THERE was this bond, Sukuk bond, by the Osun State Government that generated controversy. How would you react to this?
Well, the bond didn’t really, really generate controversy because when you use the word controversy, it would mean uproar. Controversy would also mean a resistance, but there was nothing like that. It was more of a section trying to play politics with it by saying that the governor was trying to Islamize Osun State.
The Sukuk bond is like any other conventional bond where you go to the capital market and raise funds and make a commitment that over the next seven years you would make good your promise. Apart from the nomenclature, there is nothing different from conventional. It was the structure of that Sukuk that enabled us to raise that funds at 14. 75 per cent and so if today I see an opportunity in my borrowing window limit as stipulated by the Debt Management Office of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as stipulated by the Security Exchange Commission, and if I were a Moslem, there is an opportunity to raise funds and I see a structure that is called the Christian bond or Christian financing I will also use it.
There are lots of constructions going on in the state, considering the fact that Osun is not Lagos or Rivers. How are you going to complete these projects?
Those projects will be completed. Some will be completed over a span of two years, some will be completed over a span of three years. If you look at what we have done, despite that we don’t have available money now, but if we are allowed to spread it over three, four, or five years in some cases, we will be able to gradually pay. By then we would have started enjoying the road.
Let me tell you what we have done, we are the first state to have done this. Under Ogbeni Aregbesola, he was able to stick out his credibility and the state’s credibility and said you know what? If you want to be our partner, you must be able to go the whole hog with us i.e. you must be able to hang in there, construct the road and wait for your money. We had come up with the kind of what we call derivative financing. Derivative financing means something that is not going to impact you or poke a hole in your balance sheet. We said okay we can pay you with cash if we have cash we would pay you with promissory note if we have promissory note. The promissory note becomes a tradable instrument so that derivative financing allows bankers to participate in infrastructure development and allows contractors to participate in the development. So, we have shared the responsibility in such a way that nobody will take the advantage of government.
At the tail end of the last administration, N18.35bn loan was taken from the UBA…
Governor Rauf Aregbesola never said it was wrong to take a loan. He rather said it was wrong to take loan at the twilight of your administration. Not at dawn but at dusk and so the PDP took that loan at dusk. There was no way they could say that the intention was for the people of Osun because the project that they could have used it to implement, there was no way they could have finished it between February and March when they took that loan. If you look at the timing, and if you look at the purpose of that loan, both the timing and purpose were to build six stadia, if you are going to build six stadia at a go, you need to be preparing for the Olympic.
I remember that the governor promised to bring investors to the state, especially those dealing in IT/ICT but they are not here yet…
There are here. The LG Electronic will soon commission their factory in Ilesa. The other one that is going to be making Opon Imo tablet computers has almost finished their factory in Osogbo. You must have heard that we’ve encouraged International Breweries Limited to retain their investment in Osun State, rather than go elsewhere. By God’s grace, we are going to reach out to Dangote to open the steel company.
There has been an increase in the IGR of the state. Considering what you met, what would you say is the secret?
We’ve just increased efficiency and we told our people to be honest. So, we blocked leakages, we’ve the automated revenue collection mechanism and we’ve a passed revenue law.
People talk about capital flight here in Osun; how do you explain this?
There is no capital flight. If you look at it, we were the first state in Nigeria to come up with a policy which we call local content and not only that we measure it. We measure this in the sense that we have a consultant that goes round to find out how many jobs that have been created, direct and indirect. There is local content policy and in our agreement, we have forced the contractors to sign an undertaking that they will comply. Today, under our construction of road programme, we have people that are benefiting and the governor always says this to us in the cabinet: ‘If you’re doing road or building a school in your area, make sure your people are employed. No contractor should turn down people.’ So if you want to work and there is work around your area, you go there and tell them as an artisan that you must be given a job. The intention of the government of Rauf Aregbesola is to industrialise Osun and indigenise all contracts. Omoluabi Garment Factory came into existence because we did not want the capital to fly away. We insisted that for you to sew 750, 000 uniforms, you must set up a factory here, you must employ our people.
THE NATION

 
The Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has re-named Osogbo Freedom Pack after the world Legend, Nelson Mandela.
 
Mandela who was the South Africa’s first black president died peacefully in company of his family at home in Johannesburg, Jacob Zuma announces on Thursday.
 
According to Aregbesola, Nelson Mandela, the towering figure of Africa’s struggle for freedom and an hero to millions around the world, has died at the age of 95. “His Struggles and journey from prisoner to a president embodied the promise that African Peoples – and developing countries – can change for the better.”
 
Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola spoke last night on the passage of Nelson Mandela, saying he doubted if another like him would come this way soon.
 
He said: “There goes the conscience of the world. He lived without prejudice. I doubt if there could be anyone like him in the nearest foreseeable future.
 
“We celebrate his life and dogged struggle, even in death.
 
“On behalf of the State Government of Osun and all those who are committed to the deepening of democracy, I send my condolences.”
adapted from OSUN DEFENDER

Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 11,  Mr David Omojola and State Commissioner of  Police, Mrs Dorothy Gimba, during a Courtesy visit by the AIG to the Governor at Government house Osogbo, on Friday 6/12/2013

From left* – Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori;
Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Assistant Inspector General of
Police Zone 11, Mr David Omojola and State Commissioner of Police,
Mrs Dorothy Gimba, during a Courtesy visit by the AIG to the Governor at Government house Osogbo, on Friday 6/12/2013

*From left* – Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori;
Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Assistant Inspector General of
Police Zone 11, Mr David Omojola and State Commissioner of Police,
Mrs Dorothy Gimba, during a Courtesy visit by the AIG to the Governor at the Government house Osogbo, on Friday 6/12/2013

From left* – Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori;
Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Assistant Inspector General of
Police Zone 11, Mr David Omojola during a Courtesy visit by the AIG to the Governor at Government house Osogbo, on Friday 6/12/2013

Osun state commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Wale Bolorunduro has said that the present administration in the state has created opportunities for existing investors who are looking for high yields, by creating arrays of instruments and arrays of bonds in the state.
The commissioner, who made this known in an interview in Osogbo, also pointed out that the state government has succeeded in securing funds for infrastructural development of Osun at fixed returns.
According to him, “for the first time we are issuing a bond that is going to be asset backed. Asset backed in the sense that you will see that your funds will go into the creation of assets and not intangibles.
So, what it enables the investors to do is to diversify their portfolios, and in diversifying their portfolios they succeed in getting higher yield for their investment.”
“We have also succeeded in securing funds for infrastructural development of Osun at fixed returns. When we did this Sukuk bond, there was no way we could do it at 14.75 percent returns because banks were lending to one another at 25 or 30 percent.
During the period we were in the market raising this fund, interbank lending rates went as high as 40 percent so how can you get investors to invest at 14.75 percent? “
“Fixed returns and you know when you do fixed returns over time; the cost to the beneficiary comes down. There was no way we could raise that money without going the ways of Sukuk.
And so I am not surprised that not only are we beginning to have interest what we have done is that we have pioneered that instrument and have contributed to the infrastructural development of Nigeria.”
“We have done that and we are following our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; who pioneered conventional bonds; the states going to the capital market to raise fund for infrastructural development.
NATIONAL MIRROR

The paramount ruler of Ijesha land, Dr. Gabriel Aromolaran, yesterday lauded the three years administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola in the state, describing it as uncommon in the history of governance in country.

The monarch disclosed this at a public forum tagged; “Gbangba Dekun,” the sixth of its kind at Ilesha Grammar School, Ilesha.
He said what Aregbesola’s government has accomplished in three years will take another government 10 years to achieve.
Oba Aromolaran noted that in the last three years, the state has witnessed all round development as never before in its history.
He listed education, employment opportunities, food security, health, the innovative ‘Opon Imo’ (Tablet of Knowledge), training and retraining of health personnel and teachers and youth development as some of the outstanding programmes of the government.
His words: “Governor Rauf Aregbesola has given an outstanding performance in the last three years. What he has done in three years is an achievement of 10 years for some other governments.
“His coming is divine. No one can defeat whom God has supported. But for prayers, the governor would not have retrieved his mandate. We are still praying fervently for his second term.”
The monarch, however, called on the governor to intensify efforts on security in the state, so that the peace being enjoyed by the people can be sustained.
He also charged the people of the state to support the governor in his second term bid.
Reacting, Aregbesola said Osun has witnessed huge development owing to the harmonious relationship between the executive and legislature in the state as well as the support and cooperation of the people of the state.
NATIONAL MIRROR

The Managing Director, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adebayo Jimoh, says an Osun-Odu’a Farmers Academy has been established to teach the youth good agricultural practices in order to boost food security.
Jimoh said this on Thursday at the graduation of 410 trainees of the academy, which is located in Ede, Osun State.
According to him, the academy will stimulate youth interest in agriculture to ensure that there are replacements for the ageing farmers.
He said it was worrisome that ageing farmers were the only set of people left on the farms to produce food for the teeming population of Nigeria.
But he said that with the academy, which the company established in 2009 and now being operated in collaboration with the Osun State Government, there would be opportunities for the youth to learn modern agricultural practices, which would boost food production.
He said, “You will agree with me that the 21st Century agriculture is being challenged to produce and deliver high quality, nutritious, affordable food to a growing population while sharing limited land and other resources with all other human needs and activities.
“The Nigerian farmers across the country are also getting old (with an average of 60 years of age) hence the need for the training of young skilled farmers to continue in this vital profession, providing food security and caring for our agricultural lands and their surrounding ecosystems.
“Odu’a Investment is happy to partner with the state to provide the highest level of qualitative and modern training for new and emerging commercial farmers in viable food commodities with a view to sustaining food security in Nigeria.”
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State said that his administration’s involvement of youths in agricultural enterprises was a way of tackling the menace of youth unemployment.
Aregbesola explained that the programme was borne out of the administration’s commitment to equip the youth and enhance their capacity to earn decent and virtuous living.
He said, “What we are witnessing today is the culmination of our administration’s resolve to equip our youths with requisite skills that will enable them to contribute adequately to agricultural production, even as they legitimately earn a decent living.
“The practical training in modern farming techniques would have broadened the horizons of the participants and added depth to their managerial abilities as well as strengthened them to creatively address societal challenges through agricultural endeavours.”
PUNCH

Ilesa Students thronged after Governor Aregbesola in appreciation of his good governance in Osun, bringing traffic to a stand still along roads linking Ilesa Grammar School, venue of the interactive forum tagged: Gbangbadekun on Thursday 05-12-2013