OSUN POLL: Aregbesola dares Omisore to come for a debate

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has challenged the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, to a public debate ahead of the August 9 governorship election. Aregbesola said this in Osogbo on Monday at the inauguration of Ayegbaju International Modern Market. Speaking extempore in Yoruba language at the inauguration, the governor, who is seeking re-election said that his administration had achieved far more than what the PDP government did in over seven years in office. According to him, the quality of the roads being built by his administration is not comparable to the “poor quality jobs” the past PDP administration did while in office. Aregbesola said, “Call them, let us debate on what we have to offer to the people. It can be for one hour or more. Ask them to come and let us debate. “They are free to choose whether to be the first to talk or to be the last. I don’t care about that but let them come and let us talk.” But Omisore’s reaction could not be got as at the time of filing this report. A text message sent to Omisore’s media aide, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, was yet to be responded to as at the time of filing this report. The governor said that the state was in crisis for the 90 months the PDP spent in office but stated that his administration had succeeded in restoring peace to Osun State. He urged the people to shun warmongers just as he advised the people against entrusting the state in the hands of people he described as clueless. The governor said in his speech that the market cost the sum of N 2.3bn. He said that the problem of poverty was due to people’s inability to trade. Aregbesola noted that most trading and commercial activities in Nigeria were “disjointed, disconnected and disarticulated,” stressing that people could trade their ways out of poverty into wealth and prosperity. He said, “If only we can do this, Nigeria has no business being poor. We have for far too long remained a country of potential wealth. We need to get our acts together, hang together, and begin to get truly wealthy. “With a population of well over 167m our prospects for wealth creation is simply stupendous. Let us take a look around us, even our small state of Osun is home to a few million people who all require one or two goods or services, from one-day-old babies to fully grown adults. Even the dead have needs that must be met.”