Fellow Nigerians, let meSTART with an adage I first heard from the generalissimo himself, Aare Ona Kakanfo Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola: “The bigger the head, the bigger the headache”. On July 7, 2015 it would be 17 years since the great businessman and martyr of our democracy departed this turbulent world but I’ve never forgotten the wisdom buried in those words which rushed to my mind as I sat to craft this piece.`
Writing of 7/7, I remember the victims of that horrific tragedy which occurred on that day, 10 years ago, in 2005 when four bombs went off in Central London leading to murder and mayhem. Two out of the 52 people that lost their lives were Nigerian, 55 year old Ojara Ikeagwu and 26 year old Anthony Fatayi-Williams. I pray for the sweet repose of those innocent souls and my dearest mentor, MKO. Incidentally these three outstanding symbols of the hope of our nation have never been properly honouredHERE in Nigera. We should take a leaf from how the British honoured our son and daughter back in 2005 and even until today and how they gave military treatment and nationwide minute silence to 30 of their citizens massacred on a Tunisian beach. When we learn to imbibe such values and give honour where it is due, our country will surely become a better place.
Back to my main topic of today, you may be wondering why Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s headache is my business. My dear father, Jacob Momodu, migrated from his village of Ihievbe, Owan East Local Government of Edo State, long before I was born. How he settled in the ancient town of Ile-Ife will forever remain a mystery as he died (in 1973) at the beginning of my teenage years, before I could ask questions about his adventurous spirit. My dad met a beautiful woman called Gladys, from Gbongan Olufi in the State of Osun, and swept her off her feet. I’m the only product of their whirlwind romance.
By now I’m sure you can begin to feel mySTRONG link to the State of Osun. I was born in Ile-Ife and had all my education up to post-graduate studies in that great cradle of civilisation and learning. My other siblings, from my parents’ prior marriages still live in Ile-Ife till this day, except our eldest brother. You can thus visualise my emotional attachment to the land of my birth.
IRECEIVED what seemed an angry call a few weeks ago from my older sister who resides in Modakeke. I asked what the matter was because it is very unusual for her to sound irritated. “Help me beg your friend Aregbesola to pay our salaries because he has not paid us for several months,” she thundered. I pleaded with her to cool temper while I tried to explain the little I understood about the debacle. My sister was obviously not in the mood for any rigmarole or semantics but I tried my best to pacify her.
Weeks after that encounter, it seems the situation hasBECOME even worse in Osun with politicians making capital gains of it. There is the inherent potential for blackmail and I’ve taken time to examine some of their claims. Startlingly, I discovered that the Governor is a victim of his own obsession with rapid development. I will elaborate by illustrating my thesis with the story of Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. In his autobiography, President Clinton offered an insight into the danger of any government thinking it can solve all of society’s problems in 0ne fellk swoop or in the lifetime of its regime. He was desperate to do so much but ended up offending his people who could not endure the pain and sacrifice needed to achieve the monumental results he craved for them.
The case of Aregbesola is not too different. Love him or hate him, even Aregbesola’s bitterest enemies would attest to the fact that the man is a compulsive workaholic. I first noticed this about him as Commissioner forWORKS under Governor Bola Tinubu in Lagos State. Alhaji Rauf,as we fondly called him, was the Mr Fix It of that ground-breaking administration. Indeed, this was the reason Governor Tinubu and Aregbesola became almost inseparable.
In Osun, Aregbesola has embarked on massive infrastructural development. This would not have been too difficult in a country or State where theCOST OF running government is not so stupendous. But wait for this shocking revelation, the Osun Civil Service has a population of about 35,000, representing about 1% of the State’s population but the monthly wage bill gulps a handsome N3.6billion and a gargantuan N43.2billion annually. This alone devours about 70% of the total budget which is the sadTREND across our nation. Please, tell me why our country won’t continue to wear the look of a war-ravaged territory and wallow in misery with this level of government profligacy which does not even begin to help the unemployment mess that our governments try to ameliorate by hiring as much of the citizenry as possible.
At the end of the day, a government like that of Aregbesola which hopes to pursue personal human development throughSOCIAL WELFARE would ultimately get stranded in a cul-de-sac. The laudatory Osun School Feeding scheme ensures that over 250,000 students get fed daily during school terms and costs about N3.5billion per annum. Please, juxtapose this against the Civil Service of only 35,000 people gobbling up about N3.6billion monthly. Similarly, the Osun Youth Development Scheme engages about 40,000 youths at N3billion annually. Apart from the number of individuals directly benefitting from theseTWO schemes, thousands of extended families enjoy succour through indirect or ancillary employment and supplementary income freed up by the fact that parents don’t have to undertake these responsibilities.
Tragically, it seems that the problems facing Governor Aregbesola in Osun, like other states, lies with over-spending on a few while under-spending on the majority. The physical infrastructural projects in Osun are quite ambitious. Hundreds of kilometres of roads have been completed or stalled, including rural, township, intercity and Highway networks. These convinced the people that Ogbeni Rauf, (as he is affectionately called) with his simple style of governance matched exponentially by his appetite for wide ranging and significant development was the Governor to continue to take them to loftier heights and they therefore re-elected him.
However, in the midst of this commendable work, trouble started to creep in from 2012 with the arbitrary demand for wage increment by civil servants. This was further compounded in 2013 with the steady decline in statutory allocation. The situation deteriorated in 2014 with the crash ofINTERNATIONAL OIL PRICES.
Much has been made of the purchase of a helicopter by the Government but in a country where transportation is hazardous at best, and a State which demands prompt attention and reaction to various exigencies, faster means of transportation becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. Besides, the Governor has to find the right balance between interacting with his people and the seeming highCOST OF a helicopter. I would imagine that the people would prefer a Governor able to be closer to their problems by visiting at will. Moreover, when you consider that the cost of the helicopter will be spread over decades and not just years, clearly this is not as frivolous an investment as many would want to suggest.
What is the way forward? There are no easy answers or solutions but we must start somewhere. I believe so much in social welfare if properlyMANAGED and would never canvass for its abolition no matter the challenges today. It elevates majority of our people and it would spell unmitigated disaster if abruptly guillotined.
In the short run, great dividends will come if labour unions sit at a table with Aregbesola and his team to agree on cost-cutting measures. It may be necessary for workers to sacrifice part of their increased salaries or may have to suspend receipt of some arrears until the situation improves. Any short term solution is bound to bring anger and frustration but we must always be realistic and practical about these problems. The otherOPTION is mass retrenchment which I will never support because of its potential to increase social anguish and ignite violent unrests.
While it is easy to canvass for a sustained drive forINTERNAL generated revenue through indirect taxation and levies, we should be careful not to kill businesses or run the few employers of labour out of town.
The medium and long term solution rests in governemnt attracting domestic and foreign investment through the creation of an enabling environment that allows businesses to thrive. Fortunately, Osun State has always been an agrarian State with significant cash crops like cocoa. It has plenty of arable land and is close enough to Lagos State and the oil producing regions of the South South to tap from businesses which need support there. While I do not advocate that Government should wholly establish these businesses, the State can source for theINVESTMENT AND take a modest equity participation that will also enable it to directly benefit from its astuteness.
Osun is not the only culprit in this non-payment of salary scandal and it should not be singled out for victimisation. Politics should never be played at the expense and certainly not to the detriment of the people.
My thoughts and prayers are with our dear Governor as he courageously battles to redeem his State.
 
Source :OPINION RIVER

State of Osun House of Assembly has felicitated with Speaker Najeem Salaam over his award of excellence by the faculty of Social Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
In a statement signed by the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Timothy Owoeye, the award bestowed on Speaker Salaam who held his first and second degrees and currently on his P.hD from the faculty at the same university, in the mould of Professors Ogunbameru, Peter Ogunjuyigbe, Saturday Obiyan and others was clearSIGNAL of a prophet honoured at home.
Owoeye further stressed that the leadership style of Rt. Hon. Salaam was another testimony to hisCOMPETENCE as a trained political scientist from the ivory tower, saluting the faculty for searching for merit outside the box.
He said, “Speaker Salaam is a thorough bred Political scientist whose political sagacity and human relations could be used as a case study for students of politics on thesis, for he is endowed with the wisdom of fox to recognize political traps and has the courage of lion to weather any storm. Such a man deserves a medal”.
It would be recalled that the faculty of Social Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife honored Speaker Salaam with award of excellence at the first reunion of the alumni of the faculty last week Saturday, where late Professor Sam Aluko was given a posthumous award among others.
Signed:
Timothy Owoeye
Majority Leader,
State of Osun House of Assembly
Osogbo
 
Credit : OSUN DEFENDER

 
 

 
The Olumirin Waterfalls in Erin-Ijesha, Osun state will soon be developed into a tourist site, in theNEXT 16 months.
The cost is estimated at $17 ‎millionDOLLARS.
A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding among theINVESTORS, the government of the state of Osun and the community wasSIGNED TODAY in Erin Ijesha.
GeneralMANAGER Osun Tourism Board, Mr Abiodun Balogun described the development as a milestone in the history of tourism development in the state
Mr Balogun, who denied the sale of the site, assured the people of the area that the government would ensure that the investors comply with the spirit of the MOU.
ONEof the leaders of the community, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa said efforts had been made in the past to get government involved in the development of the site and commended the state Governor for its foresight.
The Director of operations of theINVESTING company, Mr Ladi Wilkey, said the project would be completed within 16months.
 
CreditTHE NEWS

The Osun Civil Societies Coalition (OCSC) has described theACTION of a serving judge who petitioned the Osun State House of Assembly over alleged mismanagement of the state’s resources by Governor Rauf Aregbesola as strange and unexpected of a judicial officer who knows the nitty-gritty of the law.
TheGROUP, in a petition signed by Comrades Waheed Lawal and Bello Adebayo, chairman and general secretary respectively and sent to the Secretary, National Judicial Council (NJC) yesterday, demanded the investigation of Justice Oloyede Folahanmi.
Justice Folahanmi had sent a 36 -page petition to the Osun State House of Assembly, calling for the probe and possible impeachment of the governor over alleged mismanagement of the state resources if found culpable.
But the OCSC called on the state Assembly to thoroughlyINVESTIGATE all the allegations raised by Justice Folahanmi in her petition, just as it urged the Assembly not to hesitate to impeach Aregbesola if truly he had committed impeachable offence as alleged.
The coalition said, “In as much as we are not in support of corruption, we call on the Osun lawmakers to be fair and transparent in investigating the petition and we demand that appropriate action be taken on Governor Aregbesola if he commits impeachable offence as alleged.”
The petition reads in part, “A subterranean look at the contents of the petition shows that the petitioner who is a serving judicial officer failed to conduct herself in such a manner to preserve the dignity of her office and the impartiality andINDEPENDENT of the judiciary.”
Source :ChidiUkwu.com

FG Should Pay States for Deductions on Foreign Loans

 Ex-Minister ofFINANCE, and Co-ordinating Minister for the economy, Dr. Okonjo Iweala
By Yinka Kolawole in Osogb0
As a result of unpaid salaries and allowances, States in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other federating units are groaning over injustice melted out to them by the out gone administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
While the challenge lasted, some states had engaged the services of consultants in attempt to get the refund of payment made on what was regarded as the “first line charge” of foreignLOANS and interests.
While a few States Kwara, Taraba, Adamawa and Kano whose foreign loans reconciliation were concluded and refunded between 2008 and 2012, others were refused for obvious reasons.
Today, it is a wide spread story of inability to pay workers, untold hardships, poverty and misery to the citizenry of the affected states’ following the dramatic decline in the Federal allocation getting to the States as a result of dwindlingOIL PRICES
Investigationsby THISDAY revealed that from the reconciliation and recovery of several millions of dollars from overDEDUCTIONS of foreign loans’REPAYMENTS (first line charge) on behalf of State Governments, record available to us shows that, in a State like Osun State for instance, “the sum of USD$13.572Billion was deducted  by the federal government forLOAN repayments, loan interest, etc under the first line charge policy. This amount was excluded from all the reconciliations carried out prior and post exit of the Paris and London Club debts.
In a way that suggested attempts to cripple the opposition political party then, a perusal of the first line deductions made from June 1995 and March 2002 which were never refunded by the Federal Government in Edo state was N8, 609, 870,824.20 $161,354,146.80; Osun State was N8,715,757,105.80 -$167,261,095.70; Imo State was N10,013,218,081.30-$185,451,752.90; Bornu State was N10,133,187,816.94 -$194,461,850.70; Zamfara State was N7,472,071,548.90 -$144,169,194.00. Others included Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe and Nasarawa States respectively.
THISDAY’s investigation has equally revealed that based on the above, the FAAC Report of Sub-Committee on Reconciliation of States’ External Debts (December 2007)recommended that another Committee be set up to tackle issues relating to the application of FACC deductions under “First Line Charge” on States’ External Debts profile before April 2002.
It is important to note that despite the FAAC Committee recommendation since December 2007, no new Committee has so far been set up to look into the pending issue of deductions and servicing of loans between June 1995 and March 2002, rather States’ were being treated on individual basis by Debt Management Office These were the States’ earlier mentioned as having collected their refunds.
Investigations also made it clear that the matter was made worse by the immediate past Minister of Finance, who was the Co coordinating Minister for the economy, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, realising that it has opened flood gate of refund to States’ ordered one of the key agencies to close the books.
The exercise therefore revealed that the total deductions from the States’ statutory revenue from June 1995 and March 2002 (period of First Line Charge policy ) were completely omitted in the past foreign loan reconciliation exercise carried out by FAAC Sub-Committee, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and Debt Management Office (DMO).
The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office are therefore enjoined to act with dispatch by dusting their books in order to reconcile the figures and effect refunds to the affected states so that they can meet their obligations to their citizenry.

Source:  ThisDay LIVE

 
The present Osun financial crises evoke pity if one takes the time to understand its structural roots. It is hard for those of us who are familiar with the turf watch the  governor, a man of an otherwise adored and praised by his people being picked at by an understandably aggrieved public over the turn of events. It will be a grave political mistake to treat this as a simple public finance management issue and turn a blind eye at the larger picture of fiscal dealings of the federal government with states.
 
 
 
Everyone is familiar with the narrative of a crash in allocation from the Centre. Well, it is real. If the receivables on your budget have had to take a 60% crash without precedence or warning, you are certainly going to be caught struggling in a net awhile, especially if your payables remain unforgivingly deductible at source,  principal, interests and all!
 
 
 
But there is more. The creation of Osun state in 1991 by the Babangida administration left certain key elements out which was key to the survival and thriving of a federating entity – and some of such omission can be observed in a few young states as well. You can expect those states to reach their critical cusp any moment too and manifest fiscal trouble symptoms akin to what we have seen in Osun this far, unless the present federal administration alters the fundamentals to protect other states.
 
No.1. A new state must have a down payment of certain basic infrastructures. For Osun, the capital was billed to be linked to the Ibadan-Ilesha expressway by a 32-km road at Gbongan on the bill of the Federal government. This was left undone. Oshogbo remained a capital with a little “This way to” signboard pointing in its direction. How is that type of an environment to grow and become self-sustaining? Who wants to put his business in a location with no roads in a modern sense? The city was to be skirted by a 30-km axial road to broaden its rim and make movement faster. About 12km of that was built by the Federal government way back under military administration and the rest abandoned. But for the Bisi Akande government of 1999 to 2004, Osun could up till now still be without a state secretariat. The whole environment remained a pastoral and idyllic one, hardly the type that attracts or stimulate forward socioeconomic movement at all.
 
 
 
The Aregbesola administration in its zeal to accelerate economic development in the state had eagerly taken the bull of those projects by the horn and had gone to source long term loans to build those roads I mentioned as well as another federal road linking the state to Kwara. That bridge you see on the expressway that links Oshogbo at Gbongan on your way to Abuja is being built by the state, not the federal government. Pubic schools were pathetic, empty sheds and something just had to be done. Those projects are important if the state is to be stimulated economically and it is not fair for the Federal authorities to have shown a cavalier attitude in its duty to the newborn state 25 years on.
 
I believe if the Fed should repay Osun for those projects today, the state will be out of financial woods for the good part of its present  N36billion salary bill, to begin with.
Talking about salary, how does a state like Osun cope with this huge personnel cost that swallows over 70% of its total revenue?
 
 
 
No. 2 , Osun has proven gold reserves which has been mined artisanally since the Portuguese colonization in the 16th century. Till date, there is no structured exploration of the mineral for lack of funding. Gold exploration is not as simple and as cheap as oil exploration. In prospecting for oil, the earth is bombarded with sound signals and the echoes analyzed to reveal subterranean liquid bodies. For gold, you need extended periods of digging with actual augers to several meters of depths. Workmen descend as deep as 5km in some South African gold shafts following gold veins.
The Fed should have funded the exploration of this mineral for the benefit of the state right from inception. Such legacy projects would have given the state a solid local economic foundation on which viability and development can be built. The standard practice in gold exploration is to engage what is called a Junior Mining concern. This will map out the gold and gather geological data that the actual mining company will rely on for a mining contract and actual exploitation. The means for engaging a Junior Mining company is beyond the state. One would have thought that a special development federal fund should do this. There must be some basic economic skeleton to give form and structural integrity as foundation for a political entity like a state upon which further development can be built. If this is not done, the states are but mere geographical expressions and the governors are mere transmitters of handouts from Abuja.
 
 
 
No.3 is water resources, which among other things, is cardinal to local economic development. The Osun River is a branch of the Niger running through the state all year round. It seems that river in fact played a crucial role in making the survival and the thriving of early settlers possible in what grew to become Oshogbo, the state capital. Throughout its length, there is nowhere it is stopped with dykes for conservation for off-season farming. Why is this so? This idea was central to the creation of the River Basin Development Authorities, a federal agency, but what have they done with the Osun river so far? In fact the Aregbesola government has been spending billions dredging that river so it will stop overflowing its banks and killing people. Since Aregbesola came in, death by flooding has stopped in the state. And for a  fact, here is another area where the Federal government is indebted to the state in form of Ecological Funds. The state has borne the brunt while Abuja plays politics with refunds. I am certain Abuja owes Osun much more than its N29 billion salary debts in statutory Ecological Funds alone! But let’s get back to irrigation. Why wasn’t a major dam for water conservation not one of the endowments for that state at creation to give it a modern agricultural launching pad?  This would have made a whole lot of difference for the state’s large farming communities and reduced dependence on monthly federal handouts. It would also have impacted positively on IGR, for you can only increase IGR to a point by tightening collection strategies alone. Real increase in IGR is a function of local productivity. The trouble that Governor Aregbesola got himself into stemmed from the fact that he keenly saw the need for some of these infrastructures and he rammed himself into the job of providing them with borrowed funds, hoping for some clement political turn that will help address the Federal attention deficit the state has suffered, especially as an opposition state. It was something that was bound to happen someday – any day a governor that is passionate about development gets on the saddle in Oshogbo. It may have been for the fear of the present quagmire that foregoing governors left the works undone, yet, what real good can come from a leader who walks on eggshells? He is probably the type of a governor who wouldn’t want his main achievement in power to be mere prompt salary payment and so had to stretch his resources thin, living as it were, in hope. Had the federal government not cut allocations to that state much earlier than the period of declining oil revenue, you can be certain that his projections would have worked and these seams would not have burst.
 
Somebody has to be brave and adventurous at a point in a community’s leadership history to provide that initial lifting force that seeds growth. Yes, it comes with a price which I think Ogbeni and the people of the state are paying right now.  However, it will serve us well as a people not to throw the baby out with the bathwater by failing to dig deeper. The reasoning that the Osun governor is wanton with the state’s affair or is flagrantly uncaring is simplistic as it is unfair. To just dismiss the man with a simple wave of the hand in a politically convenient way that our system affords will do much more harm to the state and will not lead to a solution. A question is pertinent: Why was allocation to this state cut from around April, 2014, a few months to the state’s tensed governorship election which the erstwhile ruling party sent 73,000 troops to police and was clearly desperate to win? Was there a deliberate plot to scuttle the state financially? Where does this take us in redefining the fiscal relationship between the federal government and states? Answers to those questions will equip us with the right tools to address the Osun financial situation more rationally.
Governor Aregbesola must have his own imperfections of course. Perhaps, he is too zealous for development, maybe he could have been slower. Or he could have first right-sized the state’s bloated civil service. It is possible he could have somehow mitigated this whole cascade of events. But then, real-life leadership comes with risk taking, it’s prices and it’s gains. Maybe that was the reason that the state hardly ever came near the headlines in terms of physical development until Aregbesola came along.
I believe if the Federal government honours 70% of its statutory obligations to the state right now, its present troubles will be history. If it goes further to endow the state by helping it in the area of gold exploration and water conservation/irrigation, that state will become another golden egg goose in a most literal way.
 
John Ogunlela is an agricultural scientist, entrepreneur, blogger, public policy analyst. He resides in Osogbo an can reached via johnogunlela@gmail.com

 

The lawmaker representing Epe Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Segun Olulade, on Wednesday commended the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for frantically making efforts to commence the payment of salary arrears of civil servants in the state.
Olulade said this while reacting, in a statement, to the recent petition submitted to the Osun State House of Assembly by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede seeking the impeachment of the Governor over unpaid salaries of the civil servants in the state.
Olulade said such call was petty, premature and uncalled for.
He added that Governor Aregbesola has worked significantly at turning the state around and that the financial crisis affecting the state is a national crisis as many other states are also involved, a situation that is due largely to poor management of the nation’s sovereignACCOUNT by the previous administration under the watch of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The lawmaker said Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, if well informed about the nation’s current challenges, would haveCHANNELLED her current energy to tasking the National Assembly, where Nigeria’s problem is currently begging for solutions.
He said the National Assembly needs to legislate on true federalism, make proper amendment to the nation’s constitution to reflect progressive fronts and settle down for business rather than the sight of some of them scrambling for power excessively at the expense of the nation’s progress.
He also said the nation needs very proactive legislatures at this critical time to look into constitutional lapses that gave room for previous recklessness by the executive, and enact laws that would make corruption attract severe punishment to save our economy and nation.
“The nation will fareBETTER if corruption attracts severe punishments.
“It was due to recklessness of previous administration that led us to where we found ourselves today, leading to various states’ inability to pay their workers simply because the nation’s enormous resources was not properlyMANAGED at the federal level,” he said.
Olulade thus appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the present government under the leadership of Muhammadu Buhari, who he called a good handMANAGING  the executive.
He also called on the federal legislatures to complement such fine equation by living up to their tasks so that Nigerians can be happy.
 
Source : PM NEWS

 
The moribund Cocoa Processing COMPANY in Ede, Osun state has on Thursday RECEIVED a lifeline with the intervention of two Chinese firms who have promised to resuscitate the comatose Cocoa industry.
This disclosure was made when the Chinese firms paid a courtesy call on the governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola at the government house in Osogbo.
The companies resuscitation of the Cocoa products company promises creation of manyJOBS IN the state.
‎The two China-based companies -Skyron Corporation and Golden MonkeyGROUP of Company promised that production will commence in the next 6 months.
Mr. David Shi who led the Skyron group stressed that ‎the company has been in the business of Cocoa processing in the last 10 years and that their firm is similar to that of Ede.
He held that the company is sure of turning around the moribund Cocoa processing company in no distant time.
According to him, “Cocoa processing industry is not a new terrain to Skyron having been engaging in similarSECTOR and company in the last ten years.
“Skyron group has a turn over of 6.4billion Dollars in the year 2014 with visibleINVESTMENT in Agriculture and construction sector established across the world including Lagos and other states in Nigeria”.
Also the head of delegation of Golden Monkey Corporation of China, Mr. Liu Jin Hiu assured that aside resuscitation of Cocoa industry, confectionery company will also be established.
Mr. Liu also added that the group is ready to embark on massive production of cassava as raw materials for the confectionery.
He said, “Golden monkey corporation remains the number one producer of candies and chocolate in China, reviving the cocoa processing company in Ede will not be a problem.
“The partnership with the government of Osun in reviving the cocoa project will end up being a win-win partnership project. We have severalINVESTMENT companies in West Africa, especially Cote D’voire with 55 additional branches throughout the world.”
In his remarks, Governor Aregbesola disclosed that the State of Osun is ready to provide an enabling environment for the investors, urging them to consult him whenever they have challenges in pushing ahead theINVESTMENT.
The governor who also spoke on cassava production and processing held that the state is the largest producer of cassava in the country.
He assured that land and personnel already committed to cassava cultivation andINVESTMENTare guaranteed, saying government will look forward to a speedy revival of the cocoa processing COMPANY in Osun.
Aregbesola also advised the foreign investors to be ‎up to date in the use of technology and equipment by replacing the obsolete machinery in the moribund company
In his words, “We hope that with result-oriented activities and hard WORK, your company should hit the ground running as we are committed to ensuring that your investment will yield profit as operation commences.
“We desire for others what we desire for ourselves. We therefore challenge you to allow activities to start at the Cocoa processing company in Ede latest November this year”. The governor emphasized.
Source  : OSUN DEFENDER