The decision of the Osun state House of Assembly to bar journalists from covering its first of its kind bi-lateral talks for the 2017 budget has been generating reactions. The state legislative arm had placed a ban on journalists from covering its on-going bi-lateral talk with revenue generating agencies of the state government. Thus singular action is raising suspicion, distrust and questions on the lips of many citizens of Osun state that saw the action as a ploy to cover up some salient truth about the state finances.
The legislative reporters in the Assembly early in the morning reported for duty following announcement that a bilateral talk would be held with some revenue-generating agencies in the state between Monday and Friday to draw a roadmap for the implementation of the budget but were denied entrance into the venue of the talk without any explanation.
Only the state-owned media house, the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), was allowed to cover the proceeding.
However, a source, who was part of the proceeding on the condition of anonymity informed journalists that the reason for disallowing the media coverage of the proceeding was to prevent the leakage of information on the lawmakers’ confrontation with the executive over poor performance in revenue generation drive.
This, the source said, was borne out of the fear of the legislature for the rage of the governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola if their reaction gets to the public.
Inquiry by TimeNewsNg reveals that during budget defence, the Assembly had registered its displeasure over the poor performance of the executive and reported in the media, the situations that infuriated the governor and threatened to deal with the Assembly members.
This, it was gathered had created fear of the unknown in the Assembly members, a situation that propelled them to be finding ways of managing the development.
It was in the course of managing the situation that the Assembly, after the defence of the budget, designed the “Bilateral Talk” on the budget, which was held for the first time by the parliament.
In his reaction, the Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, said the session was held to allow government officials brief the Assembly properly on how to ensure effective implementation of the budget.
He said, if the media was present, the government officials in charge of revenue generation might not be able to give appropriate information on revenue drive.
He denied any rancour between the executive and the legislature on the budget Stating that the bilateral session should have been held In the parliamentary but for space reasons had to take place on the floor of the house.
“What we normally do is that any parliamentary session held, I as the house committee chairman on information am saddled with the responsibility to brief the press afterwards, so there is nothing to hide in this aspect. Bilateral session is actually to help the government, lend our voice and experience to these agencies to help them see how they can generate more revenue for the government. After these talks we are still going back to the floor to do policy thrust on whatever we have arrived at, we cannot just pass the budget like that, we have to do a thorough job on the agencies of government to do a great job as the legislative arm of Government “He said.
“what we discovered is that some of these government agencies did not do a thorough job,so as the legislative arm of government and to ensure that the right thing is done we selected the agencies of government saddled with the role of generating revenue for government like OSBC which falls under my own purview to help them discuss and fashion out ways to improve revenue generation to make the 2017 budget realistic. And that bus why the Accountant General is present and the chief of staff is also prevent at the bilateral session. There is no rancor between the executive and the legislative arm of government, Now the journalists are free to cover the session. I have spoken with the committee and the press is allowed to cover the talks now. It is an open talk, no secret involved, all the Lawmakers are doing is just for the benefit of the state. “Hon Oyintiloye explained.
