PDP VOWS TO SCRAP OYES, O'MEAL, OTHER APC SOCIAL PROTECTION POLICIES

If the campaign promises of the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke, is anything to go by, most of the social protection programmes introduced by the Rauf Aregbesola Administration targeted at reducing poverty level in the state may be scrapped if elected governor of Osun.

Adeleke was reported to have said at a campaign rally in Ede that social programmes like Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), Osun Elementary Schools Feeding and Health Programme (O’Meal) and Osun Ambulance Service (O’Ambulance) would be dumped the first week after he is sworn-in as the substantive governor of the state.

“One of the very first tasks I will perform after swearing-in is to scrap OYES, O’meal and other so-called social protection programmes of Aregbesola. They are money-wasting programmes.”

“If government is feeding their children, soon, the government may be asked to provide wives for them”, Adeleke said.

Reports however had it that the people of the state have also vowed to resist the PDP government, saying they won’t vote for PDP so that the state will not be put in auto-reverse.

Majority of those whose wards are members of the OYES Corps and parents whose children are benefitting from the school feeding programme have been sensitising residents of the state to resist the PDP because the party lacks people-oriented and masses-friendly policies and programmes.

The programmes, brainchild of the Aregbesola-led administration, have been landmark Social Protection schemes aimed at engaging the youth and providing nourishing nutrients for the growth and development of the primary school children in the state.

Two of the said programmes, O’YES and O’Meal, had been adopted and introduced by the Federal Government in 35 other states of the federation.

Besides, World Bank also adopted O’Yes and used it as a template to introduce YESSO to the entire country.
But Senator Adeleke described the programmes as money-wasting and so would be stopped altogether by his administration.

 The scheme, a two-year revolving empowerment facility has so far produced three consecutive tranches of participants, comprising twenty-thousand (20,000) each.

The last tranche, which is the fourth in the lifetime of the incumbent administration and is expected to be transferred to the incoming administration, was just commissioned last Saturday.