Perhaps, no State in Nigeria is worst hit by the decline in oil revenue than Osun state. When the oil price plummeted, our economy came to ruins and all the bragging by the former government that our economy was strong, was exposed as barefaced lies. Now many States including the Federal government are finding it difficult to meet their salary obligations.

It is so easy to blame the decline in oil revenue as the reason for the hard times, but truth be told our leaders are lavish in their spending. Every wise man should know that no matter how long the rains last, drought will come someday. Our leaders did not prepare enough for the lean days. The lean days did not take us by surprise, it only met us unprepared. The drastic drop in oil price has been long foretold when the US found shale oil but our leaders gave no ear to the warnings. Now, workers are the paying for government’s profligacy and lack of vision, the worst hit being Osun State where workers are owed over 6 months arrears.

I feel pity especially for Osun workers because I am an ardent supporter of the radical Governor of the State of Osun. After the shocking defeat APC suffered in the hands of Ayo Fayose, I quickly penned an article titled “before they capture Osun”, which was meant to call security agencies who intimidated voters in that election to order. I hear that now, some workers who voted for him are regretting their decision. I still believe that Osun people made the right choice by reelecting Ogbeni, and now is the time for him to turn the present challenges into opportunities for the greatness of his people.

Looking at the revenue shared by the three tiers of government for the months of March and April, one could easily notice the sharp decline. In March, FAAC shared 567 billion naira but in April, 436 billion was shared; a whopping 131 billion naira short of the previous month.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola made the following revelation during the inauguration of the new State House of Assembly. “The summary of five years reveal that in the two months of 2010, we received a net allocation of N4.2 billion and paid a total emoluments of N3.6 billion. This left us with a net gain of N573 million from our statutory allocation. In 2011 also, we got N29.9 billion net statutory allocation and spent N25.8 billion on emoluments with a net gain of N4 billion. However, in 2012, we got N28.4 billion and expended N31.6 billion on emoluments. This left us, for the first time, with a deficit of N3.2 billion. The following year, 2013, our statutory allocation had dropped to N26.4 billion while our emoluments rose to N36.9 billion. This gave us a whopping N10.4 billion deficit. In 2014, our statutory allocation fell further to N19.3 billion and by which time we were already defaulting on some of our obligations on emoluments, which had also dropped to N22.4 billion, but still left us with a deficit of N3 billion. In summary, between November 2010 and December 2014, we got a total statutory allocation of N108.3 billion and our expenditure on emoluments was N120.4 billion. It left us with a total deficit of N12 billion”.

It is time to stop giving excuses. States must look inward and strive for self-sufficiency through increasing their internally generated revenue and exploiting their natural resources. Wastages and profligacy must be stopped; workers cannot go hungry while their leaders fly in private jets. Prudence and financial conservatism must replace the culture of ‘spend it all’, which has seen our country down on its knees without any savings to help us absorb the shock. The begging cap should be replaced with the thinking cap and as a progressive thinker, Rauf Aregbesola should rise to the challenge.

In the interim, the new government should extend a bail out of some sort for States like Osun where life has become unbearable for civil servants.

Honest Offor is a Public affairs Analyst.
@honest4change

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