The All Progressives Congress candidate in Saturday’s Osun State governorship election, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, has said borrowing to build infrastructure is worthwhile.
Oyetola spoke at the Osun State University campus during a debate for candidates for the election.
The debate was organised by the Yoruba Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Other candidates at the debate were: Fatai Akinbade of the African Democratic Congress, Moshood Adeoti of the Action Democratic Party and Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic Party.
Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke, was inexplicably absent at the debate, where candidates fielded questions from anchor, Olubusola Afolayan, the resident audience, listeners on radio and those watching on Osun State Broadcasting Service television.
Proceedings were conducted in Yoruba.
Candidates took questions in diverse areas as education, especially on the crisis-ridden Ladoke Akintola University jointly owned by Osun and Oyo States, the position of the state in West African Examination Council examinations, healthcare, payment of workers salary, the debt profile of the state and corruption, among others.
Oyetola said the debt situation in the state is not precarious as payment terms were being followed, with early 2019 exit from one of the bonds and another to be liquidated in 2020.
The former Chief of Staff to outgoing Governor Rauf Aregbesola pointed at the massive road construction across the state to justify the need for the loans.
He said: “You cannot build Osogbo-Iwo Road without taking a loan.”
Akinbade promised to ensure “due process, accountability and transparency” in the award of contracts if he wins.
He repudiated the claim that the Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration, in which he served as Secretary to the State Government, took a bond of N18 billion to build stadia and failed to do so.
He said the bond was not only for stadia projects, adding that the Aregbesola government that succeeded it stopped the stadia project and failed to recover the payment to contractors.
Adeoti said he would do proper background check on appointees in addition to enforcing due process in award of contracts.
He promised to set up a tripartite panel “to be made up of government officials, Labour leaders and workers” to superintend over disbursement of income.
All the candidates promised to end the perennial crisis in LAUTECH, with Omisore, who arrived almost at the tail end of the programme, saying he would take a decisive action so that the owner states would give firm commitments to funding the institution.
Oyetola, who promised to fix the Osogbo-Iwo Road immediately on assumption of office, warned against labeling indigenes of the state who live outside of it, saying: “They remain citizens of the state.”
On workers’ salary, Oyetola, Akinbade and Adeoti promised to clear the arrears and commence full payment.
They also spoke in the same way on primary healthcare, which they promised to lift.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
