Osun State Governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola, yesterday hinted at the nature of his administration, saying it would be consultative and community-based.

He also pledged to engage more women in governance and focus more on the welfare of the people.

Oyetola dropped the hints in an interview with TV Continental (TVC) monitored in Osogbo yesterday.

Oyetola, who defeated his topmost contender and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Senator Ademola Adeleke by 482 votes, said that rather than foist projects on communities, he would consult with them and allow them to come up with what project is best for them.

Oyetola, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), promised to bring together all the stakeholders in the state who share his vision in his effort to take the state to the next level of development.

“I am not the governor of APC alone but the governor of the entire state,” he said while responding to a question on how he would address the complaints of the people as well as how to be magnanimous in victory.

On how he plans to rejuvenate the state’s economy, Oyetola promised to introduce creative ideas in generating more revenue without necessarily burdening the masses with tax.

He said, for instance, that his administration would bring more people who should pay tax into the tax net and also explore mineral resources and tourism through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

He said that while doing that, he would also sustain the infrastructural renewal started by the Rauf Aregbesola administration because, according to him, infrastructural decay in the state is massive.

He noted that no meaningful economic development could be achieved without infrastructural renewal.

He said: “We will look more closely into agriculture and its value chain to create jobs and empower our people.

“We will also develop our tourist attraction sites which are many all over the state. We can make a lot of money by developing tourists’ sites. We will go into PPP (public/private partnership) on them.

“We also have abundant mineral resources all over the state. But we are yet to convert them. We will embrace PPP arrangement to tap all of these. We will create an industrial park. We are even likely to hold an economic summit.”

On payment of salaries and pensions, Oyetola said there would be a marked improvement this time because there would be more money once the government looks inward to increase the internally generated revenue (IGR).

He added that two major loans -capital market bond and SUKUK loan- will end in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

“Once that happens, we will have some relief in terms of cash flow. We will also grow our IGR without necessarily increasing tax.

“We will bring people that should pay tax into the tax net. That will help us pay salaries and pensions more easily,” he said.

On the perception that there is concentration of infrastructure building in Osogbo alone, Oyetola said it is understandable why the state capital has earned more than any other town in the state. But he said his administration would focus more on rural development.

“The Osogbo development is understandable, being the state capital. Yet our rural areas should be well developed.

“I will be paying attention to rural development to additionally stem rural-urban migration,” he said.

The governor-elect also promised to empower the masses in various ways.

He said any programme that is not aimed at empowering the people would not be embraced by his administration.

He said: “Our programmes will be tailored towards those that need help and the masses generally. My administration will be people-focused.”

On the coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Oyetola said the coalition will only focus on what is best for the state.

Thanking the people of the state for giving him the mandate, the governor-elect promised to allow women to play a key role in his administration.

”I thank the people of the state for giving me their mandate to serve them. I assure them that I will do everything to justify the confidence reposed in me through accountability, prudent management of resources, consultation, etc,” he said.

“I’m here to serve. I expect them to involve themselves in governance.

“I want to see communities decide what they want. It is going to be community-based governance.

“We will work for the best of Osun State. We will be more consultative.”

• Excerpted from The Nation report

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