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We shall defeat anyone who challenges us in 2014 — Aregbesola

July 4, 2013 by TUNDE ODESOLA 3 Comments

   

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, fielded questions from journalists and members of the public during a seven-hour interactive session tagged, Ogbeni Till Daybreak. TUNDE ODESOLA was there. Excerpts:

The provision of 1, 500 computers to secondary school pupils by your administration has come under criticism. Can you clear the air on this issue?

It is to ensure that education is democratised. When we talk of democratisation of education, what we are saying is that, never again will anybody be denied access to learning for whatever reason.

Wherever you are in this state, no matter how remote, education will be your birthright. And it is not wishy-washy education; it is total, comprehensive quality education. If you understand as I do, education means access to all needed textbooks, best practice in tutorials and whatever that will prepare pupils for their examination, internal and external. Then, you will appreciate what I am saying. The 1.1kg tablet has whatever that you need for your foundations in education. That is the cardinal objective of it, but there are other associated benefits. One, with Opo-Imo (computer tabs), we are guaranteeing for our children access to digital technology. It is also to ensure that from here in Osun, the heartland of the Yoruba, we can also produce stars like Bill Gate and several others.

What is the debt profile of the state?

A government is an entity just like a corporation. We should understand that a private company cannot be said to be successful if all it is doing is within the ambit of its own resources, because International Breweries, for example, wants to optimise its production and services. It sought investment from far and wide and that was why South Africa Breweries came into it, among other things. That was how the company went public from the narrow primary investors and that was how and why it is growing. As it is with IBL, so it is with Guinness, Julius Berger and several other such successful companies. However, when responsible governments realise the enormity of the task of development and seek to involve others in the process of ensuring development in its sphere of influence, some people, out of ignorance, raise eyebrows.

While companies invest to make profit, government must invest in the people so that the people will be economically viable to support government.

Government is to empower the people so that they too can in return empower the government. If we limit development to all the government could get, forget it, there will be stagnation and underdevelopment.

Apart from communist nations, there is no nation on earth that is successful without heavy commitment of money from sources that can so do easily. What should concern us is the deployment of such resources.

Is the money deployed to projects and policies that will enhance the capacity of the people? If the answer is no, then query it, but if the answer is yes, hail it. If you recall, on our assumption, we contended with some issues, including the (N18.38bn) short term loan that was taken by our predecessors for long term projects which have no benefit for the people. Those were the things we queried. Short term loan can only increase the burden on the populace because we will be paying commercial interest on the loan that on its own cannot generate returns to meet the interest that we are paying and so it is debilitating. To make it easier for us to manage, we sought and got a credit line with which we refinanced the loan, we stopped projects that are not beneficial to the people and we got the balance for serious capital projects that will impact positively on the people at that time. That was why we said then that we had N35 billion to execute development.

To the caterwaulers, they thought what we are saying is a pile-up of debt, no. What we did, thereafter, was that the time given on the refinancing arrangement with the First Bank (that) was used to process access to the capital market which is the ultimate for investment purposes.

So, we used the capital market to absorb the credit line. However, one thing that is clear is that one institution that cannot be hoodwinked is a financial institution. Banks or financial institutions are so organised that manipulation is rare and they are equally so structured that they don’t give money frivolously. You must not only convince them about what you want to use the money for, you must also provide enough guarantee that should your project fail, their risk would be minimal. Osun takes N3.4 billion every month from the federal allocation. But for ease of calculation, let us assume that what we get is N5 billion per month. N60 billion in four years make it N240 billion. That is the totality of what we can get in four years. Out of the money, we pay N2.6 billion to workers every month, including pension and gratuity, let us say we run government every month with N900 million. If you deduct all these, what is left for development every month is N1.5 billion and for four years, it is N60bn. In absolute terms, no bank will give the state more than its capacity and they will not even give you exactly what you have because the risk is huge. They can only give you 50 per cent of your worth. We must add that there are two agencies in Nigeria monitoring debts of government.

They are the Debt Management Office and Central Bank of Nigeria.

What is your position on the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum?

Let the NGF take care of itself. It is a voluntary association.

It is believed that your frugality in governance would be your undoing in the 2014 governorship election.

Let us see what will happen in 2014. But really, we have been badly affected by military rule to the extent that we have even lost our spirit to resist oppression. We are a people with dignity and pride.

It is in the defence of the minimum threshold that Rauf Aregbesola is here and I am so sure that our people are so committed to stand by us because we are a people with history, tradition, custom and value.

There is no doubt in my mind that we enjoy the total support of our people. We are looking forward to 2014, and by the grace of God. We shall defeat whoever raises his head to challenge us. We are so confident because we represent the choice of our people; there is no threat at all.

How are your party people reacting to your frugality?

If they are not carried along, they would not be here. I believe that our party members are properly carried along. There is distinction between the progressives in power and the ones who are not even qualified to be called anything; they are reactionaries who believe that the only reason for being in power is to appropriate the people’s wealth, but we are saying that is not the purpose of government.

Government exists to relieve the people of their burdens and strengthen them to stand on their own so that they can give back to government in form of taxes. The majority of our party members are equally so motivated and driven and they are supporting us as we are moving on.

Many of your road projects include reconstruction of federal roads. Are you working on reimbursements from the Federal Government?

 We are working on it, but it is not easy. You may want to know that we have not yet been refunded the N1.3 billion spent by the last administration on Akoda/Old-Garage stretch of the Federal Government road. So, if they have not paid us the investment that the last Peoples Democratic Party administration made on a part of the road, you can only assume that whatever we do, we only pray that they will be responsible enough to refund our investment. But whether they pay us back or not, we are committed to serving our people and we are not looking back.

Some people are saying that the airport you claimed to be constructing is being financed by the Federal Government…

On the airport, I must say that it has been named Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola Airport. And no government is doing it other than the Government of Osun. Though no airport can be so-called without the approval of the Federal Government, we have got that approval. It will be fallacious for anybody to say that because the FG must approve, that translates to ownership. Osun is responsible for the ongoing construction of MKO Abiola Airport. Of course, we have an understanding or collaboration with the Federal Government on that project and we are still pursuing the possibility of that collaboration, but as of  today, the funding of the project is absolutely done by the State Government of Osun.