The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, has faulted a recent statement credited to a former governorship candidate, Mr Goke Omigbodun, describing his assertion on governance priorities and flyover bridges as lacking in facts and a mere parroting of opposition talks.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Commissioner who affirmed the rights of citizens to criticize their government, cautioned against the deliberate spreading of fake news, assumptions on false data and insinuation arising from half-truths.
“While it is not part of my mandate as the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Osun state to join issue with a citizen or group of citizens over their political beliefs or comments no matter how belligerent.
“I however, for the first time want to draw the attention of the innocent public, especially the people that are not readily familiar with Osogbo, to a misleading publication by an otherwise respected commentator in Osun state, in the person of Architect Goke Omigbodun. Let me reiterate that, I have great respect for our referred Architect Omigbodun but that will not deter me from averring his mind to any of the areas where I believe his position is at variance with the reality on the ground as it is in the instant case. This is necessary to avoid a pattern of persistence in error.
“It is quite astonishing that to discredit the building of flyovers by the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke, the former governorship candidate published a statement which was full of factual errors amidst underlying subtle jibes which are also based on false assumptions and disguised hatred for the current administration.
“Before I address his illogical declaration on flyovers at Osogbo, I will first address his wrong suggestions on what the state government should have done as governance sectoral priorities.
“First, he was wrong to have asserted that federal allocation inflow into Osun is five times fold compared to the time of the previous government. This is a false statement not supported by frequently available data on allocations from the federation account that are available to the public. Aside from parroting opposition lies, the architect-turned-politician goofed.
“While there is an increase in allocation, it is not up to twofold talkless of fivefold. Additionally, the value of current allocations has largely depreciated due to the current inflationary and national rate crisis. We had thought the writer would read the publicly available allocation table to educate himself before putting that write-up in place.
“Secondly, with a false note on huge allocations, he pontificated that the government should have paid up all accumulated salary and pension debts. As the premise was not factual, the expectation of the state paying all debt would imply shutting down other sectoral demands. Only a bad administrator will adopt that approach. The phased payment was endorsed by labour and the debts are being liquidated in progression.
His suggestion on agro investment was shocking not to say the least as he failed to acknowledge advances made by the Administration in the mechanization of the agricultural sector. The commentator pretended as if he was not aware of the recent tractor acquisition, the first in the last 13 years, the ongoing agroprenueur programme, and the cocoa and cashew initiative among others.
In his fixation on flyovers, he overlooked massive road construction ongoing across the 30 local governments with some local governments having as much as six kilometres, totalling almost 140 kilometers of roads already constructed. He pretended not to be aware of ongoing mass rehabilitation and upgrade of primary health centres with almost 100 completed out of almost 400.
“Quite strange that he has nothing to say about ongoing courageous mining reform including the breakthrough by the state daring Segilola Gold operators. The Administration’s targeted spending on education, sports, tourism, science and tech, energy, transportation, commerce and industry are conscious decisions to transform the state economy.
“It is particularly shocking that Mr Omigbodun repeated his earlier false statement that the state is doing nothing on energy generation and distribution. For his information, the state has finalized the legal and policy frameworks to create a state electricity market system, a regulatory agency to license generators and distributors of electricity. My dear Architect, a legal framework is required before investors can venture into off-grid and mini-grid power generation and distribution. And we have acted so well on those requirements.
The above is just to correct misrepresentation and misinformation spewed out by the former candidate. If he had been abreast of news publications and broadcasts on sectoral developments in Osun, he would probably not have submitted those out-of-date and largely uninformed suggestions. Or is the Architect removing the garb of a public commentator to that of an opposition activist?
The more ludicrous side of the piece was his postulation that, a flyover is more needed at Olaiya junction than at Oke-fia. He contested that there are more traffic jams at Olaiya junction than at Oke-fia. This postulation coming from the Architect is strange and far from the truth. Let me remind him that, the traffic jams at Olaiya junction have been resolved by the Administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola by building four adjoining roads at Olaiya junction, leaving few vehicles to reach Olaiya junction, which are being controlled by the traffic lights.
For the avoidance of doubt, the four roads are:
- The adjoining road from Alekuwodo to the Fakunle area takes vehicles coming from Oke-fia/Alekuwodo axis directly to the Fakunle area without getting to Olaiya junction;
- The adjoining road from the Asubiaro/Jaleyemi area to the MDS area takes vehicles coming from Jaleyemi to MDS directly to MDS without getting to Olaiya junction;
- Adjoining road from MDS to Alekuwodo axis, that takes all vehicles coming from MDS to Alekuwodo axis without getting to Olaiya junction;
- Adjoining road from the Fakunle area to the Jaleyemi area that takes vehicles coming from the Ogoluwa/Fakunle area to the Jaleyemi area without getting to the Olaiya junction
I made bold to state that all four adjoining roads have taken the majority of the vehicles away from Olaiya junction, making any assertion of traffic jam at Olaiya junction a ruse.
On the other hand, the reverse is the case with the Oke-fia junction. There are no adjoining roads that can take away any vehicles from Oke-fia junction, so all roads lead to Oke-fia junction, with the attendant traffic jams especially early in the morning and the evening time.
For emphasis, let me take all the roads that lead to Oke-fia junction one after the other:
- Lameco road: All vehicles coming from Lameco to Oke-fia usually encounter traffic jams starting from the front of the State High Court and it takes time before they manoeuvre their way to Oke-fia junction;
- Dada Estate road: Vehicles coming from the Dada Estate area usually start meeting traffic jams around the Customary Court area;
- Dr Olu Alabi road: Vehicles coming from Olu Alabi/GRA road usually encounter traffic jams, starting from around the police pay office;
- Old Garage/Rasco road: Vehicles coming from Old Garage usually encounter traffic jams, starting from the Rasco area;
- Alekuwodo road: Vehicles coming from Alekuwodo going to Oke-fia usually encounter traffic jams from around the First Bank.
I repeat with emphasis and state that, vehicles from all the five major roads that meet at Oke-fia junction usually spend quality time from where they start experiencing traffic jams before they eventually get to Oke-fia junction.
From the analysis above, it is crystal clear that, while there’s a heavy traffic jam at Oke-fia junction, the traffic jam at Olaiya junction was permanently resolved before the last administration built the fly-over there.
So, with the greatest respect to my referred Architect Omigbodun, his assertion that the necessity for the flyover at Olaiya junction is greater than that of Oke-fia is borne out by sentiment and is at variance with the facts on the ground.
Let no man misconstrue my position, a flyover at Olaiya junction is also desirable because of the future challenges, but it has to be a flyover that is properly designed to meet such future challenges.
Mr Omigbodun and other critics need to know that this administration has a solid team of policy experts who are crafting and delivering branch and root reform of state governance under Mr Governor. The big and small viewpoints are combined under a localisation framework for the realisation of the five-point agenda.
In conclusion, let me state that, while I still hold Architect Goke Omigbodun in high esteem. But on this issue, Architect Goke Omigbodun got it wrong again.
