Aregbesola: A ‘progressive’ governor’s many troubles

The political life of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of Osun State will not cease to amaze watchers as he continues to swim in controversy since his emergence as governor of the state. OLUSESAN LAOYE writes on his many troubles

Despite the bailout fund of N713. 7 billion for the states and local governments to pay back log of workers’ salaries and the initial efforts of the Osun State government to pay its workers one month salary, the situation in Osun State is still tensed over the issue of welfare.

When the federal government announced the bailout fund, it was envisaged that the angry workers of Osun State would soft pedal and take things lightly with the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, but that did not move the workers who have rebuffed the gesture of the state government to pay them one month out of the said nine months they were being owed.

The workers had earlier told the governor that they would not receive less than five months out of the nine months owed them. That was why the government as soon as President Muhammadu Buhari gave out the palliatives told the workers that their demands would be met based on the assurances received from the presidency.

But the agitations for the salaries of workers took a different dimension on Tuesday, when two factions of the Osun State civil service unions held different protests, which eventually ended in fiasco. While a group was pro-government another group was anti-government but at the end of the day, the protests resulted in a shoot-out and protesters, commuters and residents of Oshogbo the state capital where the rallies were held had to run for their lives. Although no lives were reported lost in the fracas, several people were said to be wounded.

The protests which observers and union leaders said was meant to be peaceful were alleged to have been disrupted by the APC thugs who were said to be the brain behind the shooting that disrupted the anti-Argbesola’s protests.  But the director of publicity and strategy of the APC, Barrister Kunle Oyatomi debunked the allegation that it was the APC thugs that disrupted the rallies, saying that the anti-government rally was the game plan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to discredit the government despite the fact that the government has started the process of paying workers salaries.

Also the rallies have brought in a new controversy into the issue of salary payment in the state which has even become politicized. The All Progressives Congress, APC, accused the PDP of being behind the protest by the anti-Aregbesola civil servant union. But the PDP denied it saying that it had no hand in it and that it was purely the affairs of the workers.

The crisis which the Osun State government is having over the workers’ salaries has been on for the past four months and it got to a critical stage in May when the workers began to castigate the government for not being sensitive to their plights. The situation was such that the civil servants became beggars as groups and individuals started making monetary donations to them for their welfare.

At this critical stage, the state became a dumping ground of relief materials for workers and that was when different organizations gave workers materials including food items to help cushion the hardship. Institutions like Dangote, Indomie, Christian Association of Nigeria, Winners Chapel, politicians and parliamentarians donated relief packages to Osun workers as their contributions to their welfare. This situation became an embarrassment to the state government and the governor had to come out to denounce the way the workers in the state painted the situation by declaring that Osun was not the only state owing workers salaries.

From the account of the PDP on why Aregbesola was owing workers salaries, Omisore had alleged that the state borrowed over N480 billion but the government of Aregbesola condemned the figure saying that the PDP led by Omisore wanted to use the issue of salary to get attention which he has been denied, since he lost the bid to rule the state.

PDP had claimed that the principal debt of the state government which led to its inability to pay workers salaries was N480billion, saying that he took N300 billion for 30 local governments in the state after he had also raised N60billion bond. The PDP further claimed that these loans excluded loans Aregbesola took for the O’meal, O’ school for the primary and secondary schools uniform projects, O’ Airport, O’ yes which is for the creation of jobs for both school leavers and graduates in the state.

Since the second term of Aregbesola, both the APC and the PDP have been on each other’s throat with accusations and counter-accusations between the two political parties. At a stage it was believed that what was going on in Osun State was not normal but a continuation of the political war in Ogun State.

This was why at the peak of the workers agitations for their pay both parties were trading blames. To douse the tension and to lend support to the Aregbesola’s government, the party had to come out to let the world know that all the allegations which it claimed were sponsored were not true. Instead of the government shedding light on the matter which political observers and citizens of the state described as chaotic, it was the party that came out to defend the government, a situation which was described as abnormal.

At the heat of the salary palaver the APC in Osun State, at a news conference explained the financial position of the state, right from the very day the government of Ogbeni Aregbesola took over the mantle of leadership in November 2010 and the controversy over whether the PDP government of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola left behind empty treasury for the then ACN government or not.

At the inception of Aregbesola’s government it was alleged that Oyinlola did not leave money in the treasury but the chief press secretary to Oyinlola, Mr. Lasisi Olagunju debunked the allegations. He said his boss apart from the liabilities left N7 billion in the coffers of the state government, which Aregbesola inherited and challenge those in the new ACN government to come out to controvert his statement.

While defending the government, over the recent salary crises, the state chairman of the APC, Prince Gboyega Famodun said that the federal allocation of the state government dropped by 80 percent. He pointed out that the allocation of the government in 2013 was N5.5 billion in February that year, but dropped to N466 million by April of 2015. According to him, when APC came on board, on November 2010, emolument of workers in the state was N1.4 billion while it stands at N3.6 billion presently. He stressed that this was caused by the increase in the minimum wage in 2012.

Prince Famodun further explained that from November 2010 to April 2014, the government of Osun spent, N120.4 billion on salaries and emolument out of the total allocation, including all sources from Abuja N177billion which stood at 60% within the same period. He said that the internally generated revenue raked in, stands at N27 billion while recurrent expenditure stood at N96.7 billion. In summary Famodun argued that the total monies from all sources was N205.3billion while salaries plus recurrent gulped N217.1 billion which gave the state a deficit of N11.8 billion.  He therefore revealed that the total salary owed was seven months which is to be multiplied by N3.6 billion.

Although it was argued that the explanations which the APC made to defend Aregbesola was not clear, the party chairman believed it was necessary in view of the stand taken by the PDP which on several occasions had called on Argbesola to resign if he could not fulfill his obligations of paying workers salaries.

Bodies like Civil Society Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State, Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice hav e condemned the state government over unpaid workers salaries. They said Aregbesola and his deputy Mrs. Grace Tomori have no justification to continue to stay in office.

^{One issue that is troubling Aregbesola is letter from Justice Oloyede Folahanmi and the complaints of the traders in the state that due to civil servants not being paid their income too has gone down and decided to join the civil societies and other groups in the protest against non-payment of workers’ salaries.}

^{Justice Oloyede had written a petition to the Osun State House of Assembly asking for the impeachment of Aregbesola and his Deputy, Mrs. Tomori. She submitted that both the governor and the deputy are no longer fit to administer the state for their inability to pay eight months salaries of workers, including her own as a judge of the state high court. The Judge’s petition shook the state and generated controversies within the government circles and outside it and the PDP catches on it to call for the removal of the APC government,}  

^{The state Assembly which ordered that the petition of Justice Oloyede be investigated is yet to come out with its report though it was leant that the Chief Judge of the state had issued a query to Justice Oloyede over the petition which she wrote.}   

^{Right now, Osun State is boiling over non-payment of the workers’ salaries despite the fact that hope has come with the bailout funds doled out by President Buhari. All the parties concerned are still throwing tantrums at the other. The director of publicity and strategy of the PDP, Prince Diran Odeyemi said Aregbesola is still not matured enough to govern the state and that if care was not taken, he will still misuse the intervention fund from the federal government and called for proper monitoring of the fund in Osun State.} 

^{Odeyemi said that the APC government in the state has all along been economical with the truth about the finances of the state, adding that people like Aregbesola should not be trusted with governance. On the various strikes of workers organized by groups against the government and the purported petition written by Justice Oloyede, Odeyemi said that the APC and the government were just chasing shadows because as a responsible political party that meant well for the people of the state, they have the right to comment on issues that concerns them as citizens of the state. He argued that the PDP has no hand in any of the protests, nor influenced the petition by the Judge calling for Argbesola’s impeachment, saying, that if the government had fulfilled its obligations to the people, there would be no need for all the crises in the state.}

^{But in his own reaction, the director of bureau of communications and strategy in the governor’s office, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, blasts the PDP and called them agent of destruction who can never see anything good in what people are doing. He said the PDP has been very blind to the progress of the APC’s government because Omisore who is their leader is still brooding over his defeat in the last governorship election, which he lost through the ballots and as well in the Judiciary up to the Supreme Court. He pointed out that the PDP was only using the issue of salary to gain attention.}

^{Meanwhile, Ogbeni Aregbesola is a man with many troubles. His emergence as the governor of the state after waiting for almost four years to assume the leadership of the state was turbulent. With almost a year to his reelection for a second term, he was also enmeshed in series of crisis centred on religion, education etc which nearly plunged the state into serious crisis and threatened his reelection.}

^{Aregbesola eventually got over these crises and the election but with about three more years to end his second term in office, time will tell if he would still have the muscles to overcome the challenges because he is one man whose actions always end up in controversies.}