A ‘nomics’ has been added to the world of economic policies and Nigerians should appreciate it’s coming from their part of the planet, especially, at a time the world is grappling with the depravity of politics and the captivity of politicians.
 

 

In a paper presented at a Colloquium to mark his six years in office as governor of the State of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola reiterated his administration’s commitment to laying a solid foundation for the state in every area such that tampering with its progress in the future would be difficult, if not impossible. While describing “rising expenditure, especially wage bill, within the contrast of falling revenue” as the biggest challenge facing his government, Aregbesola promised that his administration would do all within its powers to ensure that no one was left behind in the distribution of the dividends of democracy to the good people of  Osun. “We are grappling with the challenge of finance and we are doing all within our power to complete all the projects we started. We are not going to leave any project uncompleted”, the governor stated.
Democracy hath no fury than a people abandoned! So, what is Raufnomics? In my considered opinion, the promoter has given a clue: it is about “getting as much from little and using the resources of the state to maximally benefit the people”. It is about “strategic planning and intervention in society; making governance mass-based and people-centric”; and  “guaranteeing the maximum good for the maximum number of people.” With a special reference to Osun, Raufnomics has proved to be a popular solution to the state’s socio-economic problems created as a result of years of Nigeria’s  sole dependence on proceeds from crude oil. It has helped sustain the state even as it continues to encourage innovative interventions within the framework of the administration’s Six Point Integral Action Plan in such a way as to help put the economy of the state back on track.
In addition to some of this administration’s laudable achievements which have already been  captured in Aregbesola’s speech at the event, the establishment of Osun Job Centre, designed principally to serve as an interface between job seekers and employers of labour;  the  procurement of no fewer than 125 Patrol Vans, 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and one helicopter which has  helped   in drastically reducing incidences of crime in the state; and the creation and successful take-off of 61 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), 3 Area Offices and 2 Administrative Offices from the former 31 Local Government Areas are also some of the ways this government has positively affected the rule of the game.
A strong advocate of regional integration, he was a major force in the establishment of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, an institutional and programmed body saddled with the responsibility of ‘midwifing’ the regional integration agenda of the Southwest states. And, with the creation of Osun Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, I doubt if any misguided pupil or student will ever attempt to task the tolerance of the good people of Osun or insult their collective intelligence again.
Aregbesola’s  approval of the immediate commencement of a unified Public Service in the state is worth mentioning here. Apart from repositioning  “the State Public Service for efficient and effective service delivery at all levels of governance”, the step is also aimed at removing “all restrictions to seamless movement of personnel from one spectrum of the Public Service to the other”. Needless to repeat that it is in a bid to ensure transparency in the state’s financial dealings that this man of splendour and all-encompassing charisma  recently inaugurated the Hassan Sunmonu-led  committee on allocation of revenues to “oversee the allocation of state’s revenue to prompt payment of salaries as well as the adequate running of government.”
The price of fame, it is often said, goes beyond brooding or bargaining around the frustration of some mischievous parallelisms! But when will Nigeria’s vine overcome the antics of her “foxes, the little foxes” and who will raise the hands of her Moses as an assurance of permanent victory? Coming closer home, if we have an avatar at the helm of affairs in Osun, how come the state is such in dire straits that it now seems as if delayed salaries have come to stay with us? Assuming without conceding that we are in this pass because of  the level of our debt and its management,  as a result of  which our dear state has allegedly  become slave  to  Irrevocable Payment Standing Orders (IPSOs) and other debt recovery instruments, how do we situate the fate of richer and resource-endowed states like Ondo and Bayelsa which are also behind schedule in terms of salary obligations to their workers?
Well, the tragedy of our  Nigerianness is that we deceive ourselves a lot and that has been our greatest undoing! Here, we play politics like an interest-driven game,  unrepentantly notorious for its art of the impossible and personal manipulations. That is why, despite efforts by this dogged fighter at positively impacting lives through his “numerous programmes, policies and schemes”, there still exists some unrefined, less-informed  detractors who derisively “consider it fit and proper to constitute themselves into an opposition of the government of the day, however, well-meaning and good-intentioned.” Because of the way they are fated, they always allow their personal and selfish desire for certain specialities to run wild thereby straying away from unprejudiced realities. They lust for what they do not have and that which is of no use to them and, despite the fact that they do not get that which they do not have and that which they neither need nor deserve, they delude themselves with it to spoil that which they are supposed to have but unfortunately they do not have.
In their world, there is neither economic focus nor political direction that is practically aimed at alleviating the people’s poverty and pains. Instead, they revel in the virulence of insouciant leaders and the proliferation of unprincipled politicians. For no just cause, these individualists and spoilers culpably hate leaders for doing good, categorise a government which “runs a most transparent allocation of scarce resources to tackle underdevelopment” as ‘reckless’; and tag one which strives to confront “problems engendered by socio-political transformation”  as  ‘insensitive’! Since they are experts at spreading beliefs that reject persuasion, they tar every developmental stride with the mark of corruption. In their myopic view, Opon Imo is a scam; O-YES,  money-sapping; O-MEALS,  unnecessary; and policies and programmes aimed at shoring up the state’s revenue generation capacity are ‘too draconian and unfriendly’.
In any case, “minds differ as rivers differ”, says Baron Thomas Macaulay.  While some might liken Aregbesola to a “controversial politician who doesn’t listen to advice, however, novel or useful”, to others, he’s one astute administrator who would not “want to enrich himself at the expense of the poor masses”. While some might unfairly consider his style of governance as one “built only on propaganda”, others see it – and, rightly, too –  as “a source of hope in the face of the weak and bleak future that the Yoruba race and Nigeria face.” In all of these, however; and political persuasions notwithstanding,  what critics of Raufnomics cannot deny is  Aregbesola’s  gentleness, straightforwardness and uncanny sense of direction which he has dispassionately deployed in transforming the state into an emerging market with a lot of potentials. Unlike others whose portion is in making promises at the drop of a hat with no real intention of keeping them, it is unRauf to allow people who delight in whirling by their dark clouds to be the limit of his success.
Need I say more on why Osun has continued to wax stronger, in spite of the biting economic slowdown currently troubling Nigeria’s Israel?
May principalities and powers, assigned to rubbish our leaders’ efforts, BACKFIRE!

As part of efforts to avoid loss of property to fire, the Osun State government has released emergency numbers for residents to call in distress times.
The Chairman of the state’s Committee for Fire Safety Matters, Honourable Oguntola Toogun, who released the numbers to reporters over the weekend, stated that the step was taken to further prevent unnecessary fire outbreak in the state.
 

 
According to him, the two numbers – 08030808254 and 08160148023 – would always be available and accessible for any report on any incident of fire in the state.
He stated that his committee would provide fire and rescue services, observing that the outbreak of fire had reduced drastically in Osun State.
“We released our numbers and embarked on public sensitisation because 95 per cent of the public does not know fire services number. Hence, they run to police for help if a person falls in well-water or they see fire outbreak.
“It is called Fire and Rescue Service because we also respond to victims of collapsed building. Fire Service should also involve in building of houses but some people are ignorant of this,” he stated.
He condemned the nonchalant attitude of people to fire outbreak, saying; “as dangerous as fire is, it is the only thing people take with levity”.
On the Fulani and farmers clash, Toogun said “the issue is a full time work. It gives us sleepless night. We don’t have holiday. No Saturday and Sunday, no Christmas and New year.”
“We’ve treated not less than 5,000 cases and we thank God. In Nigeria today, only Osun is the most peaceful state in terms of Fulani and farmers clash,” he proudly said.
The Chairman of the Committee, however, advised people to take more precautions and be careful with gas and stove, especially as harmattan approaches, saying the state government would continue to do everything possible to avoid loss of property to fire.

Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has charged members of the National Youth Service Corps posted to the state to be patriotic and resourceful in serving the nation.
 

 
Aregbesola said this at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Batch `B’ Orientation programme held at the NYSC orientation camp, Ede, Osun State.
The governor urged the corps members to integrate sufficiently with the communities in the state and identify with the problems and aspirations of their host communities where they would be carrying out their primary assignments.
He commended the camp officials who by their maturity, dedication to duty, understanding and selflessness contributed in their various ways in making orientation course a huge success.
The State Coordinator of NYSC in Osun state, Mrs Regina Iluebbey said a total of 2,276 corps members comprising 1,238 males and 1,038 females were registered for the orientation course.
She noted that the orientation course has prepared the corps members
for physical, intellectual capability.
She urged the corps members to serve with dedication and determination to make positive change.
Iluebbey also advised the new corps members to key into the Skil Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of NYSCso as to become self-reliant.

It was widely reported shortly after Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that 27 out of the 36 states of the Federation including Osun State had difficulties in meeting salaries payment obligation of their workers as a result of the nation’s dwindling Oil revenue.
 
 

 
For this reason, the then newly elected Buhari Government offered to help concerned state governments with concessionary loan, popularly called bailout fund facilitated through the Apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to defray backlog of salaries arrear.
 
Requests were made to the Central Bank of Nigeria by concerned states, the Osun State government  requested for N64,327,492,947.01 to cover salaries, allowances, pensions and gratuities of State workers while a sum of N23,887,975,810.26 was requested to offset the outstanding arrears of salaries, allowances, pension and gratuities of local government workers in the State but unfortunately, the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN only approved and released N25,871,920,000 to cover just salaries and allowances of state workers, leaving out pension and gratuities while only N9,117,070,000 was approved and released by the CBN for arrears of salaries and allowances also leaving out local government pension and gratuities just as it was done for their counterparts in the state.
 

For the sake of emphasis, no fund was released for pension and gratuity by the CBN to the state government  despite the fact that it was included in the request of N64,327,492,947.01 for state workers and N25,871,920,000  for local government workers to the apex bank
 
A total sum of N34bn not inclusive of the pension was released to the Osun State government for state and local government workers’ salaries and allowances which is far less than the requested amount by the state .
 
However, to further display a high level of transparency in the disbursement of the loan referred to as  bailout fund, the state government and the labour unions agreed to supervise the disbursement of the fund for the state government and local government workers in line with the CBN guideline, an apportionment committee headed by the first NLC President, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, with labour unions and other stakeholders as members was set up to monitor the fund and the revenue from other sources, This, no doubt, afforded the labour unions and relevant stakeholders the opportunity to monitor all transactions as attested to by labour unions and bankers involved in the bailout disbursement.
Despite the fact that pensioners were not captured in the bailout fund released to the Osun State government, Mr Rauf Aregbesola for his love for the pensioners magnanimously ensured that both state and local government pensioners benefited from the bailout fund. The government had paid the pensioners up till August 2016 in line with modulated salary structures as applicable to civil servants in the state. The pensioners should ordinarily not have been paid from the fund, but for the magnanimity of the governor, who said they must be included  because they had served the state diligently.
It is important to debunk insinuations aimed at blackmailing Mr Rauf Aregbesola’s administration that the bailout fund was mismanaged. Of all the states, no state has been transparent and open in terms of management of the use of the fund as Osun State.
Yes, you shall know the truth and it shall set you free!
All evidence have shown that the Osun State government has demonstrated a high sense of responsibility and transparency in the application of the fund and as of  November 30, 2016, the state government had N2.040 million in First Bank and N1.312 million in Wema Bank as balance of the bailout fund for the state with a balance of N173,226,000 domiciled in Zenith Bank  for the Local Government bailout fund  .
It is also worth noting that under that modulated salaries structure, a chunk of Osun workers still receive full salaries and allowances while only those in the senior cadre get half salaries. Confirmed reports even had it that the state government has directed an upward review of salaries and allowance under the modulated salary scheme for immediate payment of Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec 2016 salaries payment . It is no doubt regrettable that we find ourselves in such a situation as a result of dwindling revenue  which has made several neighboring states default in payment of salaries and allowance for between 8 and 15 months now.
The diligent use of the bailout given to the Osun State government has afforded her to continuously meet salaries obligation despite meagre allocation accruing to the state while unprecedented infrastructural development has continued across the length and breadth of the state  .

Osun state government has debunked the insinuations making the round that the state has received another concessionary fund popularly called bailout fund from Federal Government.
 
 

 
The state government reiterated its commitment to the welfare of its workforce stressing that the government would continue to promote religious tolerance and diversity in the state.
Governor Aregbesola made this known while speaking at the Year 2016 Christmas Carol jointly organised by the and Osun State Christian Association of Nigeria (OSCAN).
Dispelling the rumours that have generated mixed reactions from different quarters in the state, the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye Tomori, who represented her boss, said that the government only received part of the refunds from the Paris/London Club loans deductions through the Federal Government.
Aregbesola maintained that the government has been fair to workers in the state despite the harsh economic condition rocking the nation.
He reassured the people of the state of his administration’s unrelenting efforts to continuously ensure religious tolerance, harmony and balance as well as peaceful cohabitation among the residents in the state.
According to him, the peace experiencing in the state was due to the state government’s high level of cordiality among faithful of different religions living in the state.
Governor charged indigenes and residents in the state to continue to see beyond religious differences and live together in peace and devoid of acrimony.
He therefore expressed happiness at the Inter-Denominational Christmas Carol, saying that the coming together showed that various denominations in the state christian circle are one and in peace.
Also speaking at the carol that saw various churches and faithful gathered at the Osogbo city stadium in Osogbo, the state capital, OSCAN Chairman, Very Rev. Michael Okodua said the carol was organised to mark the coming of Jesus Christ into the world through the celebration of Christmas.
The cleric charged Christians to always be wary of the second coming of their saviour  asking them to avoid sinful occasions and be prayerful.
The august occasion witnessed the rendition of songs and reading of scriptures by various choirs from different denominations in the state which portrayed the season of Christmas.
Likewise, the participants at the programme were full of gladness as they sang and danced alongside the choir just as prayers were said for the state and the country at large.

In a paper presented at a colloquium to mark his six years in office as governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola reiterated his administration’s commitment to laying a solid foundation for the state in every area such that tampering with its progress in the future would be difficult, if not impossible. While describing “rising expenditure, especially wage bill, within the contrast of falling revenue” as the  biggest challenge  facing  his  government, Aregbesola promised that his administration would do all within its powers to ensure that no one was left behind in the distribution of  the  dividends of democracy  to the  good  people  of  Osun. “We are grappling with the challenge of finance and we are doing all within our power to complete all the projects we started. We are not going to leave any project uncompleted”, the governor stated.
 

 
Democracy hath no fury than a people abandoned! So, what is Raufnomics? In my considered opinion, the promoter has given a clue:    it is about “getting as much from little and using the resources of the state to maximally benefit the people”.  It is about “strategic planning and intervention in society; making governance mass-based and people-centric”; and “guaranteeing the maximum good for the maximum number of people.” With a special reference to Osun,  Raufnomics has proved to be a popular solution  to   the  state’s socio-economic problems created as a result of years of Nigeria’s  sole  dependence on proceeds from crude oil. It has helped sustain the state even as it continues to encourage innovative interventions within the framework of the administration’s Six Point Integral Action Plan in such a way as to help put the economy of the state back on track.
In addition to some of this administration’s laudable achievements which  have  already  been  captured in Aregbesola’s speech at the event, the establishment of Osun Job Centre, designed principally  to serve as an interface between  jobseekers and employers of labour;  the  procurement of no fewer than 125 Patrol Vans, 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and one helicopter which has  helped   in drastically reducing incidences of crime in the state;   and  the creation and successful take-off of 61 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Offices and two Administrative Offices from the former 31 Local Government Areas  are also some of the ways this government  has positively affected the rule of the game.
A strong advocate of regional integration, he was a major force in the establishment of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, an institutional and programmed body saddled with the responsibility of midwifing the regional integration agenda of the Southwest states.  And, with the creation of Osun Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, I doubt if any misguided pupil or student will ever attempt to task the tolerance of the good people of Osun or insult their collective intelligence again.
Aregbesola’s approval of the immediate commencement of a unified Public Service in the state is worth mentioning here. Apart from repositioning “the State Public Service for efficient and effective service delivery at all levels of governance”, the step is also aimed at removing “all restrictions to seamless movement of personnel from one spectrum of the Public Service to the other”. Needless to repeat that it is in a bid to ensure transparency in the state’s financial dealings that he recently inaugurated the Hassan Sunmonu-led committee on allocation of revenues to “oversee allocation of state’s revenue to prompt payment of salaries as well as adequate running of government.”

The price of fame, it is often said, goes beyond brooding or bargaining around the frustration of some mischievous parallelisms! But when will Nigeria’s vine overcome the antics of her “foxes, the little foxes” and who will raise the hands of her Moses as an assurance of permanent victory? Coming closer home, if we have an avatar at the helm of affairs in Osun, how come the state is such in dire straits that it now seems as if delayed salaries have come to stay with us? Assuming without conceding that we are in this pass because of the level of our debt and its management, as a result of which dear state has allegedly become slave to Irrevocable Payment Standing Orders (IPSOs) and other debt recovery instruments, how do we situate the fate of richer and resource-endowed states like Ondo and Bayelsa which are also behind schedule in terms of salary obligations to their workers?
Well, the tragedy of our Nigerianness is that we deceive ourselves a lot and that has been our greatest undoing! Here, we play politics like an interest-driven game, unrepentantly   notorious for its art of the impossible and personal manipulations. That is why, despite  efforts by this dogged fighter at positively impacting lives   through his numerous programmes, policies and schemes, there still exists some unrefined, less-informed  detractors who derisively consider it fit and proper to constitute themselves into an opposition of the government of the day, however well-meaning and good-intentioned. Because of the way they  are fated,  they  always allow their personal and selfish desire for certain specialities to run wild thereby straying away from unprejudiced realities. They lust for what they do not have and that which is of no use to them and, despite the fact that they do not get that which they do not have and that which they neither need nor deserve, they delude themselves with it to spoil that which they are supposed to have but unfortunately they do not have.
In their world, there is neither economic focus nor political direction that is practically aimed at alleviating the people’s poverty and pains. Instead, they revel in the virulence of insouciant leaders and the proliferation of unprincipled politicians. For no just cause, these individualists and spoilers culpably hate leaders for doing good, categorize a government which runs a most transparent allocation of scarce resources to tackle underdevelopment as ‘reckless’; and  tag  one which strives to  confront problems engendered by socio-political transformation as  ‘insensitive’! Since they are experts at spreading beliefs that reject persuasion, they tar every developmental stride with the mark of corruption. In their myopic view, Opon Imo is a scam; O-YES, money-sapping; O-MEALS,  unnecessary; and policies and programmes aimed  at  shoring up the state’s revenue generation capacity are ‘too draconian and unfriendly’.
In any case, “minds differ as rivers differ”, says Baron Thomas Macaulay.  While some might liken Aregbesola to a “controversial politician who doesn’t listen to advice, however novel or useful”, to others, he’s one astute administrator who would not “want to enrich himself at the expense of the poor masses”. While some might unfairly consider his style of governance as one “built only on propaganda”, others see it – and, rightly, too – as “a source of hope in the face of the weak and bleak future that the Yoruba race and Nigeria face.” In all  of  these  however;  and  political persuasions notwithstanding,  what critics of Raufnomics  cannot deny is  Aregbesola’s  gentleness, straightforwardness and uncanny sense of direction which he has dispassionately deployed in  transforming the state into  an emerging market with a lot of potentials. Unlike others whose portion is in making promises at the drop of a hat with no real intention of keeping them, it is unRauf to allow people who delight in whirling by their dark clouds to be the limit of his success.
Need I say more on why Osun has continued to wax stronger, in spite of  the  biting economic slowdown currently troubling Nigeria’s Israel?

The Government of Osun has said the minimum requirement of the state for a sustainable and effective governance is a minimum revenue of N10 billion monthly.
This disclosure was made in a communique issued at the conclusion of the retreat to review the 2017 budget proposal of the state in Ijebu-Jesa.

Osun government, in a bid to deliver on its promises to the people, concluded a three-day retreat designed to elicit robust and rigorous discussions along the line of the State’s revenue vis-à-vis budget performance in 2017.
Government, in the communique, stated that the performance of the 2016 budget,the Draft 2017 budget proposal, performance of IGR and projects to be embarked and improved upon to catalyse economic growth among others were reviewed at the retreat.
Participants at the retreat were drawn from both the public and private sectors, comprising the Governor,  Deputy Governor, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Secretary to the State Government, Chief-of-Staff to the Governor, Head of Service, prominent citizens of Osun, former cabinet members of the State Executive Council and Heads of relevant MDAs of the State.
The communique held that for sustainable good governance of the state, the minimum that the state requires monthly is not less than N10 billion.
It added that the success of the proposed 2017 budget which is proposed to be a balanced budget is dependent on aggressive revenue drive that takes IGR to between 5 and N6 billion per month.
It also stressed that budgets estimates of the state should be driven by revenue and not expenditure in line with global best practices with the need to set up committees to: review existing revenue heads; determine genuine heads of revenues and conduct realistic assessments of what can be generated.
The communique read in part, “The proposed committees should be done within 2 weeks of the conclusion of the retreat, quarterly review of revenue generation performance by all revenue generating agencies to appraise performance, identify challenges, propose solutions towards the attainment of revenue set targets.
“Mobilisation of the civil service to embrace efficiency and productivity as the essence and watchword for successful budget implementation in 2017. Effective coordination of all revenue generation activities in the state by Osun Internal Revenue Services (OIRS).
“Prioritisation of projects with a view to funding them at the appropriate time was also considered imperative and potential areas considered as quick-wins on the state’s IGR generation were identified for immediate exploration.
“State Asset Management Agency (O’SAMA) to be established for mapping, custody and management of all the State’s assets particularly land and vacant school properties across the State”.
The communique also emphasised that for effective implementation of the Land Use Charge Law, it is resolved that Local Government staff should be trained and engaged for the identification, enumeration, categorisation of properties, and service of assessment notices.
It also noted that abattoirs should be set up across the state with private sector involvement to enhance health and sanitation.
Government resolved at the retreat that efforts must be intensified to identify and explore solid mineral and forestry resources in the state through public/private partnership.
 
communique_osun-budget-retreat_december-2016