Osun Debts: Transparency, due process’ll see us through, says Akinbade

Amidst concerns by the people of Osun State that the incoming administration after Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s might be crippled by paucity of funds due to huge debts, a governorship hopeful, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade has noted that the state could wriggle out of the mess through  a soundly structured financial discipline.

Though there are fears among indigenes that the state’s debts profile could be as high as N400 billion even as the Aregbesola administration has constantly disputed the figure.

However, allaying the fears of the people, Akinbade, a front runner in the governorship race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he would employ due process as a major plank in re-engineering the fractured financial base of the state caused by huge debts incurred by the current APC administration led by Aregbesola.

Speaking with a select group of professionals from across the state led by Mr Henry Akinola Adegbite in Osogbo at the weekend, he maintained that it was possible for the state and its people to survive through frugality.

“First and foremost, what destroys any organization is greed. If the leadership is avaricious, then the spiral effect of this will percolate through the system, down the line, in a devastating form. This is the result of what we are witnessing today in Osun” said former SSG

Akinbade insisted that the seeming hopeless situation was not beyond redemption, noting that one of the antidotes that would be employed to solve the debts riddle, would be elimination of wastages.

“With benefit of hindsight, I had been properly schooled in the best practices of Due Process under the World Bank when I was a Commissioner. The import of lessons learnt are never lost and they are the missing links in governance today, which made corruption to be on the increase” he lamented.

The former SSG assured that if given the mandate to lead the state as from September this year when the governorship election is expected to hold, every engagement of the state, would be conducted on a transparently due process basis that would be acceptable to all.

“In doing this, we shall not compromise standards. Our people deserve the best in all spheres of governance. The huge loans obtained by Aregbesola’s administration that today forms the basis for the fear our people have about the future of the state, have not been judiciously and commensurately put to use. This is why everybody in the state is crying out”, he added

Akinbade recalled that during Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s administration in the state, a loan of N2billion was obtained from the bank  for the construction of the six campuses of the Osun State University which was repaid within 11 months.

He said would not depart from his known culture of frugality and prudence in administering the state while not compromising standards and ensuring distribution of wealth to the people so as to bridge the widening gap between the poor and the rich in the state.