Reactions Trails Victory

Hit The Ground Running – AD Candidate Urges Gov-elect

By Solomon Odeniyi

Osun governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Olugbenga Akintola has charged the Governor-elect, Adegboyega Oyetola to hit the ground running as soon as he is sworn in and address germane issues like backlog of salaries among others.

Congratulating the governor-elect for the victory, he said, his  government must make sure everything needed to be done for the payment of workers’ entitlement is put in place.

“There are germane issues people cannot but see  solution to. These are issues like the backlog of salary and pension arrears. He must make sure everything needed to be done for the payment is put in place.

“He must understand that the civil service is the biggest employers of labour in the state. One of the ways he can do this is to look at the possibility of restructuring the existing terms and payments of loans, so we can have some money to pay up the loans as well as see to the payment of salaries.

“Another aspect he must look into is the education sector, especially the same uniform for the pupils. It must be review, so that appropriate step can be taken.

“Most importantly, we have a lot of opportunities staring us in the face. We have a lot of mineral deposit, tourism is there. The governor-elect needs to look at means of generating income for the state without depending on FAC.

“This will ensure that our economy becomes robust. When our economy is robust, there will be a lot of opportunities; we will have alternatives for job opportunities that are not just teaching or the normal civil service.

“Tourism is an avenue that can assist us to achieve this. We have very interesting mountains scattered in the state, this could be developed using private funding to attract development to these unique mountains so as to attract fun and holiday seekers within and outside the country.

“The water falls in the state should also be given same attention. We also need to work with UNESCO to see how Ife and other places in the state are marked as heritage sites which will attract people from other countries to our state.

“When you do this, you are bringing in a lot of foreign exchange, employment opportunities. Basically, I want him to look at the economic development of the state and also the human capital investments. I believe when this is done, it should be uhuru in our state.

“I’m willing to help out if called upon; I have done it for states other than my state of birth where my expertise has been put to use.

“I have gone through the Manifesto of the APC and I see it is quite similar to ours, and I have weighed the two candidates.