Osun Commissioner nominees: You are unfair to women, group tells Gov Adeleke

By Richard Akintade, Osogbo

A group, known as The Osun Masterminds, on Monday, described the selection of Commissioners in Osun State by Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke as being unfair for not having enough women in the list.

According to the group’s Executive Director, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, during its monthly press conference in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, “we have keenly followed the discussions that followed the release of names of Commissioner nominees. These discussions have centred around the gender inclusion, geographical considerations, and competence.

” But we note with great disappointment that the Osun State Government, under Senator Adeleke, has not been fair to the Women population in our dear State as we first noted this lopsidedness when the House of Assembly was inaugurated in June. All twenty-six members of the House are surprisingly men in a state where women have been known to play important roles in the political and governance process.

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“A cursory look up the higher echelons of government and one will be tempted to ask whether the Adeleke government has an agenda against the women of our dear State. From Governor to Deputy Governor to Secretary to the State Government and to the Chief of Staff, none is female.

To further deepen our fears about the Adeleke government’s wrong handling of the gender inclusion topic, only two women made a list of twenty-five Commissioner nominees in an urbane state like ours. This translates to many steps backwards in the country’s pursuit of a gender-balanced public service.

“We are deeply troubled that the government of Sen. Adeleke has postured itself as an anti-female government. Are the prestigious women of our dear State not qualified to be in positions of governance? Are they just good as political cheerleaders, to dance and sing at rallies? This government must do better to reassure the female population in Osun State and the global community, that it does not hate women and will give them prominent roles to play in government. ”

The Osun Masterminds during the briefing also argued the issue of the purchase of 332 Generating Sets to power Boreholes in the state by the state government.

The group said, “When the news broke that the Adeleke government was going to construct boreholes in the three hundred and thirty-two wards of the State, we cautioned that it was an ill-advised project. Several weeks after the purported completion of the project, we again raised concerns that the boreholes were not functional in all of the wards that we physically visited.

” In a swift response to the concerns we raised, the Spokesperson to the Governor made series of releases to the effect that there were power challenges to the full implementation of the boreholes and that the State Government was working on permanent solutions to the problems.

“The permanent solution that the Spokesperson talked about is clearly the purchase of 332 generating sets that the State Government recently distributed to all the wards. This action would give any right-thinking development to advocate some feelings of disappointment. In this age when proactive governments globally are seeking cleaner sources of energy, our State Government is pushing 332 more generators into the state to power boreholes that could have been solar-powered.

“Recall also, that the Spokesperson to the Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, while reacting to allegations from some quarters that each unit of the boreholes were awarded at a whooping cost of 14 million, stated that the true cost of each unit of the boreholes would be revealed at Ipade Imole which would hold at the end of the month of July. We still await those details and Ipade Imole as promised, though belated, ” they concluded.