The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Lasun Yusuf, on Monday shunned the summit organised to proffer solutions to the financial crisis rocking Osun State.

The Osun Legislators’ Forum, comprising of lawmakers from Abuja and the House, convened the summit with a view to solving the current financial crisis in the state.

Although the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori, and Senator Isiaka Adeleke also were not present at the summit, their absence did not raise questions like Lasun’s.

The summit was attended by Governor Rauf Aregbesola; former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola; a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal, Oluseyi Petinrin (retd.), monarchs and other prominent leaders in the state.

Lasun’s absence further fuelled speculations that the rift which his emergence as the deputy speaker caused between him and Aregbesola had not been settled.

Lasun, who represents Osogbo/ Olorunda/ Orolu Federal Constituency, had defied the position of the All Progressives Congress to contest the position of the deputy speaker and he won.

The APC Elders’ Forum in Osun State asked him to resign and advocated that he should be sanctioned, but the lawmaker rejected their calls.

One of the legislators, Alhaja Ayo Omidiran, had announced on Saturday that the lawmakers decided to come up with the idea in order to find solutions to the economic crisis confronting the state.

When asked why Lasun was not present at the Saturday press conference, Omidiran said the lawmaker was being expected to attend the summit.

At the event, the Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State, Mr. Jacob Adekomi, faulted the claim of Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration that the state monthly wage bill is N3.6bn. He also said that the number of the state’s workforce was not as huge as claimed by the state government.

Adekomi said this in his presentation at a stakeholders’ meeting, organised by the Osun Legislators’ Forum in Osogbo to proffer solutions to the problems confronting the state.

He said the union would not support any plan to sack workers, saying they were ready to submit themselves for staff audit to ascertain the actual number of workers.

He said, “Retrenchment of workers is not a solution to the problem of the state. We have always support the government and we will continue to support the government.

“Let the state government stop using consultants to do what civil servants can do. If at all the state government will use consultants it should be minimal and their commission should not exceed 10 per cent.

“Osun State wage bill is not up to N3.6bn that the government is claiming. Workers are not up to 35,000 which is the government’s figure. That was why we agreed to submit ourselves for screening to know how many we are. There are some persons on the state government’s pay roll who are not workers.”

The NLC chairman, who spoke in Yoruba, also advised the Osun State Government to withdraw from joint ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso.

He said that the state should leave the university for Oyo State and merge whatever assets got from it with the Osun State University. According to him, the state does not have the capacity to finance more than one university at the moment.

“Let Osun stop the joint ownership of LAUTECH with Oyo State. We should merge our part of the school with UNIOSUN. This will save the government the subventions spending on the university,” he said.

http://www.punchng.com/news/lasun-shuns-apc-lawmakers-summit-on-osun-financial-crisis-2/

Lalatisclala and other mods

MaY God save Osun from that barbarian called Aregbesola

with us all

The financial crunch in Ogun state is a classic example of financial recklessness and misplaced priorities.
A situation where a governor engages in socialist ventures instead of capitalist investment to boost internal revenue genaration will make one wonder how that gov intends to develop the state in the first place.