Subsidy Palliative: Adeleke administration lacks direction, not organised — CSO

The Osun Civil Societies Coalition, OCSC, has alleged that the Ademola Adeleke administration lacks proper direction on the issues of the people’s welfare.

In a statement by its Chairman and Secretary, Waheed Lawal and Emmanuel Olowu, on Wednesday, Osun OCSC also chided the state government over its alleged failure to provide responsive governance in the face of the economic quagmire which has subjected residents of the state to untold hardship.

After the suspension of the subsidy regime by President Bola Tinubu in May, the cost of goods and services has continued to soar in the country.

The pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, has also increased from N197 to N500 to N750 per litre.

“While other states are showing empathy to their people and coming up with initiatives that show the leadership thinks and plans for them, Osun state has gone into a deep sleep by having no serious plan for the people at a critical time like this in the history of the Nation.

“While states like Kano cut down the school fees of state-owned institutions by 50% and other states are either providing buses or cutting down the days of work in their states, Osun is doing nothing other than depending on what is to come from the federal government.

“This is grossly a sign of lack of plan or the state leadership does not care about the people by failing to make provision from the purse of the state for her people.

“While we don’t want to join issues with government on what was received or was not received from the federal government, a peep into the schedule of distribution of palliative received from the federal government calls for a lot of questioning.”

The civil societies group asked the state government to make public the names of distribution committee members and not just the organisations they represent.

Among the demands is that the structure the distribution will take at the local government level should be made public to avert the palliatives ending in the coffers of politicians, thereby denying those that actually deserve it.

“Of the distribution plan is the mention of identified 12 groups. We demand to know the names of these 12 groups and how they were arrived at as channels for distribution of the palliative.

“On our part, we boldly say that the civil societies coalition is in no way involved in the distribution plan, and no member of ours is in any committee, except the government chose to drop names representing the coalition and such being unknown to us.

“We charge and demand from the government a robust distribution of tangible things from the government of the state and not just the rice made available by the federal government.

“Osun state government should take a cue from other states and stop insulting our people by the back and forth on the issue of the palliative.”

The state government had earlier announced Tuesday, August 29, 2023, as the set date for the commencement of the distribution of the palliatives but later suspended it.

A total number of 6300 bags of rice is expected in Osun State, and 12 groups per ward are expected to benefit from the palliatives.