The Osun State government has an infrastructure plan that has a sustainable funding model and which targets facilitation of economic growth and development of the state.
Commissioner for Information, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi made this clarification in response to advocacy of non-governmental groups such as the Osun Masterminds and the Coalition for Good Governance (C4GG) on planned flyover bridges, idealization of roads and pension matters in the state.
The Commissioner who commended the civil society groups in Osun state said the government is opened to counseling and advice especially when such are dispassionate and devoid of political partisanship, assuring that “the ship of state is progressing to deliver on good governance.
“On state of security, Governor Adeleke has ensured robust response by regular hosting of the state Security Council meetings, by forging inter agencies collaborations and by the ongoing reform of the Amotekun corps.
“Not minding that police and other outfits are federal bodies, the Governor has created a security architecture that integrates formal and informal security bodies for the urgent task of securing Osun State.
“On the state of infrastructure, this administration inherited a huge infrastructure deficit which it is working hard to bridge and which has led to the construction of over 50 kilometers of roads and rebuilding of several bridges.
“Federal roads are however particularly challenging because of the scale of the job and because the Federal Government of President Bola Tinubu is also just settling down.
“Governor Adeleke is however committed to addressing the road crisis, hence the revival of the state road maintenance agency which has become more active in the last few months.
“On the issue of flyover in Osogbo, we assure the public that the project design is such that it will not create an unbearable burden on the state even as the state needs to upgrade her infrastructure to achieve economic growth.
“At the Ipade Imole coming up on October 5th, Governor Adeleke will unveil full details of dualisation of roads and flyover bridges which other towns other than Osogbo will also benefit from, all under a financially and environmentally sustainable model.
“On subsidy palliatives, we clarify that the state government is not shrouding the distribution process in secrecy as a public committee comprising various sectors of the society successfully handled the exercise.
“We also want the public to note that Osun is already under an emergency with almost N100 billion debt while still paying half salary and pension debt alongside pressing needs from all sectors such as infrastructure, education, health among others.
“Aside from the palliatives, the Government is also set to unveil details on the disbursement of the N2 billion which was part of the N5 billion promised by the Federal Government.
“On pension matters, we are glad to report that a meeting between the pension stakeholders and the government has produced positive results with common template in place to ensure that all segments of the pensioners’ population are duly covered
“The government including the Commissioner for Information, has the greatest respect for the pensioners as our senior citizens”, the statement noted.
According to the commissioner, the only plea which all stakeholders have accepted is the need to refrain from playing into the hand of some politicians whose goal is to derail the ongoing strong push to resolve the N56 billion naira inherited pension debt.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
