Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has come under heavy fire from the state chapter of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A statement signed by Osun State PDP Chairman, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, and made available to News Express yesterday dismissed the Aregbesola administration as corrupt, frivolous and a poor performer. Alhaji Olaoluwa described what is happening in Osun State as “the worst misrule in the history of our dear state.” He vowed to lead the efforts to oust Aregbesola and his team, saying: “Together we shall send them back to their Lagos base and very soon.”

Entitled “Enough Is Enough,” the statement was one of the activities used to mark the first anniversary of the Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa-led EXCO of PDP in Osun State. The statement said as follows:
As a major opposition party and stakeholder in Osun project, we are not unaware of our indebtedness to the good people of our state particularly in the areas and issues that are directly and indirectly connected with how our state is being governed.

We have watched painfully though, how the Government of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola in Osun State which he has himself tagged “Government Unusual” and which as a fact is usual has been insulting the collective intelligence of our people. We have seen looting of the state treasury go on unabated. We have seen like never before waste of the state meager resource on irrelevances. We have seen a government that is so reckless, irresponsible and wicked even to his own subjects. We have seen how these infidels from Lagos come to amass wealth of our state to themselves in the guise of governance.

We have seen senseless borrowing and reckless spending. We have seen worst lies and deceits in play. We have seen pretence and propaganda take over the center stage of our state in the last two years of Mr. Rauf Aregbesola’s reign as Governor of Osun State. We have witnessed tyranny and executive brigandage in play for over two years. We have seen failure of unprepared government. We have seen a lot of nauseating things in last over two years of their government.

THE STATE DEBT STATUS: Much as they may have struggled in vain to cover it from public knowledge, the fact remains that Osun State is today and in less that two-and-a-half years indebted to the tune of over Two Hundred Billion Naira without any commensurate accomplishments on ground to show for this borrowings. To say this is dangerous for the future of this state is repeating the obvious.

EDUCATION: Under the Aregbesola regime, it has been a case of two steps forward, ten steps backward. Lately, the education sector has come under the destructive hammer of the ACN Government as led by Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State. In an unprecedented senseless manner, about two hundred and eighty blocks of classroom built by the immediate past government i.e the government of PDP led by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola were demolished by Aregbsola for a mere reason of wanting to destroy the legacy of his predecessor. He claimed that he was going to replace them with “better schools” till date, with just a few months to the end his maladministration, the “better schools” are yet to come. Whereas, in a brazen show of confusion that his government is reputed for, he is now appealing to the Parents and Teachers Associations to help in rebuilding the schools. Till date and since the inception of their administration only one school has been under construction and it is yet to be completed. The shoddy job the contractor was exposed by a recent rainstorm.

He continued in his destructive missions in the education sector by merging together different schools.

Regrettable though, before the people of Osun could rise up to resist the senseless idea, it has recorded much causality. Some students paid the supreme price. They died in road accidents and the confusion that trailed merger implementation.

Education, the worst hit by his unpopular as his policies continue to suffer as he introduced same uniform for all schools in the state. That too has caused not a small problem. Many secondary schools and Technical Colleges are today under locks and keys of the state government owing to crisis caused by the mistake of identity traceable to common uniform for all schools.

Still on education, it is saddening to note that for some time now, the Academic Staff of all Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and technology respectively in the state are on strike. The medical students of Uniosun are basking in confusion that they found themselves courtesy of Mr. Aregbesola. Succinctly put, education under Rauf Aregbesola’s administration is in total disarray.

SECURITY: There is no doubt that security of lives and property must be paramount to any government hence the need to deploy enough resources. However, it should be cost effectively tailored. It should not be such that the state treasury will run dry. That a state like Osun with the lowest crime record in the country allegedly spends Billions of Naira every month on a phantom security provision is unacceptable. That the Governor would lease a Helicopter at 10 Thousand Dollars per hour and keep perpetually for his personal/electioneering campaign use on the purse of the state even as the people were made to believe it was for security surveillance leaves much in doubt. This is apart from the fact that the said Helicopter was not the surveillance type; it is a common passenger type. We still remember how Helicopter was hired by the Governor and on the bill of our state for use during the recently passed Ondo Governorship election. The state is yet to come out of the resultant debt till date. It is a gross misplacement of priority and fraud to say Helicopter is the solution to the security problems of the state. It is also on record that it is under Mr. Aregbesola that common Hilux Jeeps have to pass for Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) vehicle and for several Billions of Naira.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION: That the civil service in the state may never have had it so raw is not an understatement. Three years on, the government, despite vacancies that are existing in virtually all the Ministries and Parastatals as specifically occasioned by the mass exit of last year are still finding it difficult to recruit and fill the vacancies. All we hear is “very soon”, “shall be done”, “we are still studding”, et cetera. It is not as if we don’t know the reasons for this delay. It is in an attempt to smuggle their fellow Lagosians into the state civil service. It is no longer a secret that the State Civil Servant has only been paid a salary in this year that is three months old.

The appointment of Permanent Secretaries which Aregbesola tuned to elective one is still generating furore.
WORKS AND TRANSPORT: Like a crazy bull in Chinese Shop, the Governor who rapaciously doubles as the State Commissioner of Works and Transport has turned the state into a site of abandoned projects. The so called projects have either been abandoned as the starting or midway into completion stages reason is not unconnected with lack of funds. The treasury has been looted dry. The state has lost his Old Governor Office to Aregbesola’s insensitivity to historical values and disillusionment. While he is crying in support of preservation of infrastructure and items of historical value on one hand he is destroying same with another hand. He is expected to complete Ayegbeju Market “very soon”? The market, owing to their government’s lack of sense of visibility will not have a Motor Park. Their senseless afterthought plans to use Fakunle Comprehensive High School (which though not suitable for that purpose) met with the people’s anger. Yet, they go on exploiting the unsuspecting people of Osun State by selling more forms and at exorbitant rates.

JUDICIARY: The judiciary was not spared in their destructive touches. Thanks to the National Judicial Council that forced him to abandon his nefarious plan to impose one Justice Oyewole who is on the number 33 on Lagos Judicial list on Osun State as number one.

CONCLUSION: The above are just a tip of the ice berg. On this occasion of my one-year in office as the Chairman of the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I want to reassure all citizens of the state that our party – the PDP is now positioned more than ever to salvage the situation. We understand the plight of our people under the Aregbesola tyrannical rule more than they can ever imagine. It is therefore my plea that the good people of Osun State be calm and prayerful even in this face of the worst misrule in the history of our dear state. Together we shall send them back to their Lagos base and very soon.

•Photo: Under-fire Governor Aregbesola.