Scarcity of funds, which compels states without oil to discover other sources of revenue, has driven Osun to tourism as its major platform for internally generated revenue (IGR).
This was disclosed by the state’s Information and Strategy Commissioner, Sunday Akere, who spoke to Senior Correspondent, GODDIE OFOSE, in Osogbo.
Concentrating development in Osogbo
The developmental activities we carry out are not only in Osogbo, what we are doing is to develop Osogbo, being the state capital. Whoever is coming to Osun for the first time comes to the capital.
Osogbo in past years looked more or less like a local government headquarters; it did not look like a state capital until we started the urban renewal programme, which is taking place in Osogbo, Ila, Ikirun, Ikire, Ede, Ife, Ilesa, and others.
We have completed 21 inner roads in Osogbo, 15 in Ilesa. We have completed 14 in Ede, and done the same in Ife, Ikirun, and Ila. We have commissioned several road projects in all these places, so it is not only Osogbo we are developing.
How blueprint was formulated
What gave us the strength and confidence is that as a government we have been able to deliver on our promises. The Rauf Aregbesola-led government has a development programme and blueprint, which it prepared before it even came into office. That is what is being used to develop Osun State.
The civilian governors we had in the past did not prepare for the position, for which they were hand-picked by their godfathers. So, instead of serving the people, they served their godfathers.
But the current governor, who had served as Lagos State commissioner for works and infrastructure, brought together eminent Osun personalities from all walks of life for a three-day retreat.
The outcome of the retreat is what Aregbesola is using as the manifesto we call a six-point agenda; which, simply, is to banish hunger, banish poverty, banish unemployment, to provide free education and health care services.
We made sure these were tested and experienced in the 47 months of the administration in the state.
Tourism marketing in Osun
The intention of this government is to make tourism one of the highest revenue generating sectors. We have identified about 23 tourism centres in the state. The government has taken over the ones that are controversial and developing them.
If 10,000 tourists come to Osun every year and each spends close to $2,000 that is a lot of money. The people in the hospitality business would benefit, food vendors would benefit, traders would benefit, likewise transporters. Commercial activities would be boosted generally.
Tourism is an area in which this government is respected. The government of Aregbesola is committing so much into it and putting everything in place to make the state conducive for tourists.
Ogbeni has said he will spend his second term to continue to build a new Osun. Hopefully, by next year the state would have completed the international airport that would give visitors direct access to the state, wherever they come from. The construction is going on.
Expectation from tourism marketing conference
The expectation of the governor from your coming here is that we believe that your presence will showcase our achievements for public awareness. Many people would get to know through your report and experiences what is here in Osun.
I give you an example. Last year, a lady came to the state and was taken round. The lady said she had never before seen a place like this in her life and that the next time she was coming she would bring her husband, children, and entire household to see what she saw.
‘State of Osun’ as a concept
A lot of things begin in Osun. Osun is number one in Nigeria. It is the only state where the governor bears the title, Mister (Mr); that is, Ogbeni in Yoruba. Osun is the only state in Nigeria where the governor is not referred to as ‘his excellency’.
We believe that only God is excellent, we believe that if you are going for an exam, you don’t judge yourself, you are judged after you might have passed. It is when you have accessed your score in the exam you would know whether you are excellent or not.
The tendency in Nigeria is that the moment every politician occupies a position he becomes an ‘excellency’, when he has not even done anything. Osun is the only place where everybody is equal. Osun is the only place where the governor will not blow siren while driving; he queues up like anybody else in traffic.
We call ourselves ‘the State of Osun’ because the Constitution says there are 36 states and lists them from A to Z. The Constitution never says Abia State, Osun State, Oyo State; it says Abia, Osun, Oyo, up to Zamfara.
It is in Nigeria you have people saying Osun State or Oyo State. In the United States, what you have is State of Maryland, State of Oklahoma, state of this state or state of that. Go to Brazil, go to Malaysia, India, Germany, everywhere in the world.
In 2012, there was a conference attended by Cross River and some other states from different countries in the world. It was only on the table of Cross River State that you had ‘Cross River State’ written, others were written as ‘state of this’ or ‘state of that’.
Osun as trailblazer
They say we are changing the uniform of students, that we are doing this, we are doing that. They say we are wearing a single school uniform; but it is not here alone.
During the era of Obafemi Awolowo all local schools were local authority schools, and all pupils wore the same school uniform because the schools were owed by the government.
Since the government took over schools over 40 years ago, everybody has been doing whatever they like. The military that bastardised the whole system, and somebody must rise to change it for the better.
When we start anything here in Osun some people will shout. When we started ‘the State of Osun’, we launched our flag; and when we launched our anthem and logo everybody was shouting that we wanted to segregate.
Osun is an enclave; we have six states surrounding us. Are we going to lift ourselves from that position and put ourselves somewhere else? When Bayelsa did their own nobody said anything.
When Aregbesola promised that if given the opportunity he would employ 20,000 youths and we did it through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O’YES), the World Bank came here, studied us, and said this is the first time such a thing would happen anywhere in the world.
The federal government came here to study our scheme, and that is what it is using as standard for its Sure P. Everybody comes here to study our school feeding system. UNESCO came to study us. We are indeed starting a revolution here in Osun.
