Oyetola Leaves N14bn Cash; Says He Is Only Stepping Aside

By Ayodele Oni

Gboyega Oyetola, who stepped down on Saturday as Governor of Osun state disclosed that throughout four years of his administration, the state did not obtain any loan to run the administration.

In his farewell speech to the people of the state, Oyetola stated that ‘For four years, we did not take any bank loan facility.

“But we benefitted from the N3billion monthly intervention from the federal Government to all the States for six months to cushion the effect of deductions of budget support facility and salary bailout accessed by the previous administration, just as we have paid N97 billion from the total debt we inherited in 2018.

“We are leaving behind cash of over N14 billion. In addition to the N14 billion cash, another N8 billion is being expected between December and January from our performance in SFTAS and the IGR.

“Also, another Seventy-Two million Dollars will come to the State soon from RAMP 3, NG-CARES, Nigeria for Women Project and Ease of Doing Business.

These are earned, based on performance. And we have indeed performed to earn them. It was part of the same performance that earned us the award of Best Governor on Efficiency of Public Expenditure and TOP Performer on Domestic Revenue Mobilisation by the World Bank’s States’ Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability, SFTAS, recently.

“We have gone this length to let you know that Osun under our leadership was sustainable. It was done through fiscal discipline and personal sacrifices.

“Let me reiterate here that in this first tenure, we were able to take care of the fears and evil of fiscal indiscipline and lack of implementation, which hamper projects and services in the nation’s public service.

“This can be seen in the myriad of people-centred and masses-focused projects we delivered for the use of the people of the State in this first term.

“We proved that infrastructure and economic development are doable in a depressed economy and that stagnated development in a struggling economy is a product of intellectual laziness, dearth of creativity, shortage of innovation and lack of political will.

“The laudable and people-centred projects we were able to deliver include the feeding of 30,000 vulnerable persons in Osun on a monthly basis through the Osun Food Support Scheme and financial support for the aged and widows; opening up of the Mining sector that attracted big investors to the state.

“Reforming of the educational sector, including the recruitment of 2, 500 teachers; review of the single school uniform regime among others in line with the demand of the people; renovation of school buildings, distribution of educational materials to our pupils, provision of free education and free meals to them as well as training and re-training of our teachers to provide quality education for our children to enhance their performance as leaders of tomorrow.

“In order to increase access to quality and equitable education at all levels with a view to empowering Osun citizens to realize their full potential, we upgraded the existing Osun State College of Education, Ilesa to a full-fledged University of Ilesa, with a world-class funding strategies that would not exert unnecessary pressure on the finances of the State.

“Fixing of the State Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro and equipping same with state-of-the-art equipment, where we constructed120-bed ward and 30 units of Doctor’s Quarters; rehabilitation of the Ejigbo and Ifetedo General Hospitals; we also instituted the Osun Health Insurance Scheme (OHIS) to deliver affordable healthcare to our workers while offering free health services to the vulnerable under the scheme; revitalization of 332 Primary Health Centres -one per ward across the State.”