The Osun Mastermind, TOM, a coalition of Osun State civic groups, has urged State Governor Ademola Adeleke to ensure that the federal government’s palliative fertilizer reaches legitimate end users in the state’s best benefit.
The organization further demanded that the State Government provide appropriate oversight of contractors managing road projects within the state, citing several ongoing road projects that fall short of expectations.
Governor Adeleke, however, countered that the group is merely being political in its accusations and that the administration is open about the fertilizer consignment that comes into the state in a statement issued through Olawale Rasheed, his spokeswoman.
Addressing journalists in Osogbo on Saturday, the group’s Executive Director, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, urged Governor Adeleke to ensure that government servants did not bastardise the fertilizer distribution program to favour any segment or influential politicians to the disadvantage of genuine farmers.
“We are, therefore, imploring the state government to distribute the fertilizers with fairness, equity and transparency. The distribution of the fertilizers to 30 local government areas and area offices must not be politicized.
“Public servants, who are saddled with the responsibility of administering the palliative scheme, must indeed share with the target segment of the populace instead of favouring their cronies and enriching the state political actors.
“The fertilizer palliative, which is designed to mitigate the hardship petroleum subsidy removal meted on Nigerians, is to provide succour to the downtrodden. Therefore, it should relieve the poor and not further aggravate the socio-economic conditions of the people. It is expected that the fertilizer will boost agricultural production in the state and benefit the agrarian communities in the state,” the group chairman said.
The group also requested that the Governor not hesitate to place contractors on a blacklist in the event that their project execution falls short of expectations, as seen by some of the state’s ongoing road projects.
“For instance, the Dele Yes Sir end of the approved 91km Osogbo – Iwo – Ibadan Road reconstruction has been riddled with potholes and the pace of work has been incredibly slow. The quick deterioration of the road is worrisome, despite the staggering amount of money allocated to the project. Then we wonder, why the Ministry of Works, led by the Governor, which is saddled to supervise and ensure the quality of roads has grossly failed. Why did they contract the job to a grossly incompetent contractor? Can we say the project was done for pecuniary gains?
“Another example is the Lameco – Old Garage Road and the flyover project at Oke Fia, Osogbo. Despite the continued constructive criticisms from well-meaning citizens of the state about these roads, the PDP-led state government has still failed to deliver the mandate to which they were elected to office in 2022. Blacklisting of contractors who perform below specification should be done by the state government,” the group’s statement read.
On the other hand, Adeleke revealed in a statement released by his media assistant that Osogbo began receiving fertilizers from the federal-state program late on Thursday. The Ministry announced on Friday that more trucks were still arriving as of the time this report was filed.
What better way to be transparent than to share the fertilizer arrivals that are still coming into the state, along with the amount of trucks that are arriving? Let the state administration make its statement on arrivals clear.
On road projects, he said, “The state government is enforcing the highest level standard on the ongoing constructions across the state including the Lameco-Okefia dualisation and flyover bridges. So far, there is no evidence, technical or otherwise of any work under the infra plan being substandard. The government has zero tolerance for substandard work and we affirm that the projects are being supervised by top quality and certified engineers”.
