Weaponization Of Poverty In Osun Politics, Where Aged Pensioners Collect Emoluments In Futuristic Bonds (Video)
The Oasis Reporters
March 17, 2022
To understand the background story in this write up, first watch this video here, in which the governor of Osun state in Nigeria’s South West, Alhaji
Adegboyega Oyetola is strenuously defending the philosophy of paying civil servants in his home state, half salaries or graduated salaries.
Throwback to when Oyetola defended half salary. There is no how you are going to write about the history of half salary in Nigeria civil service system that you won't mention Oyetola. A terrible manager. pic.twitter.com/K8jm7pEtps
— Premier (@SodiqTade) March 15, 2022
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola was Chief of Staff to the former governor, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, who many agree remains the face of the worst incompetence in governance ever in Nigeria’s history.
Photo : Thewillnigeria
Before Aregbesola left office, strenuous efforts were made to install Alhaji Tinubu’s nephew, Adegboyega Oyetola as successor. At the poll, Oyetola’s votes simply did not add up, therefore confusion of thuggery, intimidation, cancellation of opposition party PDP votes in some areas were introduced and deployed, including forcing a second ballot, all meant to railroad the preferred successor into office.
APC Candidate, Oyetola is now mouthing miracles of ‘Bond’ expectations for Pensioners.
But the election Petitions Tribunal disagreed and ruled against them. The opposition also won at the Court of Appeal. Things however turned at the Supreme Court which gave victory to Oyetola based on a judicial technicality four years ago.
Let’s look at the legacy that Rauf Aregbesola left that made him vastly unpopular.
He owed workers “30 months half salary, which cumulatively makes it 15 months full salary. Oyetola, his successor, promised to pay it during the campaign that was characterized by bribing starving voters with bags of rice. But Oyetola has not only refused to pay the outstanding wages, he is not even talking about it anymore”, an Osun resident in Osogbo, the state capital, told The Oasis Reporters on the phone yesterday.
Another resident, Ade Komolafe, a retired teacher, equally told The Oasis Reporters that during Aregbesola’s second term election, he bribed voters with rice and made promises to pay back wages.
He got back to power and reneged.
Osun state governor, Adegboyega Oyetola seems to have copiously borrowed from the Election rules book of Rauf Aregbesola. The governor faces reelection in July 2022, and suddenly, he reiterates commitment to workers’ welfare, and has approved immediate release of Nine Hundred and Twenty-Seven Million Naira (N927,000,000) for the payment of pensions of retirees in the State.
Of the N927m, the sum of N877m will be used for the settlement of bonds of retired primary school teachers, local government workers and retired civil servants who are under the Contributory Pension Scheme. The remaining N50m was approved for payment of retirees under the old pension scheme.
However, what The Oasis Reporters gathered from pensioners in Osogbo, Ile-Ife and Iwo is that what Oyetola has been “announcing as payment is not the case really as what they get is BOND and until it matures, they can’t receive any money”.
And another thing is that, some pensioners say Oyetola is deploying politics in the payment of pensions. “Like a group, Triangular Pensioners are majorly APC people and they get more attention. I know of a woman who retired in 2020 and has not received a dime either as gratuity or pension”, Bello Mustapha told us from the State Capital.
In other words, retirees who are either Septuagenarians, octogenarians etc, have to accept Bonds as investment pay. Imagine an old man or woman who needs immediate cash for food, medications or money to pay for the patching of leaking roofs, but must compulsorily accept Bonds as payment that may mature in decades to come.
… The Head of Service of the state, Dr. Festus Oyebade, made this disclosure in a statement issued on Wednesday in Osogbo, the State capital.
According to him, the names of the retired workers selected on merit has been posted on the Notice Boards of the Local Government Pensions Bureau, Civil Service Pensions Bureau, Ministry of Information and the Office of the Head of Service.
The HoS reiterated the government’s commitment to the welfare and general well-being of citizens, particularly workers in the State. “Governor Adegboyega Oyetola will always prioritise the welfare of workers in Osun,” he added.
Whoever wants to understand the nexus between governance dysfunctionality, poverty and politics, the best case study is in Osun State. Consider that at the time Rauf Aregbesola was governor, Peter Obi was also governor in Anambra, a State that was emerging from the throes of destruction wrought upon it by the excessive gambits of a well connected and angry godfather.
With basically the same federal financial allocations to Osun, Oyo and Anambra, while Aregbesola and Ajimobi drove their states into unmitigated poverty, debt and inability to pay salaries, Peter Obi delivered Infrastructure, owed no workers, pensioners nor contractors and still left huge credit balances of 100 million naira, millions in dollars and a full chest of interest yielding investments for the prosperity of state and homeland.
