Osun, Aregbesola and Failure to Appoint Commissioners, Special Advisers by Akinloye Saheed

Osun is 25 years old. Governor Rauf Aregbesola is the fourth democratically elected governor of the agrarian state noted for hardworking, honourable, resilient, lively, humble and sincere folks.

But strange things are beginning to happen in the State of the Virtuous. Things are changing. The sobriquet of the state was changed from State of the Living Spring to State of the Virtuous without much ado from the citizenry, because the change did not affect the price of fish.

However, recent changes in the State of the Virtuous are mindboggling because they are not only affecting the price of fish; they are also threatening the very essence of social coexistence in Osun.

Our Governor, who prefers to go by the name Ogbeni, and who has dropped the title, ‘His Excellency,’ saying he is not excellent, has refused to appoint commissioners and Special Advisers. But if our Governor admits that he is not excellent, how come then that he is doing it all alone? He is the one and only who sees the problems, formulates policies, disburses funds and also implements! Not even in the days of foremost Italian fascist, Benito Mussolini, were powers concentrated in one person’s hands. I think it was John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, who was the first Baron Acton that warned that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The refusal of Baba Kabiru not to appoint cabinet members should be put in perspective. I mean, what are its implications? Some people are saying that our governor’s refusal to appoint cabinet members in his second term is as a result of the poor performance of his cabinet in his first term. Keen watchers of his administration are also of the opinion that the poor performance of his cabinet permeated the state’s local government administration and service delivery in all facets.

Back to memory lane: During Aregbesola first tenure as the governor of Osun State from 2010 to 2014, it took Governor Aregbesola almost one year to form his cabinet, as he said he was saving money for the state by so doing.

During his first two years in office, Governor Aregbesola also failed to start any meaningful project in the state by hiding under the disguise of saving money and road project constructions is not a good idea during the raining season; so we have to wait till the dry season comes. All is story today because all are now abandoned project, and a death trap for motorist especially the fraud project called Ona Baba Ona, Ona ton soro ‘Stop Mapa Ara e’.

Why I referred the failure of Aregbesola not forming a cabinet as a failure of his last tenure executive cabinet, if we all look and scrutinize his first term and the performance of his executive members from commissioners to advisers, you would all agreed with me that they all performed woefully and a disgrace to our state, let me start from the few ministries.

The Agricultural ministry introduced many program and his promised on food security but all end in failure.

* Failed to Implement government policies regarding agriculture.

* Failed to improve the cash and food crops potentials in the State.

* Failed to facilitate loans and grants for farmers in the State.

* Failed to provide fertilizers and other farm inputs at subsidised rates.

* Failed to improve livestock and poultry potentials in the State.

We all remembered the failed project called O’hub which is only on the paper. He said in one of his speeches that the O’hub will be used for farm products reserve and export to other states from there but all is a failed promise and project.

2. The Ministry of Commerce, Co-Operative and Empowerment. The ministry and the commissioner failed to fulfill their promises.

* Failed to Register, coordinate and supervise cooperatives societies in the State.

* Failed to facilitate loans, micro-credit and empowerment programmes for citizens. We all remembered the scam of O’loan few weeks to the 2014 election.

* Failed to supervise commercial activities and other comer related operations in the State.

* Failed to raise revenue for government through levies, fines and other statutory collections to an exorbitant rate which led into killing many businesses and frustrating the hardworking citizens of the state.

3. The Ministry of Finance. This Ministry should have been the engine room of the state because of its abilities but it became the major problem of the state with the recklessness of Aregbesola’s administration in mismanagement of finances, bad loan negotiations putting a negative impact on the State’s economy.

Some of the shortcomings of the ministries are:

* Failed to implement government decision on financial policies leading to failure in paying salaries and result into paying half salaries for over a year now.

* Improving the internally generated revenues of the State but we can’t see the impact on the societies.

* Failed to supervise the implementation of budget which lead to 30% performance.

* Selfish Economic planning for improvement of the State’s economy and diversion in their personal pockets.

4. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is responsible for the educational sector in the State. It seeks to elevate the standard of education and maintain it. This is where Aregbesola claimed to be more successive but in reality, this is the ministry he recorded the worst performance.

* Curriculum revision of both primary and secondary schools, which has no positive impact on Osun Students.

* Implementation of government policies, that shutout the parents from participating in the growth of their wards academics.

* Liaise with Federal Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education Board and other agencies involved in education development and at the end want to claim the glory.

* Provision of unnecessary instructional materials, infrastructure and other facilities in schools that put the state in mass debt.

These are few ministries where most of his cabinet men failed him and discouraged him in entrusting his 2nd term into the politicians around.

I will continue to pray for my dear state, and I believe the future is bright.

Akinloye Saheed

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