The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on Monday challenged the leadership of the Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) and other government parastatals in the state to work hard and raise the revenue of the state.
He said for the state to survive economically, politically and continue on the tempo of ongoing infrastructure development, all hands must be on deck to upsurge the state’s Internally Generated Revenue from its average N500 million to N10 billion on monthly basis through prompt taxation.
Governor Aregbesola made the statement at Royal Park Hotel, Iloko-Ijesa, while declaring open, a 5-day Envisioning/Capacity Building Workshop on the Ten Years State Development Plan (2018-2028) organized by the Osun State Ministry of Economic Planning, Budget and Development.
Aregbesola lamented on the accruable revenue to the state from all sources every month, noting that the state must henceforth do the needful to expand its revenue potentials for the socioeconomic advancement of the state.
He described IGR as the only sustainable economic wheel of progress capable of catalyzing and stimulating prosperous economy in the society, thus informing the need for total rededication to robust socioeconomic drive through taxation.
Governor called on the people in the state to begin to look inward and imbibe the culture of performing one’s civic responsibilities by being faithful to basic tax responsibility.
He said a trait of productivity, hard work and efficiency must be popularized in such a way that the people’s potentials towards the generation of improved and robust revenue for the state would be realized.
Aregbesola posited that the people in the state must begin to see work as the only means of survive through which they can be able to galvanize their potentials to enrich themselves and also take out of surplus to government to run the state.
Governor Aregbesola held that for the 10-year proposed Economic Development Plan to be actualized, thus, Osun must earn before the expiration of his administration at least N4.1billion every month.
He said if Osun and her people really want to build a prosperous state as aspired, there is need for people to change their attitude towards taxation while people must see tax as an obligation that must be fulfilled.
Aregbesola told the gathering to use the opportunity of the workshop to develop and provide to the state a development agenda that will make Osun a virile, viable and successful state in Nigeria.
According to him, “In your course of planning in respect of this workshop, Osun must at least target 10 billion IGR in the next 10 years.
“Osun must earn before the expiration of this administration at least N4.1 billion as monthly IGR. It is not as difficult as we feel but we must apply our senses to it.
“If we really want to build a prosperous state as we aspire, we must pay our taxes. God doesn’t support idleness, laziness and indolence, so we must work to meet our personal needs and give to government what is due to it.
“So, we must also use the opportunity of this gathering to develop and provide for our state, a development agenda that will make it a virile, viable and successful state in Nigeria.
“There is no human society without the capacity to build itself, we only need few leaders who will mobilize them to see and do the needful.
“If Lagos earned N503.7 billion in 2017 as Internally Generated Revenue, as being claimed by its government which reflects that Lagos generated N41.7 billion for every month of the 12 months of 2017, therefore, we must struggle to get IGR capacity of N4.1 billion which is 10 per cent of what Lagos generates every month before we exit.
So we must henceforth let the people of Osun know that if Lagos could earn N41.7 billion as IGR every month, then it will be unthinkable and irresponsible for Osun not to strive to make N4.1 billion every month.
“That is what we need. It is the least we can work on. So by 2028 if Osun must be modern, we must have capacity to generate N10 billion monthly.
”So, the communiqué of this workshop must develop the capacity to support the state in its quest for development in practical term that will make Osun one of the best and most economically viable state in Nigeria”, Aregbesola told the gathering.
Proffering ways to economic prosperity, Aregbesola said “in whatever economic planning and programme we are envisioning, this must help to advance a prosperous future economy for this state, and we must bear it strongly at the back of our minds that in 10 years to come, there would be no allocation from Abuja because oil itself would have gone or about to go”.
He added, “The reason for this summit is on how Osun will be in 2028. We must through this summit acquire capacity to be able to fashion out how to survive without oil because one thing we cannot deny is the economy fact that in 10 years to come, there will be no economic value for crude oil.
“We must also be conscious of the future population explosion in whatever economy we are planning by educating the people against the effects of reckless procreation because if we failed to take the bull by the horn, the present population in the country would have risen to 200 million with similar effect on each state of the federation in 10 years time.
“Thus, we must aggressively pursue local production on our own to quash unemployment and the consequences of it; otherwise, we will still be facing challenges.
“In Osun, we have made little infrastructure development and if that doesn’t continue, then it will be difficult to traverse the state. These are the practical issues that we need to bother about regarding worthy successor” he stressed.
Earlier in his welcome address, Osun’s Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development, Dr. Olalekan Yinusa, said the aim of the workshop is to create appropriate awareness in all about what to do at political and bureaucratic levels of various sectors and build champions within the state of Osun bureaucracy such that the capacity to craft State Development Plans, Sector Strategies and multiyear budget framework could be domiciled within the state.
Dr Yinusa said, “Consequently, Mr Governor mandated the Ministry of Economic Planning, Budget and Development to craft a comprehensive 10-year State Development Plan spanning 2018-2028, Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS), Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Implementation Plans for the state.
”The preparation process of Osun 10-year State Development Plan will be participatory and inclusive of all relevant stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs); Community Based Organizations (CBOs), organized Private sectors (OPS) opposition political parties in the state of Osun etc.
“The State Development Plan is expected to be a public document outlining the state overarching policy position, outcomes and impact of the activities of the present administration and those of other previous administration. It is not about a particular person but about the future of our state and those unborn or still to be born children of Osun; consequently all hands must be on deck to ensure its success.
In his remarks, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, said the workshop will provide a platform for equipping the people of Osun with the necessary skills required for the actualization of sustainable 10 years development plan.
Oyetola held that the Strategic Master Plan through the summit is capable of bequeathing a solid foundation for all round development in the various sectors of the state.
“I congratulate the good people of the state of Osun for this important step towards creating and institutionalizing sustainable development in Osun as Strategic Master Plan is capable of bequeathing a solid foundation for all round development in the various sectors of our state.
“On the approval of Mr Governor, the Economic Team and the Ministry of Economic Planning, Budget and Development met with the Department for International Development (DFID) to kick-start the process of generating a Development Plan and the collaboration had helped to make meaningful achievements”, Oyetola noted.
