The Senior Special Assistant to the Osun State Governor on Medla, Hon. Hezekiah Oladele Bamiji has derided the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, on his assessment of the extent of development in Osun state under Governor Ademola Adeleke, saying it is too pedestrian for anyone to deny the monumental infrastructural imprints of the Adeleke administration.
Hon. Bamiji chided Mr Oyebamiji for trying to misrepresent the facts on the true state of things in Osun state, noting that, Governor Adeleke is not only building new infrastructures across sectors but also completing many of the developmental projects that the administration which Mr Oyebamiji was an integral part of abandoned without any justification other than political bickrings with his former boss in office.
“It is a cruel irony that Mr. Bola Oyebamiji who was part of a government that left Osun in shambles could brazenly deny the progress that Osun is witnessing under the Governor Ademola Adeleke administration in all spheres,” he noted.
“Contrary to the erroneous impression that Mr. Oyebamiji tried to create, the Oyetola administration had more than enough resources to make meaningful impacts on the state and its people but bungled the opportunity largely due to mismanagement, misplaced priorities and incompetence. Anyone with a sound understanding of finances, as against what Mr Oyebamiji tried to make us believe in the past, will know that there is nothing significant in the accrued revenue to the state in the light of the skyrocketing inflation and the over 70 percent loss in the value of the nations currency.
“Yet, Governor Adeleke has been up and doing. In terms of welfare, Governor Adeleke is not only paying the salary of active workers regularly contrary to Apc evil expectations, but also paying the salary owed by the APC administration and cleared the cooperative deductions running into hundreds of millions also also wickedly withheld and misappropriated by the government Mr Oyebamiji served as Finance Commissioner.
On infrastructure, Governor Adeleke has constructed over 100km of roads and another batch of nearly 100km is at various stages of completion across the state, including Mr. Oyebamiji’s hometown of Ikire.
“In Osogbo, 10-span and 4-span overhead bridges are at advanced stages of completion and will connect the Old Garage-Lameco dual-carriage road, while another overhead in Ile-Ife, the first in the cradle of Yoruba nation, is ongoing as we speak.
Again In Ilesa, a dual-carriage road is also being constructed while the Akoda-Ede dual carriage road with a series of features like bridges, will soon be completed. Oyebanji should just cover himself in shame for being a part of the monumental failure of the Apc government in Osun!
“In the health sector, a total of 345 primary healthcare centres are being rehabilitated with the installation of 24-hour power and water systems in line with the World Bank standard, just as dozens of public schools across the state have equally been refurbished and equipped with necessary furniture and other essential amenities. The failed Commissioner of Finance seems too dazed to be aware of all that.
Hon. Bamiji maintains that Osun has taken a turn for the better under Governor Adeleke and that only those who are still hunted by the realities of the failure they exuded during their hellish spell, will pretend about these facts. He enjoined Mr Oyebamiji to get over the shame of the ignoble past of the APC which stares him in the face and accept the reality of the transformation that Governor Adeleke’s good governance has projected into manifestation in less than two years.
“While Mr. Oyebamiji may still be finding it hard to tell Osun people what the government he was part of did with the over N400bn aggregated revenues that accrued to it in the four years it lasted, even when inflation was still being humanely managed, he should swallow his pride to come to the reality of the positive turnaround that Osun has witnessed under Governor Adeleke,” he stressed.
“Instead of trying to divert attention from the abysmal record of the previous government, Mr Oyebamiji should bring himself to recognise those abandoned projects by his government that Governor Adeleke is completing, the litany of ongoing projects across the state among other positive developments.
“The candid truth is that the APC administration, which Mr Oyebamiji served failed in Osun, and anyone involved in that ignoble failure will always see nothing but failure in others too, just as the former Commissioner of Finance is demonstrating. It is even important to ask Mr Oyebamiji to provide Osun people with answers on what happened to the over N11 billion received from the Federal Government by the Oyetola administration for road projects executed by the Rauf Aregbesola government and that of the over $20million grant to renovate health facilities in Osun State, in which the present Government of His Excellency, Governor Ademola Adeleke now have to start all over again to bring to shape.”
“Available records indicated that Mr. Oyebamiji is the worst Finance Commissioner in Osun’s history going by the gross mismanagement that characterised the government he served as head of Finance Ministry. So, if he is coming up with the jejune narrative to prepare himself for the 2026 governorship contest, he should rather rid himself of the penchant for misinformation as Osun people are too smart to fall for such baby tactics.”
Signed:
Hon. Hezekiah Oladele Bamiji,
The Senior Special Assistant to the Osun State Governor on Medla
03/10/2024