By Waheed Adekunle
Concerned residents in Osun State have knocked Governor Ademola Adeleke for playing politics with governance in the state, particularly in the waste management system under his administration.
One of the concerned people of the state who couldn’t hide his feelings lampooned the state government for arbitrarily sacking all the volunteers of Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) shortly after Governor Adeleke assumed office.
The valiant resident who called-in on a popular programme tagged “Oro Oselu” on Fresh FM Radio in Osogbo, recently, accused the state government of hiding its dirty linen when it received and played a host to the Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu few days ago.
Commenting on some of the issues of public interest raised by the Anchor, Alhaji Akinkunmi Alabi, on the obnoxious sack of the OYES Corps recruited by the ex-Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and its adverse effects on the environment, the caller attributed the failure of Governor Adeleke’s government to immediately replace the sacked OYES cadets as the major reason for the heap of dirts that litter virtually all the major towns and cities in the state most significantly, the state capital.
The caller wondered why the state government suddenly changed the route it supposed to take Senator Oluremi Tinubu through when she visited the state, insisting that it was to prevent the wife of the President from seeing the garbage that flooded virtually everywhere in Osogbo.
He argued that the sack of the innocent OYES volunteers by the Adeleke government has not only posed a great setback to the state but also snowballed into lingering poverty in the state most especially among the abled and energetic segment of the population.
“To be candid, we don’t need to deceive ourselves, the sack of the OYES volunteers by the Adeleke government and its failure to replace them almost immediately with ‘Imole Corps’ is the cause of the dirtiness being experienced in the state. As we all know, the roles of the OYES volunteers in the waste and environmental management can not be overemphasized but since they were displaced and sacked by the Adeleke government, the state has become a flashpoint of dirtiness particularly the state capital. We knew how Osun State was when these people (OYES cadets) were in place. Our state was clean and well kept, but it is quite unfortunate that since they were sacked, Osun has turned to something else.
“The most surprising part of this was when the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, visited Osun, the government had to take her through Ringroad just to prevent her from seeing how dirty the state capital was. This is very disheartening and uncalled for. It shows that the state can only be made clean when a visitor is expected. I can remember vividly that the government started tiding up the state capital few days to her visit and whoever plied the Ringroad where they took the First Lady through would see that till that very day, the government labourers were still busy cutting the grass and cleaning the area.
“Aside from this environmental management of a thing, there is other economic value attached to the sack of the OYES cadets. Many of those who were sacked solely relied on the stipends coming from the scheme for survival, no doubt, but since they were sacked, their source of eking out a living had obviously stopped. There is no doubt that those who were sacked had been rendered jobless while the people of the state are facing its consequences on their environment. One would have expected the government to replace them immediately, but it was quite unfortunate that the reverse has been the case to date.
“The question now is, should the government wait until people die before they do the needful? If truly they are genuine and sincere to recruit fresh set of people into the scheme, the Governor Adeleke-led state government does not need to wait until many of them die before they do so because the stipend has it own purpose in the lives of the volunteers”, he said.
