“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther King
History would not forget those who have successfully afflicted sufferings on the masses neither would our role be written on the back pages of history.
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Following a mandamus order by the Chief Judge of Osun, Justice Oyebola Adepele compelling the state Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, to provide information about the debt profile of the state and defrayment modality.
The order was sought by a human right lawyer, Mr Kanmi Ajibola, pursuant to Order 40, Rule 3 of the High court with 30 paragraphs affidavit in support of motion ex-parte.
Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks, and falsehood is always weak no matter how strong it looks.
Meanwhile, since the case was filed on May 12, 2016, the State government under the Leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has not been represented in court by any lawyer.
I verily believe, that the desired power, prestige and good image for our country, that the majority yearns
for can only be achieved when we all cooperate to fight ineptitude, corruption, greed and abuse of entrusted power in governance.
As it stands today, Osun is a failed state under the watch of Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and his rubber stamped legislators.
No matter how corrupt the governor may be, if the House of Assembly had performed its functions as the watchdog of the Executive as enshrined in the constitution, things would have been different.
The debt profile of Osun state, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) stands at N74 million for external debt and N41.4 billion for domestic debt, totaling 41.78 billion.
Wole Soyinka said “The man dies in all that kept mute in the face of tyranny”
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It might interest you that DMO record did not capture several loans granted to the state by several commercial banks such as N5.62 billion collected on 25 May 2012 from First Bank to fund the “O” Uniform programme; and another N3 billion taken on 25 June 2012 for supplying motor vehicles.
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Other loans are: N65 billion from WEMA to buy property in Abuja, N35 billion collected from Sterling Bank for 2012 annual pilgrimage, N1billion loan from Zenith Bank for ISDP counterpart fund on March 9, 2012; N98 billion loan collected on 25 July 2012 from Sterling Bank for the purchase 36 Nissan Sunny (GLI Engine), and several others
uncontrolled loans that our elected representatives in the State assembly approved without any responsible exercise on our collective behalf.
Do you know?
There are some hidden tricks in the borrowings that we often overlook, because we only concern ourselves with absolute figures borrowed, without due cognizance of the repayment.
The sum of 34.9bn that was released by the Central Bank Of Nigeria as bailout for salary last year August 25th, the said amount will be service for 75.5bn over 240 months or 20 years at 9% interest rate. Also, Sukuk loan of 11.4bn would be serviced for 25.5bn, at 14.5%.
“In Nigeria, the only wrongdoers are those who do no wrong; to live a day in Nigeria is to die many times.” Ken Saro Wiwa
This State government of Osun, has mortgaged the future of this state for the next 25 years.
Furthermore, a monthly deduction of N164, 934,256 has been effected monthly from August 2013 to July 2014 while N305, 678,787 is currently deducted monthly from July 2014 to July 2020 by which time the state government would have paid a total of N25.5 billion.”
Finally, I hereby charge Mr Rauf Aregbesola to produce information about the debt profile of Osun state as compelled by the Chief Judge of the State.
