Governor Ademola Adeleke is governing Osun State without borrowing a single kobo and without drawing any security votes, Spokesperson to the State Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed has clarified.
He made the clarifications in response to questions from reporters who quoted some opposition figures alleging the state Governor of increasing Osun debt and of accessing security votes to the tune of billions of naira.
Mr Rasheed attributed such allegations to pure mischief, ignorance of public finance and deliberate misinterpretation of state data, noting that Governor Adeleke is pursuing his many governance initiatives within the confines of available resources from federal allocations and internally generated revenue.
According to the Spokesperson, the state Governor is achieving so much through fiscal discipline, deliberate curtailing of overhead cost and widening of revenue nets, all which resulted in fiscal and financial health of the state.
Mr Rasheed posited that opposition figures displayed ignorance by ignoring the impact of the exchange rate crisis on the inherited external debt stock of Osun State, explaining that the weak naira increased the naira value of the state debt stock.
“The Debt Management Office is the national debt data repository. According to the DMO, Osun owed foreign lenders the sum of $91,779,393.97 as of December 31, 2022, and by December 31, 2023, the external debt profile of Osun stood at $87,247,488.51.
“From the figures above, Osun’s external debt dropped. The noticeable difference in the naira value of Osun external debt was due to the significant devaluation of naira. In 2022, a dollar averaged at N460, and so, the naira value of $91,779,393.97 Osun’s external debt in 2022 was N41bn compared to 2023 when a dollar averaged N1,400, which is essentially why despite the fact that Osun debt reduced to $87,247,488.51, the naira equivalent was N78bn”, the Spokesperson narrated.
“On the allegation of security services votes included in the uploaded budget performance report, let me clarify that the subhead only referred to the cost of various security services and operations across the state which is different from the conventional concept of security votes as drawn by most state governors.
“The security service funds in the identified subhead were used among other interventions to service special peacekeeping operations, provide logistics support to quench inter communal clashes and support the operations of the different security agencies across the state”.
“The funds meant for various security related services are accessed through normal approval processes with appropriate records kept. We however firmly affirm that Mr Governor did not and is not drawing any personal security votes as is the convention before his assumption of office. This is in line with his avowed commitment to free state resources to execute his ambitious five point agenda”, the Governor’s Spokesperson noted.
He described as defeatist the recent penchant of the opposition to twist state finance data to support false narration, submitting that such failed strategy confirms the opposition has run out of ideas and initiatives in the face of Governor Adeleke’s widely acknowledged exceptional performance.