N179 Billion Debt: Aregbesola Has Mortgaged Osun State Future, Says Civil Society Coalition

A civil group, the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) has declared that the State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola has mortgaged the future of the State for borrowing beyond the capacity of the State, saying that the projects being acclaimed to execute were not justified the debt accrued to the State.

The group also alleged that half of the accumulated debt being used the State to acquire from foreign and local financial intuitions from 2012 to 2014, were flight to Lagos state to satisfy Aregbesola’s godfather, asking rhetorically, how a State government would embark on a borrowing without cautioning during the financial boom, particularly, the period under review.

While reacting to the debt profile of the State which totally at N179 billion released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), through a statement issued and signed by the CSCEOS’s Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi,Alimi Sulaiman and copies were made available to newsmen on Thursday, insisted that the debt were not sustainable in contrary to the claim of the State government and its agents because of the State reliability on Federal Allocation as main source of income.

Faulting the State government claim that Aregbesola was prudent in managing the State, the group disclosed that Aregbesola has destroyed the State beyond redemption which only divine intervention could save the State from future financial crisis, stressing that the State government has been economical with the truth about the finances of the State.

CSCEOS rejected the claim of the State government that part of the debt were from old Oyo State and as well from previous administrations in the State, explaining that as at the time Aregbesola took over the reign of power, the total debt of the State were not up to N15billion because Oyinlola’s administration borrowed N18.3 billion and N2.4billion has been repaid back, while over N7billion were not were not spent from the funds.

It added that the inherited debt from old Oyo State were not having any effect on the financial status of the State until when Aregbesola came on board and began the sporadic borrowing down to the throat of the State to satisfy whims and caprices of his associates in Lagos,adding that the physical projects on ground were not justified the gargantuan debt of the State.

It further stressed that the State has been engulfed in financial mess since 2014 when it could not perform its social obligation of payment of salaries and pensions with gratuities before much publicized economic recession in 2015 and it shown that the figure between N400billion to N500billion being circulated in the public domain were correct as the State has been using major part of its allocation for the service of the debt and the payment might go beyond three administrations after Aregbesola leaves office in 2018.

The group also alleged that there were still short term commercial bank loan which were obtained by Rauf Aregbesola’s administration that was not added to the current figure and everything would soon be exposed to the good people of the State.