Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun said he took a loan of N7bn to pay workers’ May salaries. According to his narrative, that would not have happened if he had listened to negative advice from a senior government official.
Abiodun said: “30th day of May was our first day in office. And on the 31st, it dawned on me that it was the end of the month and we need to pay salaries…So, I called the Head of Service; I told him we must pay salary. But he said to me, ‘You are new in government and everybody understands that you just assumed office and we don’t have that expectation of you paying salaries now. They (workers) will understand. There is very little or no money. We can talk to them.’ I told the Head of Service, whether they (the workers) were expectant or not, it was my promise to the people that salaries would be paid as and when due.”
He added: ”So, I picked my phone and called my friends who are MDs in different banks. I told them I needed to pay salaries and this is the little I have; almost nothing in the state account. I requested a credit facility to allow me to pay over N7bn which is the state wage bill. That day, my intention was that maybe one or two will oblige me, but the five banks I called obliged me.”
Questions: Why was there “almost nothing” in the treasury after the exit of the immediate past governor, Ibikunle Amosun? Would Amosun have been able to pay the May salaries without taking a loan, if he were still in office? Did Amosun deliberately deplete the treasury to create difficulties for his successor?
Abiodun said: “I cannot begin to describe in the open to you the Ogun State that we inherited… I will not because I have made up my mind that publicly and privately, I will not discuss anything about the past administration.”
But the public deserves to know because it is about public funds. The governor’s job involves determining the extent of possible bad governance by the previous government. Good governance implies exposing past bad governance.
It is noteworthy that Governor Abiodun had paid an unscheduled visit to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), a state-run hospital in Sagamu, Ogun State, following an investigative report published in The Nation on June 9 titled “OOUTH Sagamu: A Teaching Hospital in a mess.”
“The place is substandard,” he had observed. “This hospital is in a depressing state.” The hospital’s deterioration reflected neglect by the Amosun administration.
Those who had governed without a sense of good governance deserve full exposure.
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