By Abiodun KOMOLAFE

A ‘nomics’ has been added to the buzzword of economic policies and Nigerians should be glad  it is   coming from their part of the planet, especially, at a time the world  is  grappling with  the depravity of politics and the captivity of politicians.
In a paper presented at a Colloquium to mark his six years in office as governor of the State of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola reiterated his administration’s  commitment to  laying a solid foundation for the state in every area such that tampering with  its progress  in  the  future would be difficult, if not impossible. While describing “rising expenditure, especially wage bill, within the contrast of falling revenue” as the  biggest challenge  facing  his  government, Aregbesola promised that his administration would do all within its powers to ensure that no one was left behind in the distribution of  the  dividends of democracy  to the  good  people  of  Osun. “We are grappling with the challenge of finance and we are doing all within our power to complete all the projects we started. We are not going to leave any project uncompleted”, the governor stated.
Democracy hath no fury than a people abandoned! So, what is Raufnomics? In my considered opinion, the  promoter  has  given  a clue:    it is about “getting as much from little and using the resources of the state to maximally benefit the people”.  It is about “strategic planning and intervention in society; making governance mass-based and people-centric”; and  “guaranteeing the maximum good for the maximum number of people.”
With a special reference to Osun,  Raufnomics has proved to be a popular solution  to   the  state’s socio-economic problems created as a result of years of Nigeria’s  sole  dependence on proceeds from crude oil. It has helped sustain the state even as it continues to encourage innovative  interventions within the framework of the administration’s Six Point Integral Action Plan in such a way as to help put the economy of the state back on track.
In addition to some of this administration’s laudable achievements which  have  already  been  captured in Aregbesola’s speech at the event, the establishment of Osun Job Centre, designed principally  to serve as an interface between  job seekers and employers of labour;  the  procurement of no fewer than 125 Patrol Vans, 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) and one helicopter which has  helped   in drastically reducing incidences of crime in the state;   and  the creation and successful take-off of 61 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), 3 Area Offices and 2 Administrative Offices from the former 31 Local Government Areas  are also some of the ways this government  has positively affected the rule of the game.
A strong advocate of regional integration, he was a major force in the establishment of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, an institutional and programmed body saddled with the responsibility of midwifing the regional integration agenda of the Southwest states.  And, with  the creation of Osun Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, I doubt if any misguided pupil or student will ever attempt to task the tolerance of the good people of Osun or insult their collective intelligence again.
Aregbesola’s  approval of the immediate commencement of a unified Public Service in the  state  is worth mentioning here. Apart from  repositioning  “the State Public Service for efficient and effective service delivery at all levels of governance”, the step is also aimed at removing “all restrictions to  seamless movement of personnel from one spectrum of the Public Service to the other”. Needless to repeat that  it  is  in a bid  to  ensure transparency in the state’s financial dealings that this man recently inaugurated the Hassan Sunmonu-led  committee on allocation of revenues to oversee allocation of state’s revenue to prompt payment of salaries as well as adequate running of government.
The price of fame, it is often said, goes beyond brooding or bargaining around the frustration of some mischievous parallelisms! But when will Nigeria’s vine overcome the antics of  her “foxes, the little foxes” and who will raise the hands of her Moses as an assurance of permanent victory? Coming closer home, if we have an avatar at the helm of affairs in Osun, how come the state is such in dire straits that it now seems as if delayed salaries have come to stay with us?
Assuming without conceding that we are in this pass because of  the level of our debt and its management,  as a result of  which  dear  state  has allegedly  become slave  to  Irrevocable Payment Standing Orders (IPSOs) and other debt recovery instruments, how do we situate the fate of richer and resource-endowed states like Ondo and Bayelsa which are also behind schedule in terms of salary obligations to their workers?
Well, the tragedy of  our  Nigerianness  is that we deceive ourselves a lot and that has been our greatest undoing! Here, we play politics like an interest-driven game,  unrepentantly   notorious for its art of the impossible and personal manipulations. That  is  why, despite  efforts by this dogged fighter at positively impacting lives   through his “numerous programmes, policies and schemes”, there still exists some unrefined, less-informed  detractors who derisively “consider it fit and proper to constitute themselves into an opposition of the government of the day, however well-meaning and good-intentioned.” Because  of the  way  they  are fated,  they  always allow their personal and selfish desire for certain specialities to run wild thereby straying away from unprejudiced realities.
They lust for what they do not have and that which is of no use to them and, despite the fact that they do not get that which they do not have and that which they neither need nor deserve, they delude themselves with it to spoil that which they are supposed to have but unfortunately they do not have.

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Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State