Ondo Finances: When Politics becomes a Blindfold

By Comrade Olabode Akinwale

IN A LAYMAN’S terms, a blindfold is a strip of cloth or material tied around the head to cover the eyes and prevent sight.

A blindfold could also be used to intentionally restrict a person’s view.

However, when politics becomes the blindfold, views becomes jaundiced, commentary is disoriented and simple interrogation changed to discombobulation.

Ondo State as a state known for its high number of educated citizenry frowns at half baked or poorly educated indigenes who refuses to get more education or seek new knowledge.

Education and knowledge are essential ingredients in either passing or receiving information.

While education is how you learn and grow mentally, socially and practically, knowledge is information that has been understood, organized and can be applied.

But recently, some bloggers and opinion writers on social media have been displaying acts of crass illiteracy and outright mischief in matters that relates to Ondo State Government, its finances and the Honourable Commissioner for Finance.

When questions such as “what comes into Ondo State each month, how are these funds allocated and what tangible outcomes justify the spendings” arises from seemingly educated minds, one wonders what kind of education students are getting in schools these days?

A well educated secondary school leavers should be able to give answers to all the above questions by simply going online and Google – search for information that concerns Ondo State Government.

For the purpose of education and information of those who are financial and accounting illiterates and who are asking questions about the financial inflow and outflow of Ondo State Government, please, know that the state government have annually published Accounts by the office of the Accountant General (AG) of the state, which is supervised by the Commissioner for Finance and further vetted, passed and approved by the State’s Auditor General (ADG).

Once completed, the report for each year will be published under such tittle as: “Report of the Accountant General with the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st December, 2024.”

The last Financial Statements was published in June, 2025.

This means that the Financial Consolidated Account Statement for year 2025 will be published in June, 2026!

These Publications are not hidden from the members of the public because everything can be downloaded from the internet without much ado.

However, for some bellyaching writers to descend so low as to be asking the state government through the finance commissioner to be explaining how much was spent on brooms, parkers, petrol, diesel, etc to the delight of the Press instead of interrogating the system to know if government jumped a year without producing or publishing the state’s financial account statement is not only foolhardy but also disingenuous.

To argue their points successfully on the state of the finance of Ondo State, what the writer (s) should have done is to speak with facts and figures instead of operating at the realm of conjectures in order to heat up the polity, which only reveals the pathetic and sorry state of minds of the writer (s) and their sponsors.

The plans of naysayers to plunge the Sunshine State into political comatose will surely fail because item by item, head by head and contract by contract, the Annual Financial Account Statements (AFAS) clearly provide information in succinct manner that is comprehensible to even secondary school students who genuinely want to seek knowledge.

Furthermore, aside from figures, each year’s AFAS contains pictures and images that speak to the activities and projects that were executed and commissioned vis a vis budget appropriation.

The Budget is another source of inflow and outflow in governance.

Yearly, the government through the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, collate, vet, defend and present to the State’s House of Assembly income and expenditure proposals of all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which when scrutinized and approved goes to the Governor for final authorization.

The State’s Budget too is in the public domain. Any interested party can go online for any information relating to it anytime.

In fact, there is no where in the world where a state’s finance commissioner will sit in front of Press cameras to be itemizing the a, b, c and z of a state’s daily, monthly or yearly financial transaction details.

The statutory duties of a state’s Commissioner for Finance does not include dancing to the whims and camprices of the Press in matters of transparency in governance.

The Honourable Commissioner for Finance – Mrs Ómówumi Isaac is accountable to his appointor and the citizens of Ondo State.

Addressing the Press by a government appointee is only helpful when government bureaucracy is seen as an hindrance to free flow of information.

But with the internet and the Freedom of Information Bill (FIB), all the activities of government are in the open.

Journalism has graduated from being just “feeding bottle” journalism to investigative journalism. Any writer today that is not blindfolded by politics, hatred or vendetta can easily access almost anything about the government of the day, including yearly financial statements online.

The Commissioner for Finance in Ondo State is facing much persecution and vilification because of her blunt refusal to play along with some political vultures within and outside the government.

The vultures wanted the Finance Commissioner to continue with business as usual by joining hands with the plunders to bleed the state to death!

The refusal of Mrs Ómówumi Isaac to agree with their “See and Share” the money mentality is at the root of her many troubles.

The citizens of Ondo State must never stopped to appreciate Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for head hunting Mrs Ómówumi Isaac as the State’s Finance Commissioner.

Today, civil servants in Ondo State are not owed a Kobo in salary.

Salaries are paid on or before the last working day of the month.

Contractors are on site and are being paid as appropriate.

Thousands of school teachers and health workers are daily being recruited.

Few days ago, the state government through the Ministry of Finance paid out N2.4 billion to offset gratuities for retired workers again.

Also, recently government spendings have increased in the area of security.

Reconnaissance Drones to monitor the forests are in the offing.

More Amótékun Corps have been recruited and properly kitted.

In year 2025, Ondo State was rated first nationally in Debt Repayment Index by the Debt Management Office (DMO).

What this means is that the government of Hon (Dr) Lucky Aiyedatiwa through prudent and provident management by the office of the Honourable Commissioner for Finance, has taken Ondo State from the list of Debtor States in Nigeria!

It must be noted however that the huge debts painstakingly off-loaded by the government of Aiyedatiwa were incured by other administrations.

The blind can see and the deaf can hear about all what the government of Ondo State is spending money on and anyone still in doubt or in a state of conundrum about the openess and transparency of the Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s government especially with regards to the finances should first remove the blindfolds on their faces and approach the state’s Accountant General for clarification or better still seek knowledge via the Internet.

Comrade Olabode Akinwale is a concerned Ondo State citizen and writes from Akure, Ondo State