“The dwindling value of Naira has negatively affected the actual value of the state fund including the less than 20 percent increment in federal allocation. The consequence is that what we earn today as a state is less in value compared to what obtained under the previous administration.”
Above was an excerpt of the speech delivered some days ago by Governor Ademola Adeleke, a state governor now notorious for barefaced lies and wilful misinformation.
In the same speech, the governor romanticized how his administration in 24 months released N22.6 billion to settle pension and gratuity, an amount he claimed represented 70% of what the “two previous administrations under a 12 year period” paid for the same purpose.
According to the governor, the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola committed N17.1 billion in its eight year stint, while that of Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola did N17.2 billion in four years of the administration, to make a total of N34.4 billion in twelve years.
While it is understandable that the governor has been under pressure to explain to the informed Osun public how his hopeless government has mismanaged N385 billion revenue that accrued to the state from January 2023 to September 2024 ( please note: this is different from the local government allocations which is also in the region of N250 billion which has been lousily appropriated by the state government), and of course may be tempted to justify the current perfidy, one would not have thought that the supposed head of a government would diminish his office by falsifying official record of the state.
For the record, the government of Oyetola paid far more than N17.2 billion Governor Adeleke said it paid for the entire four years. In fact, in the first two years of Oyetola (2019-2020), the government contributed N17.3 billion to settle pension and gratuity matters. This could be independently fact-checked on the official website of the Osun State Government. In 2020 alone, despite the grievous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economy, the Oyetola administration paid N9.2 billion for purpose of pension related matters.
It is important to note that notwithstanding the measly N30.6 billion federal allocation to Osun in 2020, the government of Oyetola paid N30.7 billion to address salary and pension issues. Specifically, N21.4 billion was devoted to settling salary and wages. Whereas the talkative government of Adeleke only paid N23.5 billion for the same purpose in 2023, despite the “dwindling value of Naira,” quoting the cliche of the governor.
On the strength of the puerile argument of Governor Adeleke that the value of Naira today has dwindled, therefore what the state earns today is less in value compared to what obtained under the previous administration, is it not correct to posit that the N17.3 billion paid by the Oyetola administration in 2019 and 2020 as pension and gratuity had more value than N22.6 billion the boastful government of today paid in two years?
It is disheartening that a government who believes that today’s naira has less value than what it was during the administration of Oyetola continues to pay N5,000 monthly pension to a great number of retirees under the Defined Pension Scheme ( old pension plan).
Rather than competing with his counterparts in other states who are providing decent and responsible leadership to the public workforce, Governor Adeleke is obsessed with the previous government which he and his mediocre handlers have consistently claimed were “voted out for their failure.” Is today’s government now competing with the “failed” previous government? Adeleke and his noise-making dregs should deliver themselves of the obvious clumsiness and cluelessness that have enveloped their regime. Adeleke should emulate the Ondo governor, who rather than devoting N38 billion for his office as Adeleke did in Osun in 21 months devoted N11 billion for the office of the governor and spent whooping N34 billion for pension and gratuity for the period under review just as he decently funded key sectors of the economy and provided free/subsidized transport services for senior citizens to ameliorate impacts of the economic challenge in the state.
Adeleke prioritizes spending N11 billion to purchase luxury cars for unproductive politicians over procuring CNG buses for mass transit as many states are doing. While other states are massively funding sports and youth affairs to create opportunities and employment for the teeming young folks, Adeleke prefers to starve universities of subventions. In UNILESHA, for instance, on account of lean support from the government, the management of the university have been forced to charge between N1.2 million and N1.5 million per session for courses such as law and nursing, making the university the most expensive public university in the country. Of the N4.3 billion budgeted for the Ministry of Youth Affairs in 2024, only miserable N353 million, representing 7% of the allocation, has been released thus far.
By all estimates, Osun has been lucky with revenue, particularly with the federal revenue which has recorded 100% rise in the last 12 months, as against the 20% lie told by the governor. The federation allocation in 2022 before Adeleke was inaugurated was N73 billion ( before deductions). Meawhile, as of end of third quarter of 2024 ( September), the state had already received N153 billion federal allocation, N50 billion surplus of the N99 billion projected for the whole year. Yet, the state governor claimed the increment in the federal allocation is less than 20%. Is 20% the increment from N73 billion to N153 billion?
Governor Adeleke must begin to resist the political demons who usually drive him to concoct avoidable and irresponsible lies. He curries shame to his exalted office each time he mongers lies without control.
