By Akintunde Bello Sheriff
By 2022, the ruling party otherwise called party for the progressives would have spent clear 16 years in the office with 3 Governors covering 4 administrations. Separately the opposition party otherwise called the conservatives had only spent two aborted tenures with only 1 Governor totaling less than 8 years.
During the era of Oyinlola Olagunsoye as a Governor, the health sector was seriously alive with free drugs occupying government stores which were readily available at all health posts across the 332 Wards and the Area Office in Osun State. My Father is a pharmacy technician in those years and so I knew what it looked like. To be fair to the Alliance for Democracy era of Chief Bisi Akande, the health sector was never dead under him. I used to listen to the radio in 1999/2000 where the government would advertise its free surgical palliatives. It was the time that prostate issues in men was simple to treat like common headache. On labe odan – a radio feedbacks program that the Governor of the time devised, they called the surgical palliative Ipake. One thing was common to Oyinlola and Bisi Akande, they did their very best in the health sector.
As soon as Rauf Aregbesola became Governor, the gains in the health sector eluded our state. Things became stringently so much that illnesses are no longer reported because the drugs stores have become empty. What you get at government health centres is a commercial service where health attendants now sell drugs. In fact they sell exercise books with which prescription will be recorded. One sector where Aregbesola failed woefully is health. And this Oyetola current rule has sustained the continuity agenda along that failed curve in the health sector. Except that they are now building or has built some health posts which source of funding was through international grants, which was commenced by Aregbesola and now inherited by the Oyetola administration, the condition of service has not changed for better. Health workers are stranded on a stagnant point where they do not have promotion or in which their promotion do not fetch financial effect. The zeal to deliver is no longer there and the motivation is near zero. Lanterns and touch lights are used to supervise deliveries and many avoidable deaths are unfortunately the case till date.
In those years of Oyinlola Olagunsoye, capital and infrastructure developments littered everywhere and virtually all the councils. The artisans had every reason to appreciate God that the government has opened their businesses for patronages. Workers get paid regularly. Pensioners are not groaning in neglect as was the case during the immediate past administration which still subsists even till now. To be fair in my assessment, some will say that Aregbesola recorded some tangible scorecards in infrastructure. However what separates Bisi Akande and Oyinlola Olagunsoye from the later Governors namely Aregbesola and Oyetola is that debts did not pile up. May God bless the ingenuity of the first two democratic Governors between 1999 – 2010 since the scope of my discourse has been limited to only the fourth republic. We were casted and sold to slavery of debts under Aregbesola. Most of the acclaimed projects for which the debts were taken are still uncompleted till today despite drawing total money and no probes has been instituted. This is the CONTINUITY agenda according to Gboyega Oyetola, an agenda that has thrown hitherto breadwinners especially the retired civil servants to abject poverty stricken individuals because their entitlements are trapped with the government. God is not happy at the turn of events. The economy is now far worse hit. The supposed rich are crying too in Osun State.
In the education sector, much as Bisi Akande did not do well in that sector, Oyinlola Olagunsoye rebirth the sector evidently and there was tremendous improvement which translated in the pass rate of public schools pupils and students. Free education was declared. Free exercise books, free textbooks, regime of no form of payment, inter house sports competitions with adequate grants, free school feeding for pupils, motivation for the teachers which include improved cars and housing loans to the Staff in public education sector was the order of the day. When Aregbesola resumed office in 2010, most if not all of these palliatives are suspended and that remain in force till date. This was the story of how our glory as a State of the living spring fainted to oblivion gradually and nobody was concerned.
The traditional institution lived larger than life. It was glaring that despite constitutional barriers, the Obas are given a say in how governance was run. Some Obas even had cabinet slots such as Commissioners filled. They had their regular Obas council meetings and the local government system was viable to support them unlike now that the third tier of government now live in shadows in Osun State. The things we met are are nonexistent again. Where will help come from?
As things stand today in Osun State, the walk to true liberty and freedom may look herculean but it is not impossible. Citizens must therefore begin to be conscious and decide whether to remain in an imposed servitude or demand for a new lease of life by a way of change of guards.
If it was rotational, between a party that has been in the saddle for 20 years and another party which managed to be in control for less than 8 years, we know ourselves which deserve our cooperation. I implore Osun State people to think above mundane appetite, and start to embark on the journey that shall make our State great again. God knows I love Osun State and I am sad that almost everybody are now going low and low leaving only the opportunists to eke big status to the detriment of the downtrodden.
I pray for Osun State sake of this holy month for our breakthrough so as to live up to the dreams of our founding Fathers. Osun, the State of the Living Spring, you can not afford to die forever!!!
Com. Akintunde Bello Sheriff (ABS) is a socio-political analyst from Ede, Osun State
The writer has done a good job for himself and his pay masters!!! Olagunsoye oyinlola that confessed later that he couldn’t build roads because he was prevented from demolishing houses on the right of way?
The writer could have done a better job in another area but not weighing on governments performances. Liar