A coalition of civil societies in Osun State, The Osun Mastermind, TOM, has urged the State Governor, Ademola Adeleke to make sure that the fertilizer palliative of the federal government gets to genuine end users in the interest of the state.
The group also charged the State Government to ensure proper monitoring of contractors handling road projects in the state, saying some of the ongoing road projects are substandard.
But Governor Adeleke in a statement through his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said the group is only being political with its criticism, saying the administration is transparent with the fertilizers consignment that arrives the state.
Addressing journalists in Osogbo on Saturday, the group’s Executive Director, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, urged Governor Adeleke to ensure that civil servants did not bastardise the fertilizer distribution scheme to favour some section or powerful politicians to the detriment of genuine farmers.
His words, “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 also charged the Governor not to mind blacklisting contractors whose project execution is below standards as observed on some of the ongoing road projects in the state.
“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”, it reads.
However, Adeleke in a statement issued by his media aide disclosed that fertilizers from the federal-state programme started arriving in Osogbo late Thursday. The Ministry stated on Friday announcing the arrival of more trucks still coming in as at the time of filing this report.
How do you start sharing fertilizers that are still arriving in the state? What better way to be transparent than the statement from the state government on arrivals including the number of trucks?
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”.
