By Bakare Saheed
SIR: The Nation on Saturday published an article titled ‘Osun: The storm foreseen authored by one Abiodun Komolafe.
In the said article, the author talked about three groups of people Governor Oyetola had to contend with when he came on board. He described the first set of people as those who demand change with immediate effect from the governor; second class as those who believe the governor should be given a chance to build development; and the third class as those who believe nothing good can come out of his government.
The writer went on to further assert that the second class of people will, from the look of things, have to “wait possibly, till ‘Kingdom come’ before they begin to see some meaningful development’. This conclusion is not only subjective but also mischievous. Komolafe is either completely out of touch with developments in Osun or has probably chosen to ignore them for reasons best known him.
There is no denying the fact that citizens and residents of the state have been feeling the positive impacts of the present administration right from its inception. Despite the challenge posed by paucity of fund, Governor Oyetola has embarked on several developmental projects in different parts of the state, including the rehabilitation of primary healthcare centres and general hospitals.
While delivering his inauguration address, Governor Oyetola made a strong commitment to revamp the state’s health sector. And true to his words, the governor shortly after assuming office, announced an ambitious plan to revitalise, renovate, rehabilitate and build a total of 332 PHCs across the State, one per ward, which includes provision of modern equipment, supply of drugs and improving the capacity of health workers.
Of this, over 200 have been completed and are being commissioned in batches for use of the public. The Oyetola administration has also strengthened the operations of the State Health Insurance Scheme, with indigenes and residents now enrolled under the scheme. The governor released the sum of N150m as take-off grant for the scheme and another N477m as equity grant for premium for the less privileged enrolled under the scheme.
Furthermore, the state government has embarked on renovation of classrooms, construction and rehabilitation of roads, among other developmental projects.
The Osun State Government has disclosed its readiness to commence massive road construction across the three senatorial districts in the state.
It is also worthy to note that Governor Oyetola has significantly improved the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state, and also ensured prompt payment of full salaries to state workers. The era of payment of half salaries is gone. Pensioners have also been receiving their entitlements. Only last Friday, the governor presented bond certificates worth N1.2b to retired workers enrolled under the Contributory Pension Scheme as their retirement packages. He had about three days before then, released the sum of N50million for the payment of gratuities of retired workers under the old pension scheme. This is a clear demonstration of the priority the present administration gives to the welfare of both active and retired workers in the state.
Governor Oyetola should be commended for doing more with little. It is therefore mischievous of anyone to claim Osun citizens are yet to start feeling the impact of the government or will have to wait forever to witness any meaningful development in the state.
Finally, there is no truth to the claim by Komolafe that commissioners in the state are not working as a team and have been striving individually. The commissioners have been working as a team towards the realization of the developmental agenda of Governor Oyetola who appointed them.
The government would rather focus on improving the lives of the citizenry by implementing more people-oriented projects/programmes and to build on the infrastructure legacy inherited from the previous administration. This is what Osun people expect of the governor, and not patronage of persons who believe they have a sense of entitlement.
- Bakare Saheed, Osogbo, Osun State.
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