Isaac Olusesi

 In State of Osun, Nigeria, under-development was lavishly characterized by disarticulation and incoherence, with linkages either dropped off or oscillated forward and backward until the government of the conservative Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state was truncated by the judiciary. Reflective apathy or outright disdain for government affairs, arising from broken electoral promises, sense of injustice, pervasive corruption, environmental deterioration and general decay were overwhelmingly a fact of life and living in Osun under PDP.

The then opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), now All Progressives Congress (APC) on assumption of power in the state in November, 2010, with the former Governor Rauf Aregbesola (2010-2018), now Minister of Interior of the Federal Republic of Nigeria appreciated the enormity of under-development of Osun, took on the state for analysis, examination and evaluation; and practically did the needful. He removed inhibitions to the ability of Osun to effectively tackle the issue of revenue mobilization and utilization in manners that decisively reduced the state total dependence on the central government subventions and dramatically turned Osun away from being a mere decoration unit in the periphery of central administration.

And the empirical corollary, the rapidly developmental changes in the state policies and projects, economy and social life, politics and politicking, and norms and standards of good governance with colossal bias for transparency and accountability cannot be said to be anything less novel to the reigning paradigm of continuity of good governance in the state under the same APC-Governor Gboyega Oyetola, whose variegated experiences in the private sector initiatives, ranging from regulations, de-regulations, general control and open participation are ostensibly deep-rooted in his strong belief in the intensely felt and guided development to enhance quality of life for the generality of the people of Osun which correspondingly informed why he openly challenged his newly inaugurated cabinet members, a Thursday ago at the oath-taking, to deliver on the Osun holistic development agenda ‘to make it difficult for opposition parties to contest any future election in the state’, or else get whipped, spanked if found wanting in competence, probity and transparency.

The import of the meaningful charge to the state new cabinet is that in the gap between Osun development and the new cabinet, larger context of the Osun development must be pursued, unmatched, with the cabinet applying its innovative capabilities and unfettered opportunities to induce and manage the development of the state for the well-being of Osun people, putting the stamp of legitimacy on the governing APC- Oyetola. And filling the gap, the governor, to be sure, will not grant latitude, fiat to development disarticulation in any of its forms, capable of de-accelerating progressive governance in Osun and creating petit-bourgeosis leadership within the cabinet to the detriment of the development of the state. That was why he sternly warned the new cabinet to eschew frivolities, corruption and opacity, opaque. The quiet, no non-sense governor must have been self-convinced of the possibility of human intrigues, infractions to want to stultify, manipulate the Osun development drive at the expense of the state; and except Oyetola, the private sector business mogul ‘shin-shine’ his eyes, the public sector in Nigeria is regarded as the easiest avenue for personal enrichment. Implying that the one, from within the new cabinet who owns the enterprise that tends to enjoy tax concessions, tax evasion, government contracts, government patronages and such illicit money spinning exchanges capable of disarticulating development of the people of Osun in the condemned, highly condemnable tradition of PDP government once upon a time in the state, must come under constant surveillance.

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In the gap, what about certain Osun senior civil servants, with collaborative interest in illegitimate economic base for themselves in concealed sharp conflict with the state development agenda? Rather than being guided by the intensively felt development needs of Osun, the senior civil servants, the mandarins, made part of the expanded state cabinet of the PDP government in Osun, allowed their own interests to determine development decisions that neither worked utilitarian nor set the state under PDP on the path of socio-economic and political growth and development. And in the circumstances, the ultimate goal of bureaucratic leadership could not be said to be distributive; the privileged bureaucrats in Osun determined who got what, how and when; and the privileged coasted home the new share of the net gain, added to their previous accumulation.

But under APC, Osun has full assurances of abridgement of whatever the gap extant between Osun development and the new cabinet in the state. The will power and prolific innate intelligence and capacity in Oyetola loathe proliferation of role, and that alone will guide him against making senior civil servants chairmen of boards/commissions as well as members of several other boards/commissions at the same time in addition to their normal civil service job. The possible extension of civil service rigidity to the business of the boards/commissions will hamper productive performance; the boards/commissions will be denied the services of experts outside the civil service; and senior civil servants, serving in person or through the accredited on several boards/commissions at the same time will never have enough time for any of the assignments, let alone their scheduled jobs. Oyetola knows that development of the state would be influenced by the global exigent rationalization of the finances of Osun by reducing the state expenditure, intensifying internally raised revenue and widening other resources of the state economy, with a view to narrowing the dependence on the central revenue allocations to stimulate the Osun economy and make life meaningful for the entire citizenry.

Already, in the last one year of the APC-Oyetola in power in Osun, integrated re-development projects, distinguishing the practicable from the desirable, with profoundly forward linkages on the life and living of Osun people have been achieved. A total of 11 Fire Service Stations in the state have been provided with 14 fire fighting vehicles, firing dutiful confidence in the state Fire Service Department to save life and property. And critical infrastructure completed and commissioned included Specialist Hospital in Osogbo, state capital, General Hospitals and  332 Primary Health Centre (PHCs) across Osun, re-modeled, up-graded and inaugurated; the existing school buildings  at Telemu, Morinu and other communities  in the state with enrolment as low as 200,250,300,400,500,750 pupils  in series of 4 classrooms, 5 classrooms, 6 classrooms, 8, 10, 15, 20 classrooms were all rehabilitated and commissioned; the Osogbo-Ibadan, Osogbo-Iwo, Sekona-Ife roads have workmen, tractor-trailers and graders working on them to re-fix the roads for users; workers in the state have continued to take full salary, and even before the last day of the month; and payment of state pensioners, not defaulted. The inherited social intervention programmes and existing security of life and property by Oyetola against the major challenges of limited resources of the state are worthwhile navigations, collapsing apathy in the governed; while causality between the state government and the governed, established, heightening political efficacy, public trust in government, internal security, social justice and healthy environment for human survival and development.

And the cornucopia of Oyetola’s personal jottings during the APC-Governor thank-you-tour of Osun soonest after his election remain the best guarantee for bridging the gap between the development of the state and its new cabinet, compelling the APC tradition of responsiveness, responsibility, sensibility and accountability to the electorate.

Olusesi is Assistant Director, Directorate of Publicity, Research & Strategy, All Progressives Congress (APC) State of Osun