Oyetola Has Performed Creditably Well Despite Meagre Resources– Oyintiloye

The Special Adviser to the Governor of Osun State on Civic Engagement, Olatubosun Oyintiloye, speaks on issues affecting the state, their political party and how the Governor has brought unprecedented development to the state within the space of three years in this interview with Ayobami Agboola
Excerpts:

Governor Oyetola on the third year of his first term. Looking back, how has it been since the assumption of duty?

Good governance is determined by service delivery. This is the assessment indicator to posit that Oyetola has performed creditably well despite meagre resources. He has used his financial engineering skills and administrative experience to effectively manage the state little resources to give great deliveries in governance.

Specifically, in the area of road infrastructure, many road networks have been constructed or ongoing within two years in office. Among the roads are Alekuwodo/Akinlade in Osogbo, Ede-Ara_Ejigbo, Kelebe-Iragbiji, Ada-Igbajo, Moro-Akinlalu, Famia (Modakeke township), Ilesha township, Ede township, Ejigbo township and Aagba township. His administration has embarked on the construction of Flyover Bridge at the popular Olaiya Junction in Osogbo the State Capital, the edifice targeted towards bringing socioeconomic improvement and reduction of traffic hassles in the area. Not only that, twenty-two new roads cutting across all the nine federal constituencies are ongoing in the state.
The health sector has also experienced a massive refurbishment with total upgrade of 332 Primary Health Centres (PHC’s) across all the wards in the state. This offers a proximate opportunity to people in the communities to have access to quality health deliveries. Equally, all general hospitals and some comprehensive health centres in the state have been fully upgraded as well as the construction of 120 bedded structure and resident doctors quarters at Asubiaro in Osogbo.
The Oyetola-led administration is equally revamping the economy through industrialization and commercialization by the establishment of Osun Ethanol Bio-Refinery factory as well as the International Trade Centre/Industrial Hub and Inland Port, which are projected to create massive job opportunities to not less than 10,000 people respectively.
Equally, the welfare of both active workers and pensioners is given maximum priority. The administration of Oyetola has not only committed itself to full payment of workers’ salary and pensions but also had implemented minimum wages for the workers in the state. Others benefits of workers are in full force. Also worthy of mentioning is the social intervention programmes such as loans, grants as well as Food Support Scheme for the vulnerable which is targeted towards ameliorating poverty, and by extension ensuring economic stability in the state.
Even at this point of his administration, Oyetola has many scorecards to his credit. He believes in the maxim that, ‘continuity is the bedrock of sustainable governance and development’ and he has not reneged on many programmes and policies of the past administration. This is an invaluable scorecard which should be enviable to all irrespective of political affiliation.
Equally, building his governance around the people as a means of consolidating democratic principles is big plus for him. He created civic engagement office as first of its kind in the state; an institution through which governance is taken back to the people by regular interface with a view to getting their feelers on government programmes and policies in form of feedbacks as well as providing them platforms to state their demands and yearnings which will guide policy formulation process. From what I have observed, he wants to be remembered as a governor that did his best, identify with his people and solve many of their major challenges using instruments of governance.

The APC has release guidelines for the next year’s governorship election. How do you think Osun people will receive Oyetola’s bid for a second term?

There is no gainsaying the fact that, Oyetola has become a household name at every nook and cranny of the state. This is not unconnected to the top-notch and brilliant performance of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola in all sectors of the state economy which has brought about tremendous development in the security, education, infrastructure, human capital, health among others despite paucity of funds, coupled with the fact that the governor had brought a paradigm shift in the state governance where premium is given to the opinion of the masses in the process of policy formulation. With the leadership style of Governor Oyetola which has bridged government-people gap, the governor is more endeared to the people which will definitely transcend to popular support for his reelection. This is why his reelection is widely being canvassed for by independent bodies and groups like artisans, trade unions, workers’ unions among other informal groups.

Recently, we heard the governor’s group attacked the TOP members at their meeting. How would you react to that?

To state the obvious, Mr. Governor does not have any group but only has a movement which served as a platform for his election campaign as an aspirant before being the candidate of the party, like most of his predecessors had. As the leader who believes in party unity and supremacy, the governor has integrated the movement with the party structure in order to build a formidable force.
Having stated that clearly, it is blatant that such allegation on the personality of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola is a ruse known to politics for the governor is widely adjudged to be a man of peace whose calm posture has been instrumental to sustainable stability the state enjoys, even in the face of tensed political atmosphere.

You have been involved in mobilization and sensitization of Oyetola’s programmes across the state, what has been the response of the people of the state?

Civic Engagement program is a well embraced initiative of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola among the state populace, as it is being described as first of its kind in the history of the state where governance is taken directly to the people. As a matter of fact, the engagement drive of the current administration has been yielding positive results as the popular demands, yearnings and aspirations of the people have been the ultimate consideration in the policy formulation process. For instance, the ongoing construction of flyover, the ongoing twenty-two new roads being constructed across the nine federal constituencies of the state, among others have been implemented based on the demands of the people in the affected areas.
The people’s demands which form feedbacks from series of engagement programmes are elements of the input system in our state policy cycle. For instance, people’s voices became the opinion poll which informed the decision of the government to consider the review of the state education policy. Equally, the state infrastructures are allocated according to the needs of individual community in the state.

Many political observers in Osun believe PDP will benefit from the crisis in Osun APC during the next election. What is your take on this?

We are in a democratic society where we can’t shy away from the fact that plurality of interests remains the political driving force. Although, the same democracy has instituted a mechanism of interest harmonization which is why internal democracy is the central principle of progressive party. As a matter of fact, we have strong and competent leadership to resolve all issues which may arise from divergence of interests as it may occur in politics. All what you see as crisis bedeviling our party are just an expression of interests that cannot be played down because it will turnout to be a great advantage for us as party in the next election, especially with the capacity of leadership which is believed to bring about a synergy that will make us come out stronger. This is in addition to the brilliant performance of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola in state governance which does not only make him but also our party, a cynosure to all eyes. In short, our party has internal structure to overcome any sort of challenge, and as a result, I’m confident that the chance of our party is as bright as ever and the opposition’s plan to stage a comeback in 2022 is just a mirage.