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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Osun Polls : Factors That May swing The Ballot (727 Views)
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Osun Polls : Factors That May swing The Ballot by unuane1(m): 10:13pm On Jul 28, 2014 |
As the August 9 Osun State governorship election draws near , it is believed that stakeholders in the state have resolved on which political party out of twenty parties expected to field candidates for the election to cast their votes for . Stakeholders in the state including students , public servants , pensioners , artisans , religious leaders, market men and women , teachers , groups and associations just to mention a few also appear to be directly or indirectly campaigning and canvassing for votes for the political of their choice from their relations , friends , co - workers , neighbours and family members. Going by the General Order ( GO ) guiding politicking , some of these stakeholders are people who ideally are supposed to be seen and not heard when it come to the issue of electioneering campaigns. However , political watchers in the state have noticed that public workers including teachers and pensioners have engaged in open campaign to influence people on the pattern of voting . The workers and their retired colleagues have consequently constituted themselves into pressure groups openly canvassing for votes for a particular party against the other. Some of them claimed that the welfare programme of the incumbent ruling party in the state , the All Progressives Congress ( APC) , is unacceptable to them especially in the area of the payment of salaries and allowances of workers . Some of them also claimed that they foresee a situation where the APC would after securing a second term may resort to sacking workers . However , the APC- led government has assured that it does not plan to retrench workers or trim its workforce. The state government said it will not sack nor do anything to trample on the welfare of workers . Investigations by Daily Independent reveal that the current administration is giving the issue of welfare of workers in the state high priority. For instance, on assumption of office before the delay in the release of statutory allocation from federation account set in, workers in the state were paid latest by 26 th or 27 th of every month. The incumbent administration is the first government since the creation of the state 23 years ago to pay workers in the state 13 th month salary as bonus. It will be recalled that barely a month after assuming the mantle of leadership of the state on November 27 , 2010 the administration of Rauf Aregbesola paid workers in the state 10 % of their basic salary as bonus to boost their morale . In December 2011 , the bonus was jerked up to 25 %, 50 % in 2012 and 100 % in 2013 respectively . This is aside other benefits the public workers enjoyed in the state . The current administration also involved the workers in the selection of who becomes the number one civil servant in the state by introducing voting in the selection. Under the new arrangement , civil servants on the grade level 12 and above participated in the election that brought the current Head of Service , Mr. Yinka Owoeye into office. It was further gathered that the State Government also introduced other incentives to motivate public workers . For instance, “Workers ’ Smart Card ”, which serves as identity card having all their biometric information of workers , was introduced . The card could also be used to collect salary advancement or borrow money up to 20 % of their salary before their salaries are paid at the end of the month. It however appears that some workers are not happy with the current administration ’s financial re - engineering which blocked all loop holes that had been previously exploited by workers to short - change the government . Now , all monies to be paid must first of all go into the coffers of the state government through payment in the bank and this financial re - engineering was said to have helped the government to save lot of money that normally pay to ghost workers and it help in enhancing IGR from N 300 million to over N 1 . 6 billion. Although the financial re - engineering enhanced the State ’s Internally Generated Revenue ( IGR ) and also augmented the statutory allocation from the federation account , some civil servants have begun what could be described as “campaign of calumny” against the state government . There are one or two cases to buttress this claim. In 2011 , when the state government decided to pay the WAEC fees of the Senior Secondary School ( SSS) students, the figure of the pupils was allegedly inflated by the Ministry of Education which cost the state government huge loss of money . But attempt to repeat the same feat in 2012 was blocked by the state government. In 2012 , when the same commitment was to be made , officials of the Ministry of Education put the number of the ( SSS) students at 47 , 000 pupils. However , after the finance Ministry paid the examination fees for 47 , 000 pupils directly to WAEC with instruction that the examination body should return the excess at the end of registration, it was discovered that about 9 , 000 ghost pupils were added to the students’ population . This would have cost the government N 5000 per each student added to the list . Again , when the state government announced its decision to give pupils in all public primary and secondary schools in the state free uniforms , a bill for 750 , 000 pupils was given to the state government by the same Ministry of Education . However, at the end of exercise , it was discovered that the actual figure of pupils in public schools is under 600 , 000 . This became open because the state government paid directly to the company that produced the uniform and the excess was return to the coffers of the state government . These two cases are enough reason to understand why some civil servants allegedly embark on campaign against particular political party in preference for another . Though , some of them were said to appreciate the current government on the on - going transformation programme in the state . For the pensioners , it was gathered that their grouse has more to do with the perceived delay in the payment of their pension , gratuity and others . Available data suggests that Osun State happens to be one of the states in the federation with high number of retired workers . The State Commissioner for Finance , Budget and Economic Planning, Dr . Wale Bolorunduro however lamented that shortfall in the state ’s monthly allocation from the federation account to cope with the financial commitment of the state saying Osun revenue suffered serious decline since June 2013 . The shortfall in the state ’ s monthly allocations is currently over 44 %. He said , “for instance, while the state received N 4 . 83 billion ( after mandatory deductions ) in May 2013 , only the net sum of N2 . 69 billion was received in January 2013 . This is at a time when the state ’ s salaries and pension bill has already increased to N3 . 69 billion. According to him , the state inherited 142 % pension arrears liabilities from the immediate past administration . At the inception of the current administration, the state ’ s liability on the 145 % pension arrears was about N4 billion. To date , our administration has paid up to N 1 . 2 billion from this . “ For avoidance of doubts, over 5 , 000 employees of the state joined the existing over 9 , 000 retirees in the state while the local government retirees schedule also increased by about 3 , 500 .” While assuring that the retirees in the state will continue to enjoy their monthly emoluments in form of pension , Bolorunduro noted that the current administration has consequently increased pension obligation from N 250 million in 2011 to N600 million monthly now to be able to cope with the surge . He however appealed to state ’s workers and retirees to bear with the state government saying that the financial challenges is not peculiar to Osun and that the state will deploy its strategic initiatives to cope with the cash crunch . These and other factors that some people considered as petty are reasons why some public workers and the retirees in the state have continue to tackle the current administration in its re - election bid . One is not saying that workers and retirees in the state does not have electoral value or that they should not have candidate of their choice in the time of election , the fact still remain that playing active politics and openly canvassing for votes for a particular candidate or political party is against their rules and general order of the civil service . Even if you , as civil servants , have preferred candidate , which is normal under the law and constitution , such preference must be exercise so strictly in a manner that it will not cause injurious to another candidate . Our freedom of choice must not be exercise in a manner it will cause disaffection within a system . Politicians are the same and civil servants must watch it that they may not become a punching bag after the election . Canvassing for votes must be left for politicians since everybody has free will to exercise his or her fundamental human rights and choice to vote for party or candidate of his or her choice . Our choice supposed to be on merit and performance if truly we all cherish advancement and hate being ordinarily refers to as civil service state whereas some people are exploiting this syndrome to amass ill- gotten wealth and affluence while majority could not find means of livelihood. http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/07/osun-polls-factors-may-swing-ballot/ |
Re: Osun Polls : Factors That May swing The Ballot by merieam16(f): 11:54pm On Jul 28, 2014 |
Vote wisely |
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