Pioneer Coordinator of the State Information Technology Development Centre (SITDEC), Ondo, Engr. Tunji Ariyomo, has lambasted Governor Olusegun Mimiko for “intending to force Ondo State residents to part with N2,000 before obtaining Residency Cards”.
A newspaper report had quoted Mimiko, as stating that “it is a no card, no access, plan” and that they intend barring those without cards (commonly known as “kaadi igbe ayo”) from any of the government’s heath care, economic and educational benefits.
Reacting, Ariyomo said, “We miss the point of leadership once we equate it with an unfettered opportunity to fleece rather than feed the masses.”
He stated that here was no record yet that the people of Ondo State had resisted or abandoned their statutory responsibilities in terms of payment of extant dues, taxes, levies or charges.
According to him, to impose further sanctions upon them in this austere period in form of a N2,000 “kaadi igbe ayo” (Residency Card) levy is the height of public administration’s recklessness and uncaring attitude.
A statement Ariyomo sent to DAILY POST on Wednesday said to make such payments a prerequisite for accessing public utilities and services was sheer wickedness.
Continuing he said, “information Technology is designed to make life more comfortable for the masses. It was never conceived as an instrument of terror as the government of Ondo State is now doing.
“Current technology in fact does not require you to own a card or carry one before critical data on a subject could be collated, preserved or accessed. Especially with advancements in biometric technologies; fingerprint minutiae and iris recognition technologies have been standardized.
“Their patterns become unique grids that could be activated for verification or processing purposes using machines at the point of use. This makes the need for the subject to own an expensive card superfluous, archaic and unnecessary.
“Our civil servants are in pain because they are now being regularly denied their monthly salaries. While it is an issue of commons sense that multiple cards being produced by federal and state governments for similar or adjunct purposes without synergy and proper integration only lead to duplication of expenditure, outright profligacy and unnecessary but clearly avoidable financial burdens.”
Ariyomo, who added that he restrained himself from joining the growing opposition voices to the leadership styles of the governor over the past years out of sheer respect for his person, further noted: “This present move to further pauperize the people of Ondo State and make them pay undeserved penalties for sins committed by strata of governments in Nigeria that refused to make provisions for raining day despite our recent unprecedented oil-boom is simply the height of it.”
“There are tonnes of incredible win-win options and opportunities for massively increasing the Internally Generated Revenues of Ondo State or any other state in Nigeria. These they have refused to explore. This fixation with punishing the masses as the only means of increasing revenue is unacceptable and condemnable,” he concluded.
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