By Waheed Adekunle
It is no more news that Osun State has been consistently rated below par for attracting zero investment in the last two years by the nation’s custodian of statistics – National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
No doubt, our dear state has become a pariah one under the leadership of Governor Ademola Adeleke owing to the governor’s sheer incompetence and incapacity to galvanize the robust resources at his disposal to direct the socio-economic fortunes of the state to path of freedom.
Recall that Adeleke had, during the governorship electioneering boasted to revamp the economy of the state by attracting both local and foreign investors to establish businesses in the state.
The then candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose highfalutin campaign message rented the airspace, bragged about bringing “a lot of goodies” to Osun as he planned to paddle the affair of the state with his experience garnered working in “Origin International Company” and other “multinational companies.” But to our dismay, none of the padded “business acumen” has worked for the state.
In July 2023, the record from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Osun State was one of the few states in the country that didn’t attract either local or foreign investments in the first and second quarters Q1-Q2 of the year. Alas! The situation has become unabated since then.
The report from the agency has repeatedly placed Osun State as a centre-point of zero investment, confirming the ineptitude of the government to attract investors despite globetrotting of the governor and his mediocre team.
The recent report of the NBS, capturing a year analysis of state -by-state investment, showed that Osun State was among the 26 states in the country that attracted zero investment in one year.
Specifically, the report reveals that the government failed woefully to attract any investment between Q2 of 2023 and Q2 of 2024.
This awful rating contrasts sharply with the record of the previous government which attracted $29.9m in 2021. The former government of Oyetola was appraised for turning around the socio-economic fortunes of Osun State and for creating an enabling environment for investors to thrive. Oyetola was widely celebrated for his prudence as well as for accountability, transparency and probity.
In the last two years of Adeleke, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state has remained stagnant. There has been no significant increase in what was bequeathed to him by the defunct government. Even mining, touted to be the cash cow of the administration and projected to bring N15bn this year, recorded miserable N60m revenue from January 2023 to June 2024. The raging questions agitating the minds of the discerning citizens of Osun State, therefore, are: Why did Governor Adeleke’s government fail woefully to attract a single investor in spite of the boundless opportunities available to the current government? Why would a state, purportedly being governed by an “international businessman” be lagging behind in the investment corridor despite the insanely many foreign trips embarked upon by the governor for the same purpose? Given the development, is it not safe to conclude that the flowery speeches of the governor at campaign venues, as to economic rejuvenation, were mere political statements to hoodwink unsuspecting masses. When would Governor Adeleke and his team come up with clear and genuine position on the lingering crisis in the mining sector?
The state may continue to experience the self-afflicted economic hardship unless Governor Adeleke is deliberate about changing the fortune of the state for good.
May God Heal Our Land!