NBS’s Report On Osun Debt Profile Vindicates Aregbesola

The Osun State Government has said that the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the debt profile of the state has once again vindicated Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration and slammed critics over its prudence in financial management.

According to the government, the NBS’s report which stated that the state is indebted to the tune of N179bn discredited allegations and ‘deliberate misinformation by the oppositions that Aregbesola has plunged the state to over N600bn, N400bn and N450bn at different occasions.

The government added that aside dismissing the “unreasonable” figures quoted by the oppositions, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the report also gave Aregbesola a clean bill of health on his financial re-engineering drive.

A statement the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa, stressed that although the present administration in recognition of its drive to rapidly develop the state obtained loans and credit facilities, residents of the state are witnesses to the transformation that has been recorded in the last six and a half years.

Baderinwa said the figure released by the NBS is for the total debt incurred since the state’s creation in 1991 and not just the sum of credit facilities obtained by the Aregbesola’s administration.
The statement said: “The NBS has put both the internal and external loans, bound and other credit line obtained by the State Government to N179bn ($96, 347, 432, 73 and N147, 069, 973, 626.49) as against the wanton figure of N600bn at a time, N450billion at another and N400billion as found suitable by the bound of hopeless opposition.”
“The State government wishes to note that the totality of N179bn includes all loans and all other debt instruments obtained by all administrations that have ruled the state since its creation and those inherited from the old Oyo state.

“Even with the NBS’s N179bn debt figure, the government wishes to note that the loan is still within its capacity to access and pay back in a normal economic situation and government has indeed been servicing its debts without public knowledge before the Peoples Democratic Party induced economic recession.

“For what it worth, we state that the loans obtained by the Aregbesola’s administration have been prudently and judiciously used for the undisputable, glaring and transformative development that is evident in every part of the state. Any thinking or submission contrary to this must be a product of deluded mind and or mischievous head.”

“It is a well known fact that most successful governments in other parts of the world achieve development and great dynamic society through the aid of loans and other financial facilities which they put to good use as have been done in the State of Osun.”

Baderinwa added: “The administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola as a visionary, prudent, accountable and proactive one  took the loans to finance rapid development of infrastructure that made Osun a reference point and cynosure of good governance in the land.”
“May we note that with the new look that the state is carrying today in terms of infrastructure and socioeconomic development by which many accolades had been poured on the government of the State of Osun led by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola at national and international levels, and the facts that many of its projects have been copied at national and international levels, commendation is what should be showered on the government by the people.”

He urged the opposition to be constructive in its criticisms, saying ” “Damaging the image of the state is not what opposition is about, but pointing out where the government needs to improve for the betterment of the state.”