Osun Finance and Garrulity of Yesterday’s Men, By Adebayo Adedeji

At a time one would expect the financial concoctionists to back off their calumnious campaign against the government of Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun, it is strange to realise that the spent forces continue to launch sorte to substantiate the financial recklessness enlivened during the governorship of Rauf Aregbesola, the current interior minister.

The leading character in the mindless attack is a former commissioner in the state, who despite his first class degree in engineering and his boastful claim of exposure and foray in the country’s banking industry, still suffers from inferiority complex.

The ex-commissioner, in his customised magisterial arrogance, made weird assertions regarding indebtedness of the state as at the period Aregbesola’s tenure eclipsed in November 2018. His recent involvement was a reaction to the query of the Osun Masterminds addressed to the governor. The Masterminds is an assemblage of rights activists seeking accountability about the finance of Osun State, particularly finance from 2010 to 2018, period Aregbesola rode over the State roughshod.

Rather than allowing the current government, to which the questions were addressed, do justice to the concerns of the group, the loquacious lap-dog strayed into the discussion by formulating tangential questions for the governor. Throughout his rambling, the ex-commissioner under whose watch the state borrowed N16.5 billion from commercial banks at two digit interest rate to renovate 11 secondary schools, was silent on the N42 billion Paris Club refund the government of Aregbesola received in four tranches to cushion the effect of biting economy at the time. The refund was a partial settlement of long-standing claims by Osun State government relating to over deductions from its Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) payment for external debt service between 1995 and 2002. The fund was released to Aregbesola as part of the wide efforts to stimulate the economy and was specifically designed to support Osun in meeting salary and other obligations, thereby alleviating the challenges faced by workers. The releases though were conditional upon a minimum per cent being applied to the payment of workers’ salaries and pensions, the government of Aregbesola, till date, has not been able to reasonably account for the fund for it was diverted and spent frivolously.

Nothwithstanding the financial buffers and free fund enjoyed by the defunct government, the state was still left financially prostate. Claiming Aregbesola left a debt of N170.5 billion for his successor is putting it mildly. The debt is way above it. In fact the debt is in the region of N270 billion! And to offset the whole bill, the state would need to endure further for there will not be any relief until year 2046, the expected year for completion of debt repayment accessed by the government superintended by Aregbesola.

And as long as the state services the debt Aregbesola inducted it into, the state will continue to suffer the effect of the repayment. Even though the government of Oyetola has offset from the debt the sum of N72, 264, 135, 513.19 ( seventy two billion, two hundred and sixty four million, one hundred and thirty five thousand, five hundred and thirteen naira and nineteen kobo), it continues to suffer on the account of the monthly deduction meant for debt repayment. At the moment, the sum of N1.817 billion is monthly taken from the federal allocation due to the State.

In my earlier intervention on the financial situation of Osun, I wrote that some of the decisions, lacking in foresight, of Aregbesola and his yes-men, rammed the state into dire straits where, for example, funds meant to be available for the current administration to execute its numerous lofty programmes are taken at source to service debt owed by the defunct administration. It is not in dispute that in the first term of Rauf Aregbesola, the average statutory gross allocation to the state government was N50 billion. Specifically, in 2013, its gross allocation was N55 billion. Note: Gross is the money due to states, while Net is what is eventually distributed to them — after deductions (i.e loan repayment) have been made. The Net shrinks when debt repayment obligations are fulfilled. Unfortunately, while the state government’s Gross allocation from the Federal Account in 2019, during Oyetola governorship, was N51.9 billion, the Net that actually came to the state was paltry N24.2 billion! Where did the balance of N27.7 billion go? It was deducted to settle the debt left behind by Aregbesola government. This same time, Oyo State went home with N55 billion, Ekiti State with N41 billion and Ogun State with N38 billion.

Similarly in 2020, more than N20 billion was knocked off, from what was due to Osun State, to settle loans obtained by Aregbesola government. According to the State of States report for 2021, Osun’s debt repayment for 2020 was the third largest loan repayment made by any state in Nigeria. Osun’s debt burden was almost 9 times bigger than the IGR in the year under review!

But as volte-face, the garrulous machine and self-imposed Joseph Goebbels of Aregbesola government continues to weave an argument to pin the financial recklessness of the government he served on the head of a romanticised omnipotent Chief-of-Staff.

How ludicrous could it sound that a chief of staff, an officer not known to the Constitution of Nigeria, is made a scapegoat and is always pilloried to account for the action of his principal, the governor, on whose desk the buck stops? The more the Aregboslaists canvass this line of argument, the more they reduce the political status of their principal to that of a leader who, though had the mandate to govern, was not in charge of his government.

The falsehood peddling machine should own up that while he served as the commissioner, memos bordering on finance of the State were communicated directly between the governor and the finance commissioner. They were never routed through the chief of staff or any officer of the government. This was the practice during the period of Aregbesola. The man’s claim that the Chief-of-Staff was the gateway to all financial transactions in that government is disingenuous, irresponsible and mendacious.

The ex-commissioner, who some weeks ago entertained the listeners on a popular radio station how Aregbesola, against the suggestion of Chief-of-Staff Oyetola, insisted on his nomination as Commissioner, should not be part of the ignoramuses conjuring the juvenile myth of the chief of staff being more powerful than the governor who employed him.

Again, the ex-commissioner should discontinue his pedestrian falsehood that the government of Oyetola has secretly obtained financial bonds to shore up resources available to it. The weird and misleading claim, aimed at demonising the government of the day, is capable of stirring up civil unrest. For the purpose of enlightenment, yes, there exist private and public bonds. But there is nothing like secret bond. No bond can be accessed through the backdoor. Every bond process is pedantic and passes through conventional institutions. As a fact, every bond must have an imprimatur of the Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This position of the ex-commissioner clearly shows he does not have the depth and grasp of the government finance, contrary to his blusterous claim of being the best financial expert around!

Going forward, the ex-commissioner should be told in clear terms that the reason behind his sustained defence of the humongous debt left behind by the government he served is well understood by the people and at the appropriate time, he and the people behind the pillage of Osun would be called to official questioning. The time is near when every misappropriated fund, backend deal and ‘insider- cut’ enjoyed by him and his ilk would be exposed to all compatriots.