CSOs flay Adeleke govt over welfare of residents, distribution of palliatives
The Osun Civil Societies Coalition, OCSC has alleged that the Ademola Adeleke administration lacks direction and is not organised with regard to issues of the welfare of the people of the state.
In a statement by its Chairman and Secretary, Waheed Lawal and Emmanuel Olowu on Wednesday, Osun OCSC also accused the state government of failing to provide responsive governance in the face of the economic challenges, occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.
The group alleged that the state government has not shown empathy and been responsive to the residents, especially civil servants who it claims deserve a structured palliative measure.
“While other states are showing empathy to their people and coming up with initiatives that show the leadership’s thoughts and plans for them, Osun State has gone into a deep sleep by having no serious plan for the people at a critical time like this in the history of the nation.
“While States like Kano cut down the school fees of state-owned institutions by 50% and other states are either providing buses or cutting down the days of work in their states, Osun is doing nothing other than depending on what is to come from the federal government.
“This is grossly a sign of lack of plan or the state leadership does not care about the people by failing to make provision from the purse of the state for her people.
“While we do not want to join issues with the government on what was received or not received from the federal government, a peep into the schedule of distribution of palliative received from the federal government calls for a lot of questions.”
The civil societies group asked the state government to make public members of the distribution committee and not just the organisations they represent.
“Of the distribution plan is the mention of identified 12 groups. We demand to know the names of these 12 groups and how they were arrived at as channels for the distribution of the palliatives.
“On our part, we make bold to say that the civil societies coalition is in no way involved in the distribution plan and no member of ours is in any committee, except the government chose to drop names representing the coalition and such being unknown to us.
“We charge and demand from the government; a robust distribution of tangible things and not just the rice made available by the federal government.
“Osun State government should take a cue from other states and stop insulting our people by going back and forth on the issue of the palliatives.”
The state government had earlier announced Tuesday, August 29, 2023, as the set date for the commencement of the distribution of the palliatives but later suspended it.
A total number of 6,300 bags of rice is expected in Osun State and 12 groups per ward are expected to benefit from the palliatives.
