforms of this government. The Oyetola government in the last three years has adopted and intensified the use of Biometric technology and Bank Verification Number (BVN) in its payroll management. The government also continues to plug revenue leakages by operationising its accounts into a single account --- Treasury Single Account (TSA) and by enacting relevant procurement laws.

Another reality is that Aregbesola inherited a debt of N15 billion and left for his successor, Oyetola, a debt of about N200 billion even though Aregbesola received a windfall of N42 billion Paris Club Refund intended hugely for the payment of salary and pension.

All these realities, no doubt, are well understood by the informed Osun populace. And at the appropriate time, the cavilers, the irritating quibblers, the devious pettifoggers, fabricating misleading data and building false case against Oyetola to foul the atmosphere would realise they are only but chasing their own shadow to obscurity.

https://docpetinfo.com/2021/10/04/oyetola-and-the-shadow-boxers-by-adebayo-adedeji/

DIS DEMONS COMPETING,WHO STEAL PASS

I didn't read.