OSUN STATE A MERE EMPTY SHELL?: Diamond is not valuable to the Swine

By Segun Akinwusi,

Dear Compatriots,

The issue of unbridled borrowings, profligacy and debilitating debts in Osun State has reached an epidemic stage. Some time ago, an alarm was raised about the rates at which our common patrimonies are being sold.

 To date, the Ikoyi  prime property has gone, the solid old Tescom buildings have gone, most of the newly constructed schools have been used as collateral for loans, all our age old viable investments in reputable blue chip companies are gone and many other countless holdings that would have been complementing our financial needs as a people are not traceable again.

The most current to date are the FARM SETTLEMENTS. These invaluable geese that lay the golden eggs, that were established even before the governor was born by the old sage, Chief Awolowo in the days of the defunct Western Region are the next heritage our prodigals in power have resorted to. All the 8 nos Farm Settlements are now to be consigned and mortgaged to some selected Banks.

 You will recall that the first step in this ignoble act was the frivolous, illegal and unwarranted allocations of some of the choice lands to non indigenes. Against the norm that only a maximum of 5 hectares are the genuine entitlement for a would-be farmer, they gave some of them as much as 150 hectares while serious and genuine indigenes are denied their rightful entitlements or in some cases their rightful holdings are even halved to accommodate the interests of these interlopers.

Dear Compatriots, if our Farm Settlements would now be made collaterals and Indeed guarantees for loans that grew wings outside the State, what is then left for our children?
Agriculture is the main stay of our economy, and with the gloomy state of our national economy, now that oil is fast becoming irrelevant globally, these farms and farming portend the last hope for us as a people. Therefore, if this priceless gift of nature is once again cruelly and heartlessly mortgaged, what is left for us to survive?  I do not expect this timely warnings to die down like the previous reawakening that have been consigned to the dust bins of history.

The truth about our dear State is that fiscally and financially, we are just an empty shell. By now even the furniture items in our offices would have been committed to secure money.
Shall we continue to look helplessly with our hands thrown up and praying that all will be well? From history dictators do not have restraint, they go ahead in their infamy unending, except they are faced squarely.

What will the unborn generation say of us, that our hands are tied? That we cannot stop a group of rabbis dogs? That an individual who the collective will of the people installed to serve us is greater than all of us ? That our collective will cannot break the resolve of a self serving leader ?  That we shall fold our hands and allow a charlatan ruin the glorious dreams of our founding fathers ?

Would you be content consigning the unborn generations innocently to penury?
Dear Compatriots, I enjoin you to be on the positive side of history and thus rise up to challenge all illegalities and abuse of office going on in our dear State.
Posterity will remember your labor, support, commitments and genuine love for our dear State.Thank you.Elder Akinwusi, is a former Head of Service, State of Osun