Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola spoke with reporters in
Osogbo, the state capital, on his administration, the Ekiti governorship election
and preparations for the August 9 poll in the State of the Living Springs.
Excerpts:
The governorship election will hold in Osun State next
month. How can the APC avert what
happened during the Ekiti poll?
A genuine democrat must be willing and ready to embrace
defeat as he or she will embrace victory, provided the election is transparent,
credible, free and fair. The real issue is not about you as a candidate, but
the quality of the electoral process. Once the quality is good and high,
whatever the people say is the final because they are the ultimate decider of
who represents or govern them. Democratic choices is expected to be correct,
good and right, but it is not always that the choice is good, correct and
right. Long before I assumed this office, I prepared so well for the office in
a way that, going by the normal run, I should not be working as hard as I am
working now for re-election. I am one of the politicians that from day one
began my campaign. From the day I entered this office, I started my campaign.
How many governors walk the streets with their citizens? I have been doing that
since the first month in office. How many governors creates interactive forum
in Nigeria before me? There is none. I was the first governor that devoted
close to 10 hours of continuous engagement on a quarterly basis with the
citizens.
The ‘Ogbeni Till Day Break’ is a worldwide engagement
because we take feedbacks from social media. Hardly is there any community in
this state that I have not touched personally. In terms of physical and social
services, this is the first government that will say that there is no
household, be it the PDP, be it the APC and others, that our programme has not
reached, there is none. I feed 300,000 pupils every school day at the cost of N3.6
billion a year, I have been doing it since 2012 and I have spent N7.2 billion
on that. The students consume 15,000 whole chicken every week and it is served
twice. They consume 300,000 eggs every week, one egg a week. They consume 400
tons of fish every week. They consume 35 herds of cattle every week. We gave
close to N600 million to the poultry farmers and also the fish farmers.
Also, 1000 new farmers who we raised to produce cocoyam are
in this, close to 500 ‘O’Yes cadets’ are equally empowered to outtake the
cocoyam and give to the vendors. Also, tens of thousands are equally engaged
providing different items. From this alone, close to one million people are
directly impacted from just one programme, ‘O’meal’. We have the second batch
of O’Yes cadets, the first batch of 20,000 had gone, the 2nd batch of 20,000 is
on and they are from homes. They work two or three days a week and they have
the entire days of week left for them to see what they can do with their hands
and earn a living because they are taught entrepreneurial training but they
earn N10,000 monthly as cadets. On this scheme alone, this administration has
spent N9 billion. I tell people what this type of scheme means for national
government. You can’t say I don’t have 18 friends who I can give half a billion
naira contract to, whether they do it or not, I would have still given it. But,
the maximum amount of that investment that will stay here will be less than 50
per cent, yes, you will have the project here but there would still be capital
flight because we are talking about direct impact on the economy. O’Yes have changed the paradigm; 100 per cent
of that N9 billion is in this economy.
The programme has huge economic benefit to the state. Every
O ‘Yes cadet has a smart card and the issue of anyone handling or tampering
with their money does not arise. We are one of the few government that develops
a meaningful programme for elderly citizens care. We are not into a blanket
social welfare scheme for the elderly, we have a package that did an extensive
survey of citizens that are 65 years and above, we have them in our database.
We now identified those among them that are without any support, that is the
first time any government will so do in Nigeria. We engaged a consultant, who
is a professor of gerontology in OAU, Ile-Ife . He developed the programme they
used and without sentiment or parochialism, they got elderly citizens that lack
support, we called them critically vulnerable people who are aged but have
nobody to care for them. If we did not discover them, nobody will know such
people exist in Nigeria because they are waiting to die because they lack
everything. We identified 1,800 of such people state wide.
The selection was purely based on their conditions, not
primodial sentiment. We didn’t do the selection anyway, Professor Ogunbameru of
OAU administered everything, gave us the list and the addresses. We have been
giving them N10,000 monthly since 2012.Your question is if am bothered about
Ekiti, I don’t even think about it. As a loyal APC member, I was disturbed.
But, as a head of a government that has
worked so well with the people, I don’t even see the effect. I look at my
engagement with the people, the products of my government, which has not left
any home unaffected positively, and I said if election is about acceptance,
popularity and impact you have made on the people, we are waiting for what the
dictate of democracy would be. In a credible, transparent, free and fair
election, Rauf Aregbesola does not have any worry at all about what people will
say about his administration.
Is your
administration in good terms with four critical sectors, namely teachers, civil
servants, okada riders and students?
Let us start with the students. When we came in, students
were given a bursary of N3,000 and they won’t even get the bursary on time and
it was full of scam. They brought it to me to sign and I said why do I have to
sign N3,000 for anybody? We raised the bursary to N10,000 flat. For medical and
law students N20,000 while our indigenes in the Law School get N100,000. I
don’t see how such students will hate us. I can’t see it. Whoever now hates us
has something else against us not for the fact that we have not done the
needful. The increase wasn’t solicited; we did it out of our own understanding
of the reality of what the students are going through. There was clamor for the
reduction of fees. We reduced the fees from a huge amount to something that is
comparably affordable. Also, we have been investing in developing the
institutions much more than any administration has done in the history of this
state.
For okada riders, they have no problem with us. They may
want us to do things for them as we have done to some other groups, but it not
as if they said, compared to others, these are the problems. The roads here are
appreciated even by those who used legs. Has any government succeeded in
constructing 200 kilometres of road in all the nooks and crannies of the state?
There is no part of this state that we have not constructed a new road and it
is not just any road, but roads with concrete drainage, with stone base and
kick asphaltic cover and above all, when I get to campaign grounds, I say our
roads have tribal marks. We now have special roads. When we complete some of
them, they will be tourism attraction and centres on their own. The road we are
building in Gbogan, people will be coming to look at it, mark my words. That
road you see, Gbongan/Akoda Road will be a tourism attraction because it is not
an ordinary road because its a road that took me time to conceive and design
and we are taking our time to develop it. We also want to tell the world that
the black man is a human being. I have two major objectives on earth. One is to
help in the process of eliminating poverty because I hate poverty. I wasn’t
born poor, but I feel bad to see people in destitution. Two is that I don’t
like how blacks are in the world today. As long as I live, I must be part of
the process that will give the black man a good reckoning where they are
because sadly, we are in the lowest part of civilisation. I have been
everywhere in the World, except the continent of Australia, and in everywhere
in the world, the most depressing portion of it is inhabitated by blacks. These
are the two issues that motivate me.
What about civil servants?
Before our advent, the civil servants never knew that salary
could be paid before the end of the month. For seven and half year, salaries
were never paid here before the end of the month. But, from when I assumed
office, we changed that. Before the year ended when I assumed office, I paid 10
per cent of their basic as the 13th month salary and paid December salary
before the end of the year.
The civil servants were dazed. Since that day up until
December 2013, I pay salary on or before the 25th of every month. But, as from
January 2014, we ran into trouble which we explained to everybody six months
before then. In July 2013, the Federal Government began a squeeze. They said
400,000 barrel of crude oil is being stolen everyday. We didn’t know the
problem was coming. Instead of collecting N4.6 billion, they gave this
government N2.6 billion, 40 per cent slashed. We thought it will be temporary
because, after that month, they said the stolen crude has reduced to 200,000
barrel per day. When the oil being lost reduced, would you still expect a 40
per cent cut? From that July to now, the maximum allocation this state has ever
received is N3.2 billion, which was in November 2013. I am not making up
anything, simply saying the truth. Now ask me how was I able to pay up until
December 2013? My people are called osomalo. They are very deft in the
management of money and I took this from them. I had been saving through the
‘Omoluwabi Conservation Fund’ in which 10 per cent of all allocation must just
go and rest. So, I had money in reserve, which was a build-up from my refusal
to form cabinet for 10 months. I had the money. Whereas my income fell to
N2.6billion at the lowest and N3.4billion at the highest for a month, my
statutory expenditures, which are expenditures that I have no control on, once
we have agreed on it, for instance salary, pension and they are N3.6 billion
every month, I have no power over it. I can’t say no Iam not paying, Between
July and December, I augmented my income with N5.4 billion. All in the hope that this thing will go, it
didn’t go. It has not gone as we speak, it is even worse. Before, when you get
your allocation, you will cash it by the 15th of every month, that is why they
are paying salaries on the 15th of the month before we came in.To make up the
deficit in what I received and what I must pay, I spent extra N5.4 billion.
However, I told you earlier that I gave 10 per cent of basic salary for 13th
month salary; the second year I gave 25 per cent; the third year I gave 50 per
cent; the fourth year, I gave 100 per cent. So, December of 2013, I gave every
worker in the employment of Osun 100 per cent of their basic salary as extra
income, which I paid before the end of the year. Why should any worker say I am
not friendly with them? Before, workers
here were given their leave allowances enbloc at the end of the year, I told
them this is unresonable because we don’t go on leave at the same time. So,
choose when you want your leave allowance to be paid. Is it at your birthday or
the anniversary of your employment into the service. So, whenever you summit
your birthday, your leave allowance will be credited to you. I don’t know if
any other government in Nigeria that does that. Two, go and visit the
secretariat and see what we have made of their work enviroment. So, if these are things that should motivate
workers, I stand tall and proud because I have done my best. As we speak, we
have not collected June allocation. They might not give us June allocation
until the end of August. But, we will pay our workers, already we have pay
June. I am happy to tell you that majority of our civil servants see and
appreciate what we are doing. You can to the secretariat and see what we are
doing. We increased the car loan by 400 per cent; we increased housing loans by
100 per cent. For 36 out of 43 months we have been paying regularly, let’s even
assume that there is a problem of delayed payments now, I cannot believe all
the workers will be against us because I have done my best. If the
demonstration of interest of workers in their remuneration and allowances
counts and with what we have done, I don’t think they will be against us.
I read the advert they published and I laughed because it
indicted them. They wrote that my income was N2.8 billion and this is what I
have to pay, N3.4billion and pegged it with state and local governments. There
is no way I can touch the local government account because it is separate and
distinct. I can only give policy statements on that.
What about teachers?
Our teachers in the state are now very well motivated such
that you cannot distinguished between our them and bank workers. When you see a
teacher in Osun before you know. They are so depressed, unmotivated and absence
of facilities. Our teachers now appear corporate and well-motivated. This is
the first government that will say that you don’t need to buy textbooks for
your children in the high school, Opon Imo and its targeted at 150,000
students. It is a high school a library of 53 textbooks.
Are you prepared for a possible lockdown of the state, few
days to the election?
You see, I came here from the street and it is easy for me
to go back to the street. My real home is on the street. Whoever will hold me
on the street will try. I laugh when they talk about me because they don’t know
I am from the street.
What is your perception about the term stomach
infrastructure?
To those people who are the elite and are therefore
separated from the people, this term may make a new meaning. I am a product of
the popular forces, the people. I am part and parcel of them. I emanated from
them. Iam a product of their struggles. What is now known as stomach
infrastructure is what we know as interaction, engagement, living with the
people and meeting their aspirations and needs. That is what we have been doing
from the very beginning of this administration; I feed their children every day
meal.
My administration does not suffer alienation from the people.
It is one and same with the people and that is the basis of our confidence in
their ever ready support at all times.
Is there any aspect of the state that you think you have not
touched?
There is no trade, commercial or social group in the state
of Osun that we have not impacted. There
is no aspect. Apart from Lagos, we are the only state government that has an
emergency call center but has been made dysfunctional because the federal
government just refused to give us short code to make it work. It has been
ready for the past 13 to 18 months ago. If that centre had been activated, we
acquired a helicopter that will get to the farthest place of this state in 15
minutes to attend to emergency issues. It won’t cost the federal government a
dime but to just direct the NCC to allow us use their 122 line. I wrote to the
president that emergency does not know political parties, what we don’t want is
needless death because of absence of emergency services and the state of the
art facilities is still lying down there fallow.
Nation.
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