…. commends INEC’s Performance in Osun Guber
Former Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Arise, has declared that the outcome of the governorship election in Osun State is a testament that the next year’s general election will be transparent and based on facts and figures.
The former Federal lawmaker lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for transparency during the Osun poll.
He commended President Bola Tinubu on subsidy removal, which he said has facilitated developmental strategies in the country.
He disapproved of the policy reversal recently being proposed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Arise described Atiku’s proposition as a consequence of lacking good advisors.
The former lawmaker spoke on the TVC Morning Show program, where he featured as a guest.
He said, ”On INEC, I’m very happy for their performance, particularly at the Osun election. That election clearly shows that Mr President wants a very transparent election.
“He wants the people of this country to elect the officials that they want to vote to govern them. And I believe he’s very comfortable with himself based on his achievements in the last three years, plus what has been the saddle of government in the country.
“And I think all in all, I would say that the expectation is that the election coming in 2027 will be based on achievement, on facts and figures.
“And the Nigerians will decide, compare it with what existed in the past in this country versus what the APC under the watch of Asiwaju Tinubu
has been able to achieve for Nigeria.
“And leveraging on things, developmental strides that are taken and the fact that we can project this into the future and imagine what Nigeria will be
in another four years if it’s able to continue to have that advantage of continuity.
“And we’ll be hearing discussions on some topics building on the possible reversal of some policies, so those are things that Nigerians should be made
aware of, and they should understand that this is not a tea party to govern the nation.
“And when you have a policy and are able to justify and see the results, the benefits, for Nigerians and these things are actually exposed and made known to Nigerians, that these are the advantages and these are the consequences of what we have seen from some of his policies, the positive side.
“And there might be some downside, but it’s a process. And I’m sure that by the time everybody settles and begins to weigh what the pros and cons are, we’ll see the benefit of what the policies have been able to achieve for Nigeria
“For me, I would, without any doubt, imagine that the former VP’s advisors have not done him any favour. They’ve not done so by explaining that, look, when you have the government now having sufficient funds without any form of interruption to pay salaries, as I told you.
“Without running to the federal government to ask for any sort of loans to pay salaries. Some of this is being taken for granted.
“It’s not because it’s happening without happening in real time. And so nobody’s complaining. But in the past, when salaries are not paid,
those who are salary earners will not be able to actually buy little things that they need.
They can’t pay school fees, as it were in the old days. Even if you give them loans, like credits, they will not be able to meet their obligations.
So it actually comes down to the fact that if people don’t have the buying power because they’re not paid on time, now it has consequences beyond what one can easily explain.
“Because those things are no longer happening. It can be taken for granted. But the money for all this to be happening came from the subsidy removal. Most of the money came from the subsidy removal, and here is the government that says whatever money we have recovered from looting, we are going to direct most of it to the NELFUND to be able to pay school fees for those who ordinarily would have dropped out of school due to lack of ability, for their parents to pay.
“So once some of this is taken in aggregate, we now look at it: what is the downside of a subsidy removal that will advise the person to say that we want to go back to that regime.
“The regime of total mismanagement, of corruption, of siphoning our resources outside, people coming in saying that they have imported oil, they just bring papers, you pay them subsidy without anything coming to Nigeria.
“They are vetting those things to the West African countries. These are some of the understandings, I believe, a good advisor would have presented to his principal before such utterance could have come out.
“Nobody in this country today who understands economics, even not after Oyedele really spoke and broke down the numbers for us to know where this money has gone. And now the states, I understand, collected over a hundred billion in allocation. So with a hundred billion, you can begin to tap into development issues within the states.
“Trans-state roads, provide water, provide good health facilities. So e-businesses are consistent, and you have them managing the resources well.
It’s no longer the responsibility of the federal government. They are making provisions for the state government to take responsibility and take control in the state and ensure that developmental strides are seen and are known.
“We don’t need people of the state to say, my government is doing excellently well. By the time you have such resources to build infrastructure in your state, campaigning will be less cumbersome because you can point to things that are happening that never happened before. So for me, I think we cannot be retrogressive.”
The APC Chieftain declared that there is a need to showcase the good things the President has done in preparation for the general election, added that “in fairness, there are competitors, but no serious challenges.”