PUSH NEWS 24 INTERNATIONAL: July 8th, 2023
The governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke has caused a stir on social media after nominating his late brothers wife Adenike Adeleke for appointment as State commissioner.
Push News 24 International confirms that the speaker of the Osun Assembly, Adewale Egbedun had announced the names of nominees from the governor in accordance with sections 192 (2) and 196(1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (amended).
According to Mr. Egbedun, the governor submitted 25 names for the position of commissioners and another request for the appointment of 25 Special Advisers.
Osun state GDP is $7.5 billion, yet yearly IGR is less than N20 billion. If you add FAAC( Another N55 billion). Revenue to GDP ratio is 0.013%. Same goes for most states in Nigeria. Not excusing the fact that the civil service is indeed over-bloated.
The last Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Osun state has a total GDP of $7.3 billion. This places it among the 14 states in Nigeria with the highest GDP.
It is however the second-lowest in the South-West region, only ahead of Ekiti state.
While such growth is commendable, data from NBS shows that the state still relies heavily on the statutory allocations from the federal government to meet its expenditure obligation, even though those allocations have been declining since 2018.
Also, when the state’s IGR is analysed on a per capita basis, it is relatively low compared to its peers. According to BudgIT, in 2021, Osun state’s IGR per capita stood at N3,678, which falls below the national average of N4,616. Osun state has the second-lowest IGR per capita in the South-West region and 19th nationally.
The names submitted as listed; Oladosu Babatunde, Bayo Ogunbamgbe, Sesan Oyedele, Kolapo Alimi, Soji Adeigbe, Moshood Olagunju, George Alabi, and Sunday Oroniyi are among the 25 commissioners nominated, according to him.
Others are Abiodun Ojo, Bashir Salami, Moruf Ayofe, Sola Ogungbile, Bunmi Jenyo, Ayo Awolowo, Wole Bada, Dipo Eluwole, Rasheed Aderibigbe, Moruf Adeleke, Adeyemo Ademola, Olabiyi Odunlade, Jola Akintola, Mayowa Adejorin, Adenike Adeleke, Tola Fasheru and Gani Ola-Oluwa.
A major problem plaguing Nigeria today is the increasing poverty rate. In 2019, NBS reported that Osun state has a poverty headcount ratio of 8.52% — ranking as the 3rd state with lowest poverty headcount. While this is commendable, there are fears that the poverty rate might have increased in recent times considering the fact that the national poverty rate has also climbed up. In 2019, the national poverty headcount was 70%; by 2020 it had increased to 73.22%. This year, the World Bank has said that the number of persons living in poverty in Nigeria will increase to 95.1 million, which is an increase of 6.7% from the 2020 figure.
With the increasing national poverty rate, Osun state may likely experience a corresponding increase in its poverty rate. Therefore, the people of Osun state should be interested in the candidate’s plans to keep the poverty rate in the state low.
To achieve meaningful development in the state, improvement in these indicators are critical and electorates’ voting decisions should be guided by the candidate who presents a plan that would mean advancement for the state on many of these indices.
Reacting to the appointment, Nigerians called out the governor for giving appointments based on favoritism rather than competence.
