In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, the lawmaker representing Boripe/Ifelodun/Odo-Otin federal constituency of Osun State, Mr. Yinka Ajayi, speaks about political issues in the state, among other issues
As the immediate past chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aid, Loan and Debt Management, what is your take on the allegations of mismanagement of public funds levelled against the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola?
The situation we find ourselves in Osun State is rather unfortunate because with the best of intention, planning and mechanisms that the governor has in place, we find ourselves in this situation. This is not peculiar to Osun. It happened across the federation – the country is feeling the pain, so Osun is not an exception.
In 2010, when we took over in Osun, the allocation for pensions was N150m. The governor, against all odds, increased it to N600m, which was like a quadruple. The pensioners were very happy and they celebrated him but today they are protesting against him. When we got in, the wage bill was less than N2bn. In 2012, it shot up to over N3bn. We increased our Internally Generated Revenue by the same amount by a billion. So, we increased our wage bill of less than N2bn to a wage bill of between N3.6bn and N3.4bn. But what is our federal allocation?
At the peak, we got N4.4bn, the highest ever that has come to Osun. So, our highest leftover after paying salaries was N1bn. The government set up a sinking fund and we had an excess of N10bn for the so-called rainy day. The government paid salaries on the 24th or 25th of every month since Aregbesola took over until July 2013 when the centre could no longer hold.
Then we started dipping our hands in the sinking funds, the money we kept for the rainy day. Now, we are back to zero. We don’t have a dime kept for any emergency in Osun. We have taken loans of over N12bn to pay salaries. But when we were doing all of these, it was ok. But all of a sudden, the federal allocation dropped and we are getting less than N2bn and you have to borrow to pay salaries. How do you continue projects if you don’t restructure and the civil service remains the same? We used to pay 13th month salary. We paid in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. We paid for four years which was unprecedented. Does that kind of government suddenly become wicked during an election year?
But there are allegations bordering on wasteful expenditure. Some say that Osun should not have invested money on a helicopter.
I will take that issue in isolation but I am sure maybe in the course of the interview, we are going to address it in a more holistic manner. How much does a helicopter cost? It will not pay one month’s salary in Osun, so is that mismanagement? But yes, you can argue that you take it as one aspect of management and then you can list 10, 15, 20 other items like that it can add up. You will not be able to cite two, three, four examples of issues that we call absolute and direct mismanagement.
The helicopter was bought for the security of the state, it was not a helicopter bought for the movement of the government officials. That is a fact.
The Federal Government, under the previous administration, stifled that initiative. The government of Osun applied because we needed a code from the National Communication Commission to be able to create the kind of service that the helicopter was meant for. We got good indications before going to purchase the equipment, but unfortunately politics reared its head.
The equipment came and then getting the channel from the NCC to be able to operate the equipment for security purposes became impossible. The NCC just refused due to an ‘order from above.’ Therefore, Osun State government had two alternatives; resell the aircraft or make it available for other purposes that could bridge the gap while we are sorting out the issues with the NCC. That is what the equipment was used for while we were sorting out the issue with the NCC. So, the equipment is actually being run commercially pending when the NCC will give us our code to be able to operate that equipment. So, how is that mismanagement? That equipment could actually be useful in other region.
The Nigeria Labour Congress has suggested that the state government should stop giving free meals to the pupils so that government could pay salaries.
Were schools built for teachers or students? Schools were built to educate our children. Schools were not built solely to create jobs for teachers. Yes. You are correct; the NLC suggested that we should stop the school feeding project. If we stop the school feeding programme and the children stop coming to school, what would you do?
The feeding programme in Osun ensured that our school enrolment rate increased because parents know that at least, the children will get fed. So, the parents do not have to worry about securing N300 or N400 to feed two or three kids because the children will be fed in the school. For that reason, the kids are coming to school and with that come several benefits; the child will get education and the child will be taken off the street.
These are not tangibles. But as a government, that is the way you must think. A government must think of now, tomorrow and the distant future. So, feeding the children encourages parents. This is better than sending their children to go and farm just because that is the only time the child would have been fed. Would you say that kind of welfare package will not be beneficial at the long run?
What of the abandoned airport project?
Don’t use the word abandoned. These projects are not abandoned. Yes, the pace of the completion of the projects has slowed down. The completion period will obviously require some extension because of the financial problem we found ourselves but the beauty of it is that they are social services, except the airport.
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