By Usthman Oladotun
According to the data sourced from the report published by the Punch newspaper today, the total federal allocation to Osun State increased by 70.15% in the last 12 months just as the state ( both the state government and its 30LGAs) received N170bn from June 2023 and May 2024.
For the report, the newspaper’s correspondent compared the amount of revenue received by the state between June 2022 and May 2023 and June 2023 to May 2024.
This allocation is different from the FG grants, fuel subsidy palliative support and internally generated revenue (IGR), total of which is now running to over N300bn since November 2022 when Governor Ademola Adeleke took the leadership mantle in the state.
However, despite the huge leap in the revenue accruing to the state, many sectors of the economy of the state continue to suffer neglects safe for the office of the governor which has received no less than N21bn in the last 18 months.
The government of Osun has been serially accused of paying lip service to key sectors of the economy like Agriculture, Youths Affairs, Sports, Rural Development, Water Resources, Women and Children Affairs, etc.
In the first quarter of 2024, while the office of the governor got humongous N5.2bn, the the state government only released miserable N164m to Agriculture, N167m to Rural Development, N246m to Sports, N211m to Water Resource and ridiculous N12m to Youth Affairs.
Recall the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Kolapo Alimi, in recent time, came under verbal attacks from members of the public when he carelessly on a radio programme alluded that the state government would not be able to do anything for the youths, women and children until it concluded all the ongoing infrastructural projects in the state.
