The Osun Masterminds, a civic society organization has called on Governor Ademola Adeleke to immediately begin distribution of federal government fertilizer and ensure fair and equitable distribution.
The organization also called the attention of the State government to the poor quality of jobs done by contractors handling the road construction.
The Executive Director of the organization, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli made the calls on Saturday at the June edition of the State of the State address. He charged the government officials not to make it a political affair.
“We recently read in the news about the receipt of the first batch of fertilizer palliative, amounting to eleven trucks out of the thirty trucks, from the Federal Government which is an initiative from Nigeria’s apex bank through its Anchors Borrower Programme with sub-national governments.
“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 office must not be politicized.
“Public servants, who are saddled with the responsibility of administering the palliative scheme, must indeed share to the target segment of the populace instead of favoring their cronies and enriching the state political actors.
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“The fertilizer palliative, which is designed to mitigate the hardship petroleum subsidy removal meted on Nigerians, is to provide succor 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”.
Speaking on the quality of jobs delivered by contractors handling road projects in State, Oyedokun-Alli pointed to some specific projects that are ongoing in the State.
“We note with dismay and expressing dissatisfaction towards the poor quality of roads being constructed by the Osun State Government, led by Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke.
“The state government has failed in his pledge to construct quality roads to the masses as the recent construction projects in Osun State have been sub par.
“For instance, the Dele Yes Sir end of the approved 91km Osogbo – Iwo – Ibadan Road reconstruction has been riddled with pot holes 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?
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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 in delivering the mandate to which they were elected to office in 2022.
“We sincerely hope the state government is committed to the construction of good roads and also ensure effective networking of the roads to encourage economic and social development. Blacklisting of contractors who perform below specification should be done by the state government.”
