
The Osun State chapter of the Allied Peoples Movement has criticised Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration over what it described as a poor Value Added Tax performance.
In a statement signed by the state chairman of the party, Adewale Adebayo, and obtained in Osogbo on Sunday, the APM claimed Osun recorded the lowest VAT revenue in the South-West in the first quarter of 2025.
Citing data released by StatiSense, the APM expressed concern about the state’s fiscal underperformance under Adeleke’s leadership.
“The report revealed that Osun State generated ₦5.95 billion in VAT revenue, the lowest among South-West states, despite receiving a higher allocation of ₦21.23 billion compared to Ekiti State’s ₦19.63 billion.
Other states, such as Lagos, generated a whopping ₦819.62 billion and received ₦138.53 billion. The disparity between what Osun contributes and what it receives is not only alarming but underscores a chronic lack of productivity and innovation in economic governance by Adeleke’s government”, the statement read in part.
The party added that smaller states with limited commercial activities outperformed Osun in VAT generation, calling the development a sign of “fiscal laziness.
“We urge the PDP-led administration to wake up from its economic slumber and stimulate local productivity by supporting SMEs, modernising agriculture, and improving the ease of doing business”, it added.
As part of its recommendations, the APM demanded an internal audit of all revenue-generating activities by the state government to identify gaps, leakages, and underperformance. It also called for the development of a VAT Growth Strategy Plan to ensure Osun becomes a net contributor rather than merely a recipient of federal allocations.
Reacting to the APM’s criticism, the spokesperson for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Oladele Bamiji, dismissed the claims as laughable. He said the APM’s decision to compare Osun with Lagos and Ogun in VAT generation revealed its ulterior motives.
Bamiji also accused the APM of deliberately ignoring what he called the fiscal mismanagement under the All Progressives Congress, which governed Osun for 12 years.
“Governor Adeleke inherited a near-collapsed economy in 2022, overburdened with debt, unpaid entitlements, abandoned public infrastructure, and a demotivated local enterprise ecosystem.
“Despite this, under Governor Adeleke’s leadership, the Osun economy is on a steady rebound. The administration’s policy focus on stimulating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), empowering artisans and farmers, promoting digital entrepreneurship, and revitalising agriculture has begun yielding measurable outcomes, gradually reflected in VAT returns and more evidently in the state’s rising Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”, Bamiji said.
Bamiji argued that it was “intellectually dishonest and economically illiterate” to expect a state with a limited industrial base to outperform other states in VAT generation within two years of reform.
“Lagos, a former capital city with the headquarters of multinationals and a GDP rivalling many African nations, cannot reasonably be used as a benchmark for Osun,” he said.
While acknowledging public interest in government performance metrics, the PDP urged citizens to interrogate such criticisms using facts and logic rather than what it described as “political bitterness masquerading as economic commentary.”
“Governor Adeleke’s infrastructural rollout, aggressive ease-of-doing-business reforms, and strategic investment in the creative, tech, and agribusiness sectors are the foundation of Osun’s future VAT growth. We are building not just for the moment, but for sustainable progress.
“To APM and its political handlers, your attempt to fish in dry waters with false equivalences and attention-seeking rants will not distract this administration from its clear economic agenda. Osun is rising again, and no amount of noise from political spectators can stop this renaissance”, Bamiji added.