Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun says the masses, who voted him into office, remain critical stakeholders in his administration.
The governor also said that he would continue to interact with the masses through civic engagements and other platforms for proper and effective spread of dividends of democracy in the state.
He made the remarks during an enlightenment programme, organised by the state’s Civic Engagement Centre for informal workers and farmers in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area of the state, on Wednesday.
Oyetola, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Civic Engagement, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, said that the civic engagement platform was an effective feedback mechanism for policy formulation.
He said that his frequent engagement with the masses was a way of placing the state on the path of best democratic standard.
Oyetola noted that his administration believed in a government whose affair was in tandem with democratic tenets and involvement of the masses.
The governor said that the civic engagement was a framework to engender participatory and inclusive governance through which popular feedbacks that would stimulate better policy outputs would be gotten.
“It is no gainsaying that since the inception of our administration, we have been placing absolute premium on the masses.
“All our policies and programmes in education, infrastructure, health, security and human capacity building, among others, are offshoot of people’s demands and yearnings.
“The life-changing policies and programmes made so far by this administration are not unconnected with series of assessments of people’s needs through the ‘thank you’ tours.
“It is also through review of the Department for International Development (DFID) citizens’ based assessment report and the ongoing civic engagement initiative taken to the doorstep of the people at the grassroots.
“As a government, we will continue to adopt a system theory approach in our policy formulation, which, in its cyclic form, will allow people to make input into the system and get better policy outputs that will have positive impacts on their lives,” he said.
In their separate remarks, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, Chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr Israel Famurewa and Director- General, Bureau of Social Services, Mr Richard Tinubu, commended the governor for his administration’s developmental strides.
They, however, appealed to residents of the state to continue to support the governor for the delivery of more dividends of democracy.
Some of the participants at the civic engagement, including artisans, farmers and community unions, also commended Oyetola for what they called his administration’s people-oriented policies and programmes in the state.
While reiterating their support for his administration, they, however, appealed to the governor to assist in the rehabilitation of some of bad roads in the area as well as in provision of soft loans and grants, among others. (NAN)
