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By James Bamgbose
Moments ago, I read a piece written by one Adebayo Adedeji titled “Adeleke, Half Salary Deception and Pensioners’ Used-and-dumped Narrative”. I must respectfully address the inaccuracies in his claims which necessitated this more comprehensive perspective.
Firstly, it’s important to first inform Bayo that Ogun and Kwara do not have the debt profile that Governor Adeleke inherited from the Oyetola administration, and so, comparing their approaches becomes illogical when considering the unique circumstances and challenges each state faces.
Despite the debt that Oyetola and his party left in office, Governor Adeleke has been trying his best to ensure that the welfare of the workers is guaranteed in line with his campaign promise.
Governor Adeleke’s commitment to the welfare of workers is evident in his efforts to provide more than the #10,000 for 3 months, as recommended by Bayo, in this challenging period. Governor Adeleke is desirous of something more lasting, and this explains his careful approach in coming up with something sustainable.
To show this, the State Government have drafted and will soon be rolling out some of its plans which includes mass rolling out of bus to convey the worker as well as rationing work days for the workers among other measures.
Regarding the issue of half salary mentioned by Bayo Adedeji, it is unfortunate that this discussion is happening due to the lack of action during the previous administration led by Oyetola.
We shouldn’t have been having this discussion of “half-salary” if Oyetola had done the needful during his administration since he had wise counsel like Adebayo Adedeji to tell him the right thing to do during his administration.
Unfortunately, nothing of such was done during the last administration. I will like to tell Bayo Adedeji that the payment of half-salary arrears left by the Gboyega Oyetola’s administration also includes the pensioners who were workers during the period of the “modulated salary” as Mr. Gboyega Oyetola called it. This payment is not in any way related to the subsidy palliatives.
Governor Adeleke should be commended for his action, as it shows that he is a man of his word. In January, he rolled out a plan to clear up the mess left by the previous APC administration in the state and frontally addressed the 30 months unpaid arrears that resulted in a decrease in the productivity level of workers across the state.
Let’s also address Adebayo’s lie about the Contributory Pensioners. The Chairman of Osun State Contributory Pensioners is Mr. Gbenga Oyadare, not Olusola Abiodun Awodele as quoted. Furthermore, the Osun State pensioners had a series of protests on the payment during Oyetola’s administration, puncturing the lies of Adebayo’s lies that they had it any better. Pictures and videos of senior citizens protesting the poor attitude of Oyetola to their welfares can easily be assessed on the internet and various newspaper pages.
According to Oyadare during the 22 February 2021 Pensioner’s Protest, he stated that the then governor, Gboyega Oyetola, only paid 46 pensioners out of the 4,000 affected people.
For emphasis, he said: “Out of about 4, 000 pensioners from primary schools, the government paid only 46 last week. We insisted that they should start paying our half-salary arrears. They started in December but only one half is paid off till now. They owed us 29 months’ salary arrears during the days of (Rauf) Aregbesola, they paid us half salary for 36 months so it remains 29 months to complete the payment. This is for contributory pensioners.”
In another statement, the Spokesman of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) South West, Olusegun Abatan stated during their November 24 2022 release that there has not been improvement in the payment of pension and gratuity to the pensioners in Osun State.
He said that “The leading state government that is owing their pensioners huge arrears of pension and gratuity is Osun State. It is owing N145 billion. They are in court as I speak. The whole thing started a long time ago and it was compounded when (Rauf) Aregbesola was the governor of that state. And since Aregbesola left, there has not been an improvement in the payment of pension and gratuity to the pensioners in Osun State.”
It’s unwise to mock those who were unfairly treated by the previous administration and claim that 1.1 billion naira was paid to them monthly. If Oyetola paid 1.1 billion naira monthly until he left office, how come our pensioners’ arrears and gratuity amount to N145 billion? How come there were a series of protests demanding their right as pensioners under Oyetola?
James Bamgbose writes from Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government, Osun State.
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