19 months after: Where is Adeleke’s Imole transport service, solar project in Osun?

By Waheed Adekunle

Precisely on October 5, 2023, the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke held the maiden edition of its Civic Engagement christened ‘Ipade Imole’ where he promised heaven on earth.

The Governor who came with endless promises to justify his inaccurate account of stewardship appeared too confident in reeling out what he purported to have done and yet to be done under his leadership, just to arrest the attendees’ attention.

In his prepared speech, the governor alluded to some of the existing and non-existing tangible and intangible variables to support his claims as to what he had done for the people of the state as many of his claims are still hanging in the thin air till this moment.

The self-acclaimed intervention on health sector tagged ‘Imole Medical Outreach’ was tabled and overblown out of proportion before the participants to score an unmerited cheap political points. Also, the governor promised to redefine the transportation system in the state through his phoney ‘Imole Transport Service’ as he alluded to the fact that his administration was poised to purchase several buses in addition to the refurbished rickety coastal buses purchased by former Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

But the most bizarre were promises that appeared to be sophistic and yet to be actualized up till the moment.

Before I go into details, let me refer to the verifiable statistics by casting our minds back to the events leading to the emergence of the incumbent government. The administration of Governor Adeleke started on the mantra of repositioning the state with much touted claims on sectorial rejuvenation as strong emphases were made to turn around the socio-economic fortunes of the state within the shortest period of assuming office. Though laden with falsehoods and orchestrated by vendetta tendency, the government had left no one in doubt that it has no capacity to bring the much-desired succour to  the masses who hitherto believed that the acclaimed God-send governor had come to rescue them out of their economic dislocation.

The people’s hopes were falsely raised to the extent that no one would have thought that Osun State would remain the same up until now given the campaign gerrymandering of the dance-loving governor.

Notably, it was said at one of the campaign grounds that he (Governor Adeleke) had come to contest with foreign currencies not only to square up with the then ruling party – the All Progressives Congress, APC, but to win the election and redefine governance in the state.

Sadly, the reverse is the case as the state remains stagnant and languishes in retrogression since the former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola left office. The truth of the matter is that one can not give what he or she doesn’t have.

It is more disheartening to note that despite the huge revenue accruing to the stage since assumption of this mediocre government, there is little or nothing  to show for it.

But the question to ask now is what is the present administration using the funds for?

Back to the maiden edition of the *Ipade Imole*, the Governor who confirmed the receipt of 2billion naira palliative grant from the federal government purposefully released to cushion the adverse effects of subsidy on the masses noted that the money was intact, saying “the opposition, which is good for our government has been challenging us on what to use the N2 billion palliative for. I am ready to tell you everything now. Our government has resolved to spend the palliative fund on three projects and programmes namely; additional buses (we have repaired, repainted and refurbished the existing buses we inherited), we are going to buy more buses as such that it will be spread across the state to ease transport system and make transportation accessible and affordable for the people of the state. Secondly, we will continue to rehabilitate our health facilities particularly, hospitals through Imole Medical Outreach and finally, we will purchase food items for the people.”

These are some of the futile promises made to sway the participants’ attention. But it is quite unfortunate that since October 5, 2023 that the ‘Ipade Imole’ was held up until now, no single bus has been purchased by the Adeleke government except the rickety buses that had regrettably recorded road mishaps at different occasions. One would have expected, by now, nothing less than 50 to 100 buses spread across the state to ease transportation problems in view of the humongous amounts of the money collected by the state government as palliative funds.

Even Ekiti State that is far behind Osun State in term of resources accruable to the government’s coffers, it is on record that the state is far ahead of Osun State on the developmental statistics ladder in recent times if dispassionately measured, likewise Kebbi, Ebonyi, among other states.

Similarly, Governor Adeleke, who claimed his administration had commenced the implementation of Imole Solar Project to light up the state capital and other towns when the Ipade Imole was held, is yet to fulfil his promise eight months after despite the crazy allocations to the state on a monthly basis. It is lamentable that the state capital has been taken backward, such that the major streets of Osogbo have turned to dark spots which had been encouraging societal vices. A visit to popular Olaiya area to Ogo-Oluwa to Onward area and to Ataoja bridge to the state Secretariat down to Ringroad, popularly called Ona Baba Ona, to Alekunwodo, to Old Garage, to Igbona, to Ayetoro via Powerline, to Ota-Efun down to Station road to Oja-Oba-Oke-Ayepe-Ilesa Garage and many more, the story is the same. The entire Osogbo streets and roads have been in darkness in their entirety since the inception of this administration. The only stretch where I saw a resemblance of streetlight at night was just between Akoda and Owode-Ede, another edenisation agenda, one may want to say.

For discerning minds, the time for reckoning is near and it is the responsibility of each and everyone to continuously hold the government accountable, responsible and responsive to the plights of the people. To further strengthen the much-enjoyed democracy that is built on trust, transparency, accountability and probity is a collective effort.

May God heal our land!