[attachimg=1 align=left] At a time when the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, should be concentrating on the task of real governance after one month of heat without motion, he has once again chosen to play to the gallery and blame his predecessor for what is now clearly his cluelessness in handling the affairs of the state. This is the only way right thinking people would view his "State of the State Address" where, instead of charting the way forward, he laboured endlessly to blame the last administration for everything under the sun and deliberately twisted facts to prepare the people for his soon-to-be unfolded hidden agenda.
Let us state clearly from the outset that the Address was meant as an advance warning to the people of Ogun state and to serve as a red herring for an administration which, from all indications, is now overwhelmed by the enormity of the responsibility of governance. It is really sad that the Governor, in order to hoodwink the people, only dwelt on the liabilities he inherited when a first year student of accounting is aware that there are two sides to an account, namely:
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
Before we go on to expose the many erroneous claims and complete falsehood in Amosun's Address, it is important for us to alert the people of Ogun State that his real intention of is to prepare the mind of the people for the Bond Market (which during our administration he condemned and called "Bond of Bondage"), the proceeds of which will be used to award contracts to godfathers and cronies that funded his electoral campaign. We are aware that Senator Amosun is under relentless pressure to deliver on the IOUs that he took before coming to office, and the only way his intellect could direct him to deliver is to force a regime of multiple taxations and other levies and charges on the people of Ogun state and deny labour their legitimate earnings in the current demand for the minimum wage. He deliberately painted the grim picture to ward off the labour unions from asking for their rights.
CONCESSION OF NON PERFOMING GOVERNMENT VENTURES
For the umpteenth time, we affirm that the concessions of all the non-performing government companies and ventures were done in the best interest of the State and in line with best practices under the Private Public Patnership (PPP) arrangement. The concessioned ventures were not bringing in any money to the State and were essentially drain pipes. We chose the concession arrangement rather than outright sale as many states have done to preserve our common patrimony and ensure a win-win situation for the State. In the case of the Gateway hotels, they could not meet the objectives for which they were set up and there was a need to reconsider government funding. To achieve this, the OGD administration opted to involve private investors in the management and/or ownership of the hotels. Both due diligence and due process were followed all through the transactions. The move was intended to, amongst other objectives, ensure efficient management of the ventures and generation of higher returns and employment for the teeming populace of the state and ultimately partner with the private sector to drive sustainable development in the economic sector. Other concessions that were carried out followed the same pattern. And we affirm that the concessioning option is what is prevailing everywhere as it has been found out with verifiable evidence that commercial ventures handled by government rarely thrive. That was what informed the divestment of the Federal Government from its ownership of NICON NOGA hotel, the MM2 local airport concessioned for 36 years, among others. Even in Lagos State, where Governor Amosun's godfathers hold sway, the Lekki Expressway was concession at most ridiculous terms for 30 years! It was in the light of the soundness of the concessioning imperative that the Federal Government, by an Act of the National Assembly, set up the Infrastructure Concessioning Regulatory Commission (ICRC). Oh, who will rouse the new power people in Ogun State from the slumber of their economic illiteracy?
Scenario – Counter Allegation of Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun
THE POWER PROJECT
WE are shocked that the Governor would deliberately twist facts just to score cheap political points. All the equipments procured for the power project, contrary to the misinformation of Governor Amosun, met the required standard in use today. They were certified by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) before their procurement in China and after they were shipped into the country. The equipment is usually never available off the shelf; they are manufactured upon an order for them. Not only were the equipment bought for the state brand new, they are state-of-the-art in modern mini power stations. But Governor Amosun could just verify this claim from the 17 civil servants of the state sent to China for training in the maintenance of the power plants who were part of the whole process of the manufacture and delivery of the equipment. When the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, visited the State last year with his energy team, he not only attested to the viability of the power project , he also saluted the vision that gave birth to what would add to the quantum of power available in the country if tenaciously followed. During the commissioning of a part of the project just about 5 weeks ago, the former Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Wya, described it as a model that other states should take a cue from. But it is perplexing why a supposedly educated Governor would fail to see the imperative of such a power project. It became very obvious to us that without building the power plants, the Water Works upgraded and newly built would not serve their purpose. The reason why the state often has water shortages is not because there isn't enough processed water to pump to the populace but because there is no electricity to power the water works. For this crucial reason and the need to provide adequate power supply to government establishments, installations, tertiary educational and health institutions, among others, the power project was conceived and executed. By taking off the government establishments from the national grid, the power normally transmitted to the state would then be freed up to serve domestic and industrial concerns that sorely need the energy. The overall goal of this was to give a serious push to the industrialization drive of Ogun State. And on the point of fact, the total amount billed to be spent on the total capacity of the 47 megawatts is N11.2 billion, not the N15billion mischievously claimed by the Governor. We say it again that anyone occupying the high office of the Governor of a state should be truthful, factual and honest at all times. The authority, honor and integrity of such high offices demand such.
LAND MATTERS
The allocation of land was transparently done and it is important for us to note that in the process of ensuring that Ogun became the leading investment destination of choice in the country, we adopted a liberalised land policy. We are proud that under our administration, areas which hitherto were backwaters and which nobody wanted to come to do business have become havens for investors who were encouraged, through various incentives, to set up business ventures. The same policy was adopted to attract many property developers and promoters of housing estates who have now made Ogun State the fastest growing property market in the country. The value they add to the lives of our people and the benefits to our economy far outweigh the concessions we gave them on the purchase of land. It is therefore illogical for anybody to compare the fees paid for land in Lagos to that paid in Ogun State.
DEBT MANAGEMEMT
It is also not correct that Ogun state as at today has the highest level of indebtedness in the country. Contrary to the impression created by Senator Amosun, Lagos State in the last5years has accessed N290b from the bond market, Rivers has just floated a bond of N250b while Bayelsa has done the same to the tune of N50b. Osun state just did N30b refinancing loan from a first generation bank. Kano has a debt of N108b, etc, etc. Indeed the Debt Management Office (DMO) under the Presidency recently stated that Ogun state had managed its debt very well and was one of the states with the least borrowing in the country. The assessment of the DMO was based on the current IGR of the state which we increased from the less than N200m monthly we inherited in 2003 to N1b in 2011 and the projected increase to N2b in another year or two if our applauded industrialization policy and drive are sustained. And when the cash and contingent liabilities are contrasted with the quantum of projects executed in the last eight years, nobody would be in doubt that the resources of the state were well managed. It is noteworthy that Governor Amosun claimed to have borrowed money to pay May salaries, pension and other running costs. That was exactly what we had to do on several occasions because the Ogun State House of Assembly, with the encouragement of the likes of Amosun and his cohorts, prevented our administration from accessing funds from cheap sources that would have freed up the huge interests paid on expensive short term bank facilities. By the time Amosun takes this sort of loan on a couple of times, he'll know how quickly such accumulates to become the amount of debt he is currently crying about.
In all of these, we quite appreciate the predicament of a Governor who dubiously promised heaven and earth to both his godfathers and the electorate in order to win election only to discover that the reality on the ground does not support the assumptions and promises made. Given such reality, for which we cried out when were in government and for which Amosun called us liars, we quite understand why OGD and the government he headed would become the wiping boy and the convenient alibi for a failure that stares our new Governor in the face.
Finally, we await the next round of dummies that the Amosun Administration would sell to the people of Ogun State to cover its cluelessness and non performance. Regular bashing of the OGD administration would work some of the time but it can not work all the time.
Signed:
'Sina Kawonise
Former Commissioner for Information and Orientation,
Ogun State.
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