OSUN State Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration has been under attack for not paying workers’ salaries. The state is not alone in this financial quagmire. Rivers, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Cross River, Benue, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau and Zamfara are also in the same boat. For the helpless workers, the trauma is so much. They deserve praises for their perseverance. My sympathy. They seem to understand that Ogbeni Rauf has not diverted state funds into his pocket; it is the crash in allocation from the federal purse that has shattered the state’s finances, making it difficult for it to meet its obligations.
If the workers are showing understanding, not so some politicians and writers. I read one article at the weekend in which the writer said Osun State earned N868b in allocations in four years. In other words, by the writer’s weird calculation, the state was making N15.7b monthly. It never did. Facts, as they say, are sacred; comments are free. Journalism respects facts; we journalists should.
Aregbesola explained it all when he told the state’s lawmakers: “The contrasting state of our allocation from the federation account is highlighted by the peak of our allocation of N5b we received in February 2013 against the N466m we just received in April.”
What the debtor – states are passing through, awful as it is, will soon pass. May God give our leaders the wisdom to find a solution to this national shame.
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