A group of workers, under the aegis of Osun Workers Union (OWU), have come hard on the state governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, for paying lip service to their welfare by failing to fulfil his electioneering social contract of paying as and when due deserving emoluments to workers and pensioners in the state.
According to them, despite the huge revenue that has accrued to the state in the last 16 months, the Ademola Adeleke-led government has failed to prioritize their welfare, a development that has made life more strenuous for the workers.
The union, in a press statement signed on Thursday by its organising secretary, Comrade Gabriel Adeoye, said it is unfathomable that as at press time on April 11, workers and pensioners in the employment of the Osun State Government have not received their palliative wage for the month of March.
“This is despite humongous and record breaking revenue that has come the way of the state since November 2022 when this administration was inaugurated,” Adeoye explained.
“Since the creation of the state, no administration has been so lucky like the current government in terms of federal allocation, Internally Generated Revenue and other financial supports from the federal government.
” In 16 months alone, Osun State has received over N200bn from the federal allocation account. The state has also received close to N50bn in IGR since November 2022. If you sum these receipts with palliative support of N13bn from the Federal Government, N7bn aid/grant, N14bn LAUTECH refund/SURE-P/Ecology refund/etc, we will arrive at about N300bn.
So why should any Osun citizen go hungry despite this extremely large revenue?”
The union equally expressed its dismay on slow pace in payment of the half-salary owed by the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, stating that the governor should emulate his Abia state counterpart, Alex Otti who cleared within 11 months in office all the pension arrears owed 12,500 retirees in the state.
“Governor Adeleke should disclose to the people of the state the number of workers and pensioners on the government’s payroll, given the fact that 20,000 O’YES Corps volunteers have since been sacked by the current administration; how much his government has paid thus far in offsetting half-salary and other arrears,” the union secretary seeking clarification on the Osun wage bill which is said to have become a subject of secrecy since the coming of Adeleke.
