…explains why it embarked on borrowings to fund projects
The Osun State Government on Wednesday confirmed building 61 Primary Health Centres in partnership with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This was revealed by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on SDGs, Dr Folawiyo Olajoku on Wednesday during the commissioning of one of the Primary Health Centre in Ijebu-Ijesa, Oriade Local Government Area of the state.
According to Olajoku, aside the building of the PHCs, SDGs has also procured and distributed over N3million worth of drugs to the people of the state free of charge, declaring that the agency has over the years succeeded in all its people-oriented programmes despite financial constraints.
Olajoku disclosed that SDGs has recruited over 400 healthcare workers, procured ambulances and has constructed and renovated over 47 classrooms across elementary and middle schools in the state.
He submitted that the agency has discharged its responsibilities to the people of the state in all aspects, particularly in education and health sectors.
In his address, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, said the scheme had helped to complement the delivery of good governance which his administration has exhibited in the state.
Aregbesola said his administration has never failed in contributing its 50 percent counterpart fund in each of the projects executed through the partnership, even during the toughest financial turbulence.
The governor used the occasion to explain the rationale behind financing infrastructure projects in the state with loan, saying he resorted to borrowing to fund developmental projects due to the terrible infrastructure deficit and level of poverty he met when he assumed office in 2010.
According to Aregbesola, borrowing to finance projects in the state was a child of necessity for the development of the state, recalling that there was huge dearth of infrastructure in the state before his emergence as the governor.
The governor noted that his government would not have borrowed had the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose government ruled the state for seven and half years, done the needful by providing required infrastructure development which his government later championed.
He lamented what he described as poor management of the state’s resources by the PDP government, stating that the state would not have become noticeable among its peers had his administration failed to do the needful to stimulate her economy.
Aregbesola maintained that his administration has been very prudent in the management of the state resources, adding that the financial prudence assisted him to successfully scale through the toughest economic period that tormented the whole nation.
In his words: “Our administration did not go for borrowing for any other thing than to rescue the state and her people from poverty they were plunged to when we assumed office.
“On assumption of office in 2010, coupled with the status of the state’s treasury, propelled us to go for borrowing to bring to our people the required infrastructural facilities which they had suffered from in the previous administration.”
Recall that the concept of the SDGs was born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, in 2012. The objective was to produce a set of universally applicable goals that balances the three dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, social, and economic.
