Aregbesola vs Osun not Omisore The last three months have seen political gladiators in Osun State flex muscles and boast of their capacities to win or retain the mandate of about 3.5 million people of the state. Notwithstanding the population figure of the state as contained in the 2010 census, only 1.5 million people are on record as eligible voters. The actual eligible votes that are up for grabs by the contenders are about 965, 000, representing the number of people who obtained their permanent voter cards will indeed be able to vote. While the registered voter figure relative to the human population count in the state raises a lot of questions about the level of citizenry participation in democratic exercise, there are several issues that have dominated Osun’s political discourse in the build up to tomorrow’s poll. In climes, where politics is issue-based and candidates’ capacities to deliver the goods are the basic requirements for voting people into offices, winning candidates will have clearly emerged months before actual voting takes place. In Nigeria, however, issues are often relegated to the background for sentiments. The all-time great and Greek philosopher, Aristotle, prescribed an appropriate mix of ethical appeal (appeal to the character of the speaker/writer), pathetic appeal (appeal to emotion) and logical appeal (appeal to sense of reasoning) to persuade people and win them over to a cause. The philosopher had favoured the greater use of logical appeal than either of the remaining two in any persuasive endeavor. But a huge dose of mudslinging, character assassination, high use of dysphemistic expressions and other negative attitude have come to characterise political discourse, particularly since the return to civil rule in 1999. True to type, a massive amount of ‘political macheting’ has been going on in Osun in the build up to tomorrow’s election. This development has however not totally overshadowed some of the issues that have cropped up about the parties and the candidates in contention for the exalted office of the state’s chief executive officer. Some of these issues are highlighted below. Urban renewal policy Many have given credit to Governor Rauf Aregbesola for his thoughtfulness in coming up with an urban renewal policy targeted at ridding the state of filth and giving its major cities modern outlook. But ,his opponents are latching onto the anguish expressed by those whose properties gave way to modernity and making political capital out of this. Pro-government groups and individuals have reacted that the regeneration of the cities was a necessary task and that nothing was too much to give for the good course. More so, government has paid compensation to some of those affected. Debt burden There have been accusations and counter-accusations as to the debt profile of the state. Critics of the government believe the state’s debt has ballooned to hundreds of billions of naira with no commensurate development on ground to justify such debt. Government has faulted such position and counter-argued that, since the facility was deployed towards building enduring infrastructure in the state to the amazement of citizens and visitors to the state, those bandying such for political gain are only flogging a dead horse, as the issues will not hold water. In the haziness that covered the discussions of debt, the Debt Management Office said the state’s debt was sustainable. The Director General of the Office, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, who made this know, adjudged the state as one of the best in the federation with effective public debt management approach. Reclassification of schools Tongues have also wagged about government’s initiative of reclassifying schools. While leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition parties have condemned the pain of travelling extra miles to school the policy has brought on the students, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said the reform was in tune with the Federal Government’s 9-3-4 system of education. Protests have greeted the policy from some section of the state and government fought hard to shove the tag of trying to Islamise the state through the policy. Government added that the policy would enhance students’ performance in public examination. The Opon Imo (knowledge tablet) for students The cost and the number of these tablets circulated to students a source of controversy during the campaigns. While government claims that several thousands of the gadgets have been given to the students, critics say the number of the learning device in circulation is far less than what the government quotes. Youth employment/job creation Governor Aregbesola introduced a job creation programme. The governor said over 20, 000 youths of the state have been productively engaged since 2011 through the O-YES scheme. However, his opponents said the jobs said to have been created were not sustainable jobs and demeaning to the beneficiaries who are mainly graduates. Allegation of capital flight The PDP, Labour Party, Social democratic Party and others have lashed allegedly out at the APC government in the state for bastardising the economy of the state through capital flight in form of juicy contracts awarded to business outside the state. Their argument is that the profit from such contracts is repatriated to the state of residence of the beneficiaries. If government, critics of said, had identified and warded some of the contracts to qualified indigenous contractors, the economy would have been boosted. But, government has dismissed the allegation as false and baseless and argued that its policies and programmes had helped the economy of the state. It argued that it had built factories in the state and also attracted massive investment into the state. With the embargo on open campaign in accordance with the Electoral Act 2010 and as the D-Day inches closer, the gladiators and their foot soldiers are on the edge as to what tomorrow holds for them. And like the marketing maxim that the customer is king, the electorate in Osun, the 965, 000 holders of permanent voter cards, hold the ace. They are the kings in the election and their will is expected to be respected and defended by the stakeholders in the election.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:35:56 +0000
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