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The Osun State governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola, has promised to run community -based governance and be more consultative as governor. He also pledged to engage more women and focus more on welfare of his people.
The governor-elect said this in an interview with TV Continental (TVC) monitored in Osogbo on Friday.
Oyetola, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC)was declared winner early Friday after beating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke with 482 votes.
While thanking the people of the state for believing in him, the governor-elect said he would not run an elaborate administration but would involve more women.
He said: “I thank the people of the state for giving me their mandate to serve them. I assure them that I will do everything to justify the confidence reposed in me through accountability, prudent management of resources, consultation etc. . I’m here to serve. I expect them to involve themselves in governance. I want to see communities decide what they want. It is going to be community-based governance. We will work for the best of Osun State. We will be more consultative.”
He added: “Our programmes will be tailored towards those that need help and the masses generally. My administration will be people-focused.”
On how to revive the economy of the state, Oyetola stated that his administration would deploy creative revenue generation. He explaned that the tax net will be broadened, not by hiking taxes but by bringing more taxable people into the net.
He said his administration will explore mineral resources and tourism through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). He also primised that “I will be paying attention to rural development to additionally stem rural-urban migration.”
While doing that, the governor-elect said he would sustain infrastructural renewal started by the Rauf Aregbesola administration because, according to him, infrastructural decay in the state is massive. He pointed out that no meaningful economic development can be achieved without infrastructural renewal.
He said: “We will look more closely into agriculture and its value chain to create jobs and empower our people. We will also develop our tourist attraction sites which are many all over the state. We can make a lot of money by developing tourists sites. Will go into PPP on them. We also have abundant mineral resources all over the state. But we are yet to convert them. We will embrace PPP arrangement to tap all of these. We will create an industrial park. We are even likely to hold an economic summit.”
On payment of salaries and pensions, Oyetola revealed that there would be a marked improvement this time because there would be more money once the government looks inward to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). He added that two major loans – capital market bond and SUKUK loan will end in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
“Once that happens, we will have some relief in terms of cashflow. We will also grow our IGR without necessarily increasing tax. We will bring people that should pay tax into the tax net. That will help us pay salaries and pensions more easily”, he said.