Commissioner for Home Affairs, Culture and Tourism in the state of Osun, Hon. Sikiru Ayedun in this interview with Dapo Salami spoke on the victory of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and his achievement in the area of tourism in the state of Osun. Excerpts…

How do you see the victory of Ogbeni in the previously  concluded election?

The victory of Ogbeni in the election is just the manifestation of the greatness of God and the support of the people because the opposition party did everything to stop the wish of the people but God did not allow them.

The expectation of the people will be high this time around. How prepared are you for the task ahead?

We are very prepared because it’s not just because we want to be in government that we are there and that informed our four years achievement because we have to do something that people will see and point to leaving a lasting legacy, a total transformation that will stay for a very long period of time.

As the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Culture and Tourism, what have you done to improve the state of Osun?

We have done a lot if we begin to mention it, we have done a lot in the area of rebranding of traditional festivals like Osun-Oshogbo, Olojo, Ojude, Ogbon and some other festivals and also we did something we can call face-lift of some of our historical and heritage sites like Osun groove, Oranmiyan, Oduduwa groove and Olumirin water fall and we are also doing a lot to give exposure to some of our other cultural festivals. So, we have done a lot when we are talking about transformation; the area of tourism and culture in the state of Osun in the last four years.

Records have it that state of Osun received the second least from the federation account. What is the government doing in the area of agitation for an upgrade?

We are doing a lot because when we came into the government, the internal generated revenue for the state was about N300million but today we have moved to 1.6 billion naira and how did we do it? We just made sure that all the leakages were blocked and this has also helped us to develop the state in the area of education and social development.

How have you been able to cope with various developmental policies and programmes with paucity of fund?

With a visionary leader like Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and the kind of trust that a lot of organizations and companies have in him while he was commissioner for works in Lagos, this is already assisting us in Osun because any transformation we are talking about in Lagos is part of it and during that time, he never failed them; that is why you see a lot of people coming into the state to come and work for us. Also, everybody know his own responsibility and everybody is using the contact that we all have to bring about development programmes that we have in the state of Osun despite the fact that we have minimal assistance of fund.

The school food programme has received a nationwide acceptance; how have you been able to sustain this at a minimal cost?

Well, in as much as you have a good mission and vision for the people, there will always be a way out. The O-meal programme is a programme in collaboration with the state government and the local government and in that case, the local government is the one in charge of the primary schools contribution to the state with a good supervision of good hands; that is why they can accept it and we know that with good feeding in system, the mental alertness of our children will be okay and we achieved this through the cooperation of the local government.

The previously concluded election; APC lost in Ile-Ife and you are from Ile-Ife. What is the hope of APC in Ile-Ife come 2015?

I just want you to know that a lot of issues came in during the last election which I believe is over militarization of the election where opposition has been intimidated. Also, there are some other factors like indigenous factors and also the fact that most of the key players from other parties are also from that axis. The national secretary of the party is from there and the gubernatorial candidate is from there also. So all this helped in the result of the election but this will not be there again because the coming election is among the indigenes and it’s going to be a local election, so there is no way all this intimidation and the rest can be put in place. So let us put that one aside; if not for the intimidation, they cannot win the election

Any political ambition?

We’ll talk about that one later.