Today, many are in doubt as to whether there is even an Osun economy as it were.
Opinions range from the fact that one cannot call a situation where everybody (includes doctors, artisans, pharmacists, traders, e.t.c ) waits for allocation from Abuja before anything economic happens in the state an economy. Some others think if at all there was even one, there no longer is.
Even though it was just three years ago that Rennaisance Capital named the state the 7th Largest Economy in the country, it is no gainsaying that the driver of the state of osun has landed us in an economic pothole owing (according to some) not to his reckless driving but to his inability to foresee the pothole even when it was visible to the deaf and audible to the deaf.
What is more surprising is that a Dr Charles Akinola, a former fellow of the Kennedy School of Government of the Prestigious Harvard University heads Ogbeni Rauf’s OEDP which is the acronym for the Office of Economic Development and Partnerships, a parastatal that has been in existence since 2011 just some months after the governor took office as the Governor.
This office I understand has the primary mandate of “stimulating the development of the economic sectors of the state by leveraging the funding, capital and skills assets of local and international development partners and the private sector”.
This laudable establishment nevertheless adds more salt to injury when one considers the state of the state and makes one to ask who are the members of this parastatal and how well is Dr Akinola putting into practice what he must have definitely learnt in the most prestigious school of government that some of us are hoping we get into.
Another question that comes to mind and must be asked is how well is Ogbeni Rauf ready to implement the suggested policies that might have been recommended by the erudite “fellow” assuming he is recommending such policies as we all understand that the buck stops at Ogbeni Rauf’s table and not Akinola’s.
As a citizen of the Federal Republic who hails from the state of the living spring and who loves his state and understands to a large extent its potentials, the least I can do is to recommend the same way any “Dr Akinola” would do and that is what I propose to do in the next few lines.
First and Foremost is the understanding that we must all have about the state of the state and the state of its finances, especially during times like this when what happens between Iran and the UN or what the UAE and the Saudi Princes plan to do in the global oil market affects the salaries of the teachers that teach in our public schools and the civil servants that work in our ministries.
Even though it is quite unfortunate that the steps to be taken now should have been taken much more sooner than now if we had visionaries who had the skill of foreseeing, now we have to get out of the ditch.
I learnt that the OIRS has already trained about 300+ Osun youths as Tax Marshals who are to go about collecting taxes from the informal sector of what is left of the economy in the state. This is a commendable approach to raising revenue base of the state and it must be said and commended as it is obvious that the informal sector makes up more than 70% of the workforce in the state.
However, what Ogbeni Rauf and his consultant friend must consider before the Director of the OIRS sends these trained youths out is to establish a data centre or a statistic centre hopefully in the state’s ministry of information if it still has one. We should as a state be able to know how many unemployed people are in the state, how many are underemployed, how many are artisans, how many are self-employed, how many are traders, farmers, market women and all? This figures should be documented and attached to a name. Our people should be known, whether they are indigenes or denizens.
There can be no meaningful development without data and information documented and managed properly. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics can be contracted with this exercise. Of course this exercise must be mandatory for every Osun Adult who is resident in the State.
This would seem unnecessary right now but the truth is without an exercise like this, we would just be looking for surface measures and solutions to deep rooted problems. The trained tax marshals will then have an herculean task in front of them to perform.
With this list however, a lot can be achieved systematically. First will be orientation of the populace about the true state of the state through traditional media and new media. Figures need to be put out in the open so that everybody who does business in the state has an idea of what is going to hit them if strict measures are not carried out to salvage the situation.
When the people have an idea of the true state of the “economy”, they would be obligated to cooperate with the difficult and stringent but necessary measures that would be carried out and would affect them. If I am asked, I do not think that there is need for any kind of new tax whatsoever. If 60% of the Osun people are paying tax, the state would do just fine. This orientation would also have to include how traders are to include the VAT in their selling of their inventory and much more how tax evasion is a CRIME! The trained tax marshals can then go to work!
The MOU that was signed with IITA has remained more of a signed document since the beginning of this year than results on the farm. However, it is also commendable that such policies that would grant Agronet Limited over 200 hectares of land for the purpose of seed multiplication and research are now being put into place.
However, a higher calling and a much more better policy is to see hectares of land that is currently been sat on by the state government given to the over 20,000 small scale farmers in the state who cannot carry out their agricultural activities on a large scale owing to the lack of land and capital. I would suggest that a program of leasing land to farmers either for free or for installmental payments that lasts as long as at least 25 years be put in place which can then be reviewed after the agreed period should be started immediately.
The kind of agriculture that lures youths and reduces unemployment and improves the economy is not small scale agriculture. With this initiative, the government can go ahead to reduce the size of the N3.6BN a month civil service that adds nothing to the state’s GDP as there will be avenues for those retrenched to find valuable work and Labour wouldn’t raise a brow.
Another sector that Ogbeni is neglecting is the ICT sector and it is most unfortunate. I am yet to see a commendable policy towards this direction. Most graduates of OAY who dominate the ICT sector in the country fly to Lagos to what is now called the Yabacon Valley (Yaba in Lagos) while neglecting the Main One Cable that supplies the OAU campus its internet facility, neglecting the peace of the city and the stress-less environment because of the lack of opportunities.
With meaningful partnerships and government policies, I don’t see any reason why Ile Ife cannot become the ICT Hub for Nigeria as a whole and I do not mince words. The city itself is accommodating enough and breeds with talelnts in the ICT sector. What nneds to be done? The requirements of an ICT hub are not much; Access to high speed internet, a regular and reasonable amount of power supply ( by Nigerian standards), a conducive environment, full stop. And if the Solar Power Project that we read on the papers is anything concrete to go by, it should help with improving power in the state. The Rural Access Mobility Project by the World Bank is already taking care of the most of the road projects in the state.
With all these in place, network operators can be wooed into establishing customer care call centres, Payment Systems can be lobbied into planting offices and tech-start-ups can start to spring up in a matter of time. Companies like Andela, Microsoft, Oracle, NIIT, can be shown the environment to run their services without the stress and the hustle and bustle of Lagos. This translates to more jobs, a booming economy and more business opportunities.
I once boarded a bus going to Ilesa from Ile Ife and an old man rammed a notion into my ears throughout the journey. He kept on saying employment should be a fundamental human right. As much as I do not believe that it is the government’s job to create jobs that they would begin to pay salaries at the end of the month, I believe that it the responsibility of a responsible government to create a conducive environment for easy creation of jobs by the private sector.
I am of the opinion that Osun State is positioned to come out of this economic downturn in flying colours far above the rest of the states only if those whom the buck stops at their tables can strategically align the state for its glory.
Note that there is nothing that I have said here that relates to billions of naira, just policies and some bills in the state assembly.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija
Jude ‘Feranmi is a columnist at TheSheet.ng
