EDITORIAL: Kudos To Transparency

We must acknowledge the openness of the government of the State of Osun for its excellent communication on the received receipt of the Paris Club refunds.

A statement signed by Semiu Okanlawon, Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor laid it bare in stating that  “The Government of Osun wishes to announce that it has received the second tranche of the Paris Club refunds.

The refunds, totaling N6.314bn, was paid into the state coffers on Monday, July 17, 2017.

In line with our government’s promise to utilise the resources of this state in the best interest of our people, we hereby restate our commitment to this promise as we begin shortly transparent deployment on our commitments to the concerned stakeholders”.

The transparency is commendable and worthy of emulation by those states who have inadvertently given the unfortunate misconception that there might have been no refund. The openness also brilliantly checkmate those who are forever seeking opportunities to fish in contrived muddy waters.

A good example here is those being used by self-seeking professional political miscreants and opportunists under the cloak of being ‘pensioners’. Their so called protest was politically sponsored.

It is interesting to note that about a month ago, this same set of pensioners accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of collecting and diverting the second tranche of Paris loan refund, which they claimed had been released to Osun State by the Federal government.

The transparency of the government has now proved that this was all politically induced, frankly an unreserved apology to the government as well as the people of the state, is very much in order.

Transparency helps and we urge the state government of Osun to continue in this way in the transparent deployment of its commitment to the people of the state.