By Waheed Adekunle
It is no longer news that the Osun State Government has failed the people of the state in all aspects of the economy. But the failure in agriculture sector is gargantuan and more debilitating on the well-being of the citizens. Its last two years have been uninspiring, empty and wasteful.
Recall the government announced a purchase of 114 tractors to “revolutionize” farming in the state. But dishearteningly, five months after the said announcement, no 114 tractors have been sighted in the state. At best, what was unveiled to the public, plausibly to hoodwink them, was 31 tractors which the opposition claimed at the time, were procured for show-boating.
Since that time, no further effort, at least to the knowledge of the public, has been made to unveil the whole 114 tractors which the government claimed it gulped N8bn to purchase. The seemingly phoney tractors are yet to be unveiled in full as the government has been paying a lip service and making contradictory claims all along about the imaginary tractors.
The government officials, particularly Governor Adeleke’s cabinet members, had at different fora made contradictory claims on the actual number of the tractors purchased by their principal as they are yet to explain the whereabouts of the said 31 tractors and why Governor Adeleke is yet to unveil the entire make-believe tractors in the last five months.
Labouring hard to conceal the obvious malfeasance regarding the tractor procurement, the information handlers of the government had earlier fed the unsuspecting members of the public with naked lies making them into believing that their principal had procured 114 tractors for the use of the farmers in the state but all remains a ‘tactical gambit.’
Precisely on the 25th of July, 2024, the state government confirmed the receipt of the 72 out of 114 tractors claimed to have been ordered for, a claim which later turned out to be a blatant lie as the same government later came out from its shell and finally unveiled 31 tractors as against 72 earlier claimed to have been received.
The governor, through his spokesperson, Mr. Olawale Rasheed, in a statement issued on 25th of July, 2024, said “yesterday, the government received the first batch of the 72 newly-coupled tractors out of the 114 tractors paid for by the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration in a bid to boost food production and support farmers in the state”
The governor was quoted to have made the statement while meeting with a Nordic firm interested in setting up a tractor assembly plant in Osun. But few months after, all the governor could unveil were 31 tractors after so much noise and undue proclamations. The development was measured by discerning minds as gross inconsistencies and political jamboree to deceive the unsuspecting members of the public.
In my recent intervention, I challenged the Osun government to disclose the whereabouts of the balance of 114 tractors and beneficiaries of the the actual and initial delivery.
It is strange to note that till now, four months after the purported 31 tractors were unveiled, the government is yet to respond to the sundry issues bordering on governance that were raised.
Findings have shown that the current administration has practically failed across all the sectors whereas it only performed creditably on the humongous funds allocated and expended in the Office of the Governor in the years 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Reports showed that the only segment that the Adeleke government put up performance in 2023 and 2024 was the insane resources earmarked and spent in the Governor’s Office to the tune of N19 billion in 2023 and over N19 billion in 2024 while it has budgeted 38 billion naira for the Governor’s Office for the year 2025.
It is dispirited that the government which allocated humongous money to fund the Governor’s Office could vote less than 3 billion naira for youth development this year. It is satirical that out of the N427billion total budget for the year 2025, only N7billion was earmarked for the Almighty agriculture sector as this has impacted negatively on the food production capacity of the state in the last two years while the inflation has been bitting harder in Osun as if the state has no structured system in place. It is safe to say the government has been paying a lip service to the welfare and well-being of the people.
Recently, Osun was rated as a state with the highest inflation rate in the Southwest region, an indicator to the poor performance of the current administration in its inherent ineptness to bolster the economy, muster available resources and galvanize her potential for the goodness, welfare, betterment and general well-being of the citizenry.
As citizens, it is high time we begin to ask the state government to come out clean as to the actual number of tractors ordered for and the whereabouts of the remaining tractors and other agriculture deliverables claimed to have been purchased with the public funds to tune of N2billion.
Can the state government come out clean on why it lied to the people on the number of tractors received? Why did the state government eventually unveil just 31 tractors out of the 72 initially claimed to be in its possession since five months ago? Where are the remaining tractors? Where are the self-acclaimed 31 tractors purportedly unveiled by the government? How many farmers benefitted from the farm inputs particularly the touted tractors?
Until these pertinent questions are sufficiently answered, the state government would continue to be seen as deceptive.
The time has come to rise up and hold the Osun State Government more accountable as deceit has become the order of the day.
May God Heal Our Land!
