Former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, on Thursday appeared before the commission of Inquiry set up by the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola-led administration to probe contracts and financial transactions of his government, declaring that he had no regrets and took full responsibilities for all his actions.
Oyinlola spoke as the panel commended the vision of the former governor in establishing the Osun State University and the openness with which he explained his stewardship in seven and a half years to the panel.
The panel Chairman, Prof. Femi Odekunle, speaking in response to Oyinlola’s submission before the panel, said as a university administrator and teacher himself, he could testify to the fact that after seeing six campuses of the university, which Oyinlola told the panel was built with N4 billion, it was well conceived and executed.
Odekunle also commended the former governor for honouring the invitation of the commission, an action he declared marked him out as a gentleman.
Oyinlola had informed the panel that all actions taken by his administration were in the best interest of the state just as he affirmed that he took great care in ensuring that due process was diligently followed by making sure that the State Executive Council and the House of Assembly approved such.
He explained that the initial resolve of his government was not to take any loan given the experience of the state with a Second Republic loan taken for the unexecuted Ilesa and Ejigbo water schemes, which had remained an albatross on the state but was convinced by the House of Assembly to shift grounds in order to ensure that the 2010 Budget succeeded.
He said: “During my budget presentation in November 2009, the House of Assembly advised me against my position of not wanting to take loans to execute capital projects on the ground of budgetary low performance.
“We were also encouraged to seek alternative sources of funding by an assurance that refund of excess deductions from Osun State allocation by the Federal Government, which was then put at about N70 billion, would be received.
“It was based upon the above two reasons that we agreed to obtain the loan to finance the priority projects of government.
“The conception was therefore that of the people of the state through their representatives in the House of Assembly.
“The loan was approved by the Executive Council of the State and the members of Osun State House of Assembly.
“When I said the House of Assembly initiated and approved the N18.3 billion loan, which my government took, I want to make it very clear that the House was made up of 15 PDP members and 11 ACN members. It was a mixed House and there was no division when those actions were taken by the House.”
Oyimlola added that the application for the loan was written by the Ministry of Finance, which negotiated the loan on behalf of government, adding that he believed taking the loan was the best his government could do during that period of global financial meltdown.
He said: “Disbursement of the loan was done through appropriate agencies of government.
“It was disbursed on projects as approved by the Osun State House of Assembly to be funded from the loan that was procured and also with the consent of the House of Assembly.
“It is necessary to state that the projects under reference were contained in the Appropriation Law for the relevant year.
“The total loan approved was N18.38 billion out of which a sum of N10.1 billion was spent on projects approved by the Osun State House of Assembly.
“About N1.8 billion out of the disbursed N10 billion was repaid to the bank, leaving a total of about N8.2 billion as net indebtedness of the state government to the bank as at the time our administration vacated office.”
Oyinlola said the panel should note that his government after seven years took N18.3 billion loan while his successor within the first two months in office took N25 billion loan from the First Bank.
He declared that he (Oyinlola) was a major stakeholder in the affairs of Osun State as his own father was one of the four traditional rulers that won independence for Osun Division, which eventually became Osun State.
He added that the upgrading of nine Government Technical Colleges with the bulk of the loan was his idea based on his experience during a tour of Israel where he discovered that youth unemployment and dearth of skilled craftsmen could be addressed by implementing the concept.
He added that the project, if the Rauf Aregbesola administration had not stopped it two months after it took over, would have met the goal of giving unemployed graduates the opportunity to acquire vocational skills from the institutions.
Oyinlola took full responsibility for two projects that could not be completed as conceived by his administration, listing the projects as the Free trade Zone and the state hotel project.
He disclosed that his administration committed N1.5 billion to the Free Trade Zone project and N430 million to the hotel project but lamented that the private investors, who were to contribute 70 per cent of the total cost, did not fulfill their own side of the agreement while efforts “to use the law” to address problems that arose out of the two projects were on when he left office.
On the wisdom in building six stadia across the state, Prince Oyinlola stressed that he was very conversant with the decision of the founding fathers of the state that each of the six zones of the state must develop simultaneously, adding that the same idea informed the multi campus structure of UNIOSUN.
Besides, he said the recent woeful performance of the Nigerian contingent to the 2012 Olympics showed that for Nigeria to get it right in sports, it must provide the right facilities that would develop the potential in the youths.