Date Published: 09/14/09

Oni slams AC over criticism of his investment trip to South Africa, Brazil

Segun Oni

Ekiti State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni has berated leaders of the opposition Action Congress (AC) for criticing his recent 10-day investment trip to South Africa and Brazil, saying “the AC and its busy-body leaders do not have any moral justification to criticize our government on issues bordering on governance, having themselves failed to impact positively on the lives of their members with the billions of naira that they have made so far from their governorship venture.”

Reacting through his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, Governor Oni described the AC comments on the trip as expected, adding that it was only a party of retrogressive elements like the AC that would describe a trip that bordered on the economic development of the State as ‘’globe-trotting’’.

His words; “It was not a surprise to us as a government that the busy-bodies and jobless elements that have seized the soul of the AC reacted to the investment trip to South Africa and Brazil the way they did. They couldn’t have reacted otherwise because they have been so blinded by their governorship misadventure that they can never see anything good in whatever the Oni-led administration does.

“That a group of attention-seeking and redundant characters would open their filthy mouths and link the governor’s trip to the non-payment of workers’ salaries has further exposed the emptiness and wickedness in their minds and this is shameful.

“Like we said before, we do not need any advice from the bereaved minds in the AC as to how to govern Ekiti State. After all, they never saw anything good in the 201 kilometres of roads already completed by this government and the over 500 kilometres that are ongoing.

“The fact is that if the newly constructed 1,039 classrooms and the 1,045 renovated ones, 27,440 units of school furniture, resuscitated Ikun Dairy Farm, Ekiti Kete Mass Transit Company, Fountain Motel, new deputy governor’s office, secretariat, House of Assembly Complex, nine Government House Chalets being constructed and others buildings under construction, the 11,150 eye glasses distributed free to eye patients, 1,808 people operated upon free of charge and over N2 billion paid to pensioners owed since 1994 when Ekiti State was not even created do not make any meaning to the double-faced political contractors in the AC, how can an investment trip that is capable of making Ekiti one of the leading producers and suppliers of Biofuel and Ethanol in the world make meaning?

“For the avoidance of doubt, the benefits of this trip are enormous. The trip enabled us to straighten all rough edges concerning the Biofuel and Ethanol projects and the coast is now clear for the involvement of our State in the Biofuel and Ethanol business, which are one of the emerging determinants of the world economy.

“Apart from the project making Ekiti one of the leading producers and suppliers of Biofuel and Ethanol in the world, it will also transform the industrial landscape of the State as well as generate employment, stimulate agriculture and empower the indigenes.”

Describing the linkage of the trip with the non-payment of workers’ salaries for the month of August as mischievous, the governor said; “Ours is a responsible government that will not deliberately do anything that can inflict pains on the people; especially those who sweat daily to see to the implementation of our policies and programmes.

“This explains why we prioritised the prompts payment of salaries of our workers. It is a fact that before now, salaries were paid on or before the 22 nd of the month and we are sure that soonest, the present delay in payment caused by the global economic recession will be over.

“Perhaps, if they had done one quarter of what we have done while in government, the State would have been able to sustained itself economically without having to rely on allocation from Abuja to pay workers’ salaries.”