As the Osun State gubernatorial election scheduled for August 9 gathers momentum, candidate of the APC and the incumbent governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said that loss of Ekiti by his party to the PDP in the June 21 Ekiti governorship poll does not move him, saying that he has touched every family in Osun with the programmes of his administration.
Aregbesola alleged that the Federal Government has not only reduce his state's monthly allocation by 40% but has also not been paying the states as and when due. Describing the development as an equivalent of economic war against the the people of Osun, the governor said:
“Our allocation has been reduced by 40 per cent and it doesn’t come early for us to meet the necessary obligation to our people. We collected May allocation on June 26.
“I said at a rally recently that from what I have heard from their grapevine because they had a meeting where they [PDP agents] said that, squeeze them [APC government]; if they can’t pay salary, you will create problem for them. Mark my words; they might not give us June allocation until the end of August.
“But we will pay our workers, already we have paid June. If the demonstration of interest in workers in their remuneration and allowances counts and with what we have done for them, I cannot believe all the workers will be against us because we have done our best."
Speaking with newsmen in Oshogbo at the weekend, Aregbesola said his government emerged through popular forces powered by Osun people. He said: “As a loyal APC member, the outcome of Ekiti election disturbed me, but as the head of a government that has worked so well with the people, I don’t even see the effect. When I look at my engagement with the people, the products of my government which has not left any home unaffected positively, I said if election is about acceptance, popularity and impact you have made on the people, we are waiting for what the dictate of democracy would be.
“In a credible, transparent, free and fair election, Rauf Aregbesola does not have any worry at all about what people will say about his administration. I came here from the street and it is easy for me to go back to the street. My real home is on the street, whoever will hold me on the street will try.
“I laugh when they talk about me because they don’t know I am from the street. I am a product of the popular forces, the people and I am part and parcel of them. I emanated from them and I am a product of their struggles.”
Making reference to stomach infrastructure, Aregbesola said such will not arise in Osun, adding: “What is now known as stomach infrastructure is what we know as interaction, engagement, living with the people and meeting their aspirations and needs. That is what we have been doing from the very beginning of this administration; I feed their children every day. I identify with them on a daily basis in their struggle to live and they understand that everything we do is to make live easy for them.
“My administration does not suffer alienation from the people, it is one and same with the people and that is the basis of our confidence in their ever ready support at all times. There is no trade, commercial or social group in the state of Osun that we have not impacted, and positively too.”
He affirmed his administration’s cordial relationship with four major critical stakeholders in the state; teachers, civil servants, market women and students.
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