Advocacy for Advancement of Peace in Africa lambasts Oyetola for hitting the ground crawling in Osun

CIVIL society group Advocacy for Advancement of Peace in Africa (Aapa) has berated the newly-elected Osun State governor Gboyega Oyetola, for what it termed a delay and contradiction in action saying he has hit the ground crawling instead of running.

Last week, Governor Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), assumed office ion Oshogbo the Osun State capital but has been slow to initiate his programmes. Waheed Sulaimon, the Aapa national coordinator, said for instance that the newly constituted Osun Special Health Intervention and Revitalisation Committee announced by the government on Tuesday exposed the new administration as a confused entity with misplaced priorities.

He added that despite the huge achievement the immediate past government claimed to have recorded in the health sector, coupled with failure of the governor to announce key positions in his government for smooth take off, the health revitalisation committee is nothing but a contradiction and misplaced priority of sorts. Mr Sulaimon explained that the new governor glaring played a significant role in the policy formulation and implementation of the last administration, in which he had constantly spoken on the acclaimed success in the health sector .

Mr Sulaimon added: “I don’t see this government as a serious and responsive administration that really understands the tenets and scope of good governance, to the extent of coming up with masses-oriented policies that tend towards making a significant change in the socio-economic life of the Osun people. This is the man who held sway as the engine room of the last government, in his capacity as the chief of staff to the governor and he had been heard time without number speaking on the unprecedented achievements of that administration in the health sector among others.

“We were therefore taken aback when he announced a special intervention and revitalisation committee for the sector yesterday. It means he knew all this while that the health sector in Osun is really in shambles and comatose but kept on deceiving people with white lies.”

Furthermore, Mr Sulaimon flayed the new governor for his failure to announce key positions in the government, adding that the government is slow in taking decisions and quick in making errors. However, Kunle Oyatomi, the director of publicity, research and strategy of the Osun State chapter of the APC, described members of the group as mischief makers, saying there is nothing contradictory in what the governor has done.

He said the constitution of the committee was a move towards advancing the success recorded in the health sector by the Rauf Aregbesola administration and possibly improve on it. Mr Oyatomi advised Aapa to engage themselves in very serious issues and stop chasing shadows.

"What the government has just done is to enhance what has been done before it came on board, there is no contradiction at all. There is no doubt that the health sector in Osun is functional, you can see what the last administration has achieved through the O’Ambulance, through which over 40,000 accident victims and others were rescued and the increased number of health centres with adequate staff and drugs are all evidence of achievement in the sector," Mr Oyatomi added.