AN ADDRESS BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE APC, STATE
OF OSUN, PRINCE ADEGBOYEGA FAMODUN ON THE
STATE OF AFFAIRS IN OSUN
Gentlemen of the press,
You are welcome. We have called this meeting to
intimate you of developments in our state and correct certain misconceptions on the state of
affairs.
On Sunday June 14, one of the leaders of
opposition in this state called a meeting of his
associates at the party’s secretariat in Osogbo. The
declared purpose of the meeting was to strategize and reposition their party for future elections
having been defeated in the governorship election
of last year and their woeful performance in the
general election of this year in Osun and the
country as a whole.
On getting to the meeting, however, the participants were told to brace up and make the
state ungovernable; that the only way they could
make any impression in future elections would be
to make the state ungovernable by capitalising on
the delay in payment of salaries by the state
government. Their plan, starting from today, is unleash mayhem
and cause disorder and anarchy.
The law enforcement agencies have read the riot
act to them and we believe they are prepared to
meet force with force if it comes to that.
We should make it abundantly clear that opposition is an integral part of the democratic system. We
were once in opposition and we believe that
constructive engagement by the opposition is
needed for a good democratic system and so we
support a live and let’s live accommodating
multiparty political system. However, we should draw a fine line between the
overbearing, unreasonable and even nuisance
value of opposition on one hand from subversion,
criminality and treason on the other. The
lawlessness of the past that was the hallmark of
PDP, that almost brought the country on its knees, has no place in the new Nigeria that birthed on May
29 with the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari of
the All Progressives Congress (APC) as president.
Let no one be in doubt, our party came to power in
Osun through popular election and we will use
popular support to defend our mandate.We are determined to legitimately protect our mandate,
protect our members and safeguard the safety of all
citizens in the state.
The delay in payment of salaries to workers in the
state is unfortunate and most regrettable. The
workers are our people. They are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends
and relation. They are part of the people who freely
gave us the mandate to govern and more
importantly, they are also part of the people of the
state over whom we govern and to whom we have
responsibility – for their welfare and protection. What concerns them therefore concerns us and will
stand with them, fight for them and go to any
length to find solution to the current problem of
delay in paying their salaries. We are comforted that
Governor Rauf Aregbesola has promised to pay
them by the end of the month. By the grace of God, he will not fail.
However, the circumstances that led to the delay in
salaries are not the making of the state
government. Our government has a track record of
taking care of its workers and would have averted
this ugly development, if it could do so. Don’t forget that for four consecutive years since December
2010, the government has paid 13th month salary
to workers and has upwardly reviewed monthly
pension from N200 million to N520 million. It has
upgraded housing and car loans to workers and
resuscitated overseas training to the senior cadre. On top of this, as far back as 2011, salaries were
paid on or before the 25thof every month before
this present crisis. It is on record that the
Aregbesola’s administration for the first time
standardised the payment of pension with the
introduction of the biometric electronic record system through which pension drops in the
accounts of retirees without stress at the end of
every month, a feat which no previous
administration could perform.
While we make no bones on the state
government’s responsibility to pay its workers, the blame lays squarely at the feet of the last PDP led
federal government that presided over evisceration
of the economy in the last 16 years and actually
accelerated the pace of the disaster that hold the
nation’s economy by the throes for the past six
years. When disaster struck in July 2013 when allocation
to the states dropped by 40 per cent, our own
Governor Aregbesola was the lone voice in the
wilderness that alerted the nation to this disaster
then (Refer Sunday Vanguard Feb 16, 2014). Now,
allocation has dropped by nearly 80 per cent. For instance, at the peak of statutory allocation to Osun,
the state got N5.5 billion in February 2013 but this
has dropped to N466 million by April 2015.
On the other hand, while salaries and emoluments
was N1.4 billion when we came in November 2010,
it stands today at N3.6 billion, following the increase in minimum wage in 2012.
We were told by the Goodluck Jonathan led PDP
administration in 2013 that the stealing of 400,000
barrels of crude oil daily (in the full glare of law
enforcement agencies) was responsible for the fall
in allocation. That was before the crash in the price of oil almost a year later.
However, the former governor of Central Bank of
Nigeria, now the Emir of Kano got into trouble and
was unceremoniously removed from office when
he alleged that $20 billion oil money was not
remitted into the Federation Account by the NNPC. That is roughly equivalent to N4 trillion. A forensic
audit carried out by Price Waterhouse Cooper later
confirmed this allegation, although attempts were
made to cover it up.
It has also been recently revealed that the Auditor
General of the Federation issued an audit query to the NNPC over unremitted N2.3 trillion. This
allegation was supported by another former
governor of the CBN, Prof Charles Soludo. Again,
another fraud perpetrated by the Jonathan
administration has been uncovered. This involves
the sales of oil production licence which was sold for $1.4 billion out of which only $100 million was
remitted into the Federation Account.
Secondly, while the former Minister of Finance
claimed that the total Excess Crude Revenue from
2011 to 2014 was N2.92 trillion, independent
investigation and record put the true amount at $92.7 billion (N18.5 trillion).It is this litany of frauds
and financial malfeasance by that administration
that is responsible for the precipitous drop in the
distributable pool of the federation account and
which subsequently affected allocation to states,
before the crash in oil price compounded the situation. This is why 23 states, at the last count, has
been unable to pay salaries. It is not an Osun
problem and those who are fixated on Osun or
Aregbesola alone are living in denial.
The insinuation is being made that the government
has been profligate in its spending, and this was responsible for the present cash crunch. This is
unfounded and unsupported by the facts on
ground. First, as I said earlier, our wage bill shot up
from N1.4 billion in a month to N3.6 billion, so in
four year, between Nov 2010 and April 2014, we
have spent N120.4 billion on salaries and emoluments out of the total allocation (including all
sources) from Abuja of N177.5 billion (68%).
Within the same period, our IGR efforts raked in
N27.8 billion while our recurrent expenditure
stood at N96.7 billion. In summary, our total money
from all sources was N205.3 billion while salaries plus recurrent gulped N217.1 million. This gives us
a deficit of N11.8 billion. Therefore, without capital
projects, paying salaries plus our recurrent
expenditure alone are at a deficit. This puts a lie to
the insinuation that it was capital projects that put
the government into trouble. But still, we were criticised for embarking on
human development and welfare programmes
instead of concentrating on paying workers
salaries alone. This is asinine. When we campaigned
for election, we promised the people a six point
integral action plan. This is our covenant with the people and we must deliver on it.
It is our commitment to our social contract with the
people that drove us to construct roads, build
schools, provide free meals for pupils, provide
Opon Imo, deflood the state, take care of the
vulnerable groups like senior citizens, disabled persons and the destitute and engage the youths in
public works.
On the question of helicopter, the opposition
recently gave an unsolicited advice to the state
government, asking it to sell its surveillance
helicopter. It was an uninformed call. You will all recall the spate of armed banditry in the state prior
to our coming. At the time, inter-state bandits roved
freely as they seize the wealthy and especially
financial institutions by the jugular, making banks
to close abruptly and remain shut for business for
days. People sleep with one eye open. At our coming, the state government put many
security measures in place, including the purchase
of armoured personnel carriers (APC) and aerial
surveillance helicopter in 2013. The helicopter cost
N500 million and it was paid for in five instalments.
With these measures in place, you now know the difference.
However, the helicopter was practically disabled by
the federal government itself. Before the
surveillance machine was bought, the governor
built a state-of-the-art Call Centre that will operate
with a special security code. The FG-controlled NCC refused till today to provide the special code for the
helicopter to be linked with ground equipment for
surveillance. Thus the surveillance helicopter was
effectively disabled.
The chopper was however put on lease and it is
making money for the state and only recalled for use as the need arises. It is one of the sound
financial decisions made by the government.
We cannot but marvel at the ignorance and mischief
of those calling for the sale of the helicopter and the
quality of the thinking of those asking government
to dispose of an instrument being used for the security of the citizens.
On the cargo airport; it is one of the brilliant ideas of
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola intended primarily fancy
stuff. There is no airport like it in Nigeria, and when
completed, it would be the 4th of its kind in the
African Continent. The other countries where cargo airport with a Hanger for repairing and maintaining
planes exists are Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa.
But what many people deliberately live in denial of
(in spite of repeated explanations by the governor)
is that the airport project is being done in
partnership with the Nigerian Air force. Only small minds and short-sighted people would condemn
such a project because if it were useless to Nigeria
and the state, the FG would not have allowed the
Air force to participate in it.
While we hold the workers in the highest esteem
and recognise as sacrosanct the government’s obligation to pay their salaries, they are not the
reason of state, the people are. Workers are the
sharp instrument of the government for exercising
its mandate to govern and not the object of state
worship.
At any rate, workers constitute less than one per cent of the population; how can we then spend
more than 90 per cent of state resources on them?
We owe workers to seek their welfare, but we
equally owe the larger society on whose mandate
we govern the same obligation. We must strike the
right balance, but it is also necessary that we all have the right perspective of these things.
We congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for
the cool, calm and collected manner he has steered
the ship of state and we are confident he will lead
us to safe harbour even as we navigate turbulent
seas where the former captain had left the ship. We appeal to him also to strongly consider a bailout for
state affected. After all, if banks can be bailed with
more than N4 trillion, it makes good sense to bail
out states whose impact are felt by millions of the
people directly and indirectly.
We also appeal to all residents and business concerns in the state to go about their lawful duties
calmly, without fear. The security agencies have
given solemn assurances that threat from
whichever section will be contained and decisively
quashed.
I thank you for your time.