The Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists (NGIJ) has released a preliminary findings on its recently concluded Governance Assessment of Gov. Gboyega Oyetola’s administration in Osun.
NGIJ’s National Secretary, Mr AbdulRahman Aliagan who disclosed this on Tuesday, said the preliminary report contained majorly the Data Analysis of questionnaires administered during the one-week long exercise from June 12 to 19.
Aliagan, who led the team to Osun, said the assessment was anchored on Key Informant Interviews, KII, Focus Group Discussions with critical stakeholders, informal interactions with residents and administration of questionnaires to gauge opinion of the people about the Oyetola-led administration in the state.
According to him, the guild administered 10,000 questionnaires in all the thirty local government areas of the state to assess people’s opinion about the impact of the governor’s administration on the people.
“The questionnaires used for the opinion poll were categorised into two parts with 11 closed ended questions giving respondents opportunity to pick any of five available answers i.e 1. Strongly agree, 2. Agree, 3. Strongly disagree, 4. Disagree and 5. Don’t know.
“The second part contained three open ended questions on policies, programmes and achievements of the APC led administration in the state.
“No fewer than 9332 residents returned the questionnaire representing 93.32 per cent for the analysis. Therefore, 9332 respondents filled the opinion poll and their responses were used to assess the impact of the administration from 2018 till date.
He said Osun residents rated the governor high in health, education, infrastructural development and staff welfare with over 50 per cent of total respondents ticking strongly agree and agree in questions relating to aforementioned sectors.
“In health, 4750 respondents representing 50.9 per cent of total respondents strongly agree that Oyetola’s administration has greatly improved healthcare delivery while 2500 respondents ticked agree.
“This shows that residents are feeling the impact of the upgrade of 332 primary healthcare centres across the state, construction of 120 bed wards at the State Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro and implementation of Statewide Health Insurance Scheme.
“Under the education sector, 3008 out of 9332 respondents representing 32.2 percent filled agree while 2920 strongly agreed that the current administration has introduced policies to improve the education sector”.
He noted that though, 21 per cent of the respondents feel Oyetola led administration has not done enough in education sector while 1450 respondents simply ticked ‘I don’t know’.
“This finding seems to tally with the view of the Chairman, Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State owned Tertiary institutions (CASUOSTI), Comrade Bidemi Adeboye.
Adeboye had told the guild that the governor was resolving the mountain of challenges inherited from his predecessor ranging from payment of half salary, embargo on promotion and injurious implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme.
He added that the state owned tertiary institutions had not embark on strike since the inception of Oyetola’s administration.
“The President of the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), Comrade Yusuf Agboola, also corroborated Adeboye’s view in an interview with NGIJ members of stabilizing the education sector and reintroducing bursary payment.
“The APC led administration also got thumbs up in infrastructural development with 56.8 per cent of respondents ticking strongly agree and agree while 39.6 percent feel the current administration has not done enough in areas of infrastructural development”.
On staff welfare, Aliagan said 64 per cent of respondents believed the administration had been sensitive to welfare of civil servants and Pensioners through steady payment of full Salaries and pensions.
“Meanwhile, the respondents rated the current administration low in the area of Sports development with 42 per cent that strongly disagree/disagree on government paying attention to the sector”.
He said that responses on whether the APC led administration by Gov. Gboyega Oyetola deserves a second term revealed that majority support his reelection as
“No fewer than 5793 out 9332 representing 62 per cent of total respondents affirmed that he deserves a second term, 2966 respondents strongly agree while 2827 ticked agree.
” A total of 2709 respondents were not in support of the APC administration reelection. 830 did not take a stand on this issue”.
On the key policies that have improved citizens’ wellbeing, he said some of the respondents could not list up to five policies introduced by the governor.
He said the full report of NGIJ Governance Assessment in Osun and Kwara States would be unveiled before the end of 2022 third quarter.
The guild had also previously embarked on similar assessment tours to Kogi in 2018, Bayelsa in 2019, Ondo in 2019, Kwara May, 2022 and Osun, June 2022.
The guild’s Governance Assessment Tour is a yearly programme by the association to assess the performance of the government in power for purposes of accountability.