Acting Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Mr. Raymond Omachi, on Sunday, said the mismanagement of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) is responsible for the liquidity problem the country is currently battling with.
The FRC boss who disclosed this during an interaction with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said, “If the ECA had been properly managed, in accordance with the FRC Act, the country will not have been embroiled in the liquidity crisis being presently experienced.”
The cash crunch has left many states with months of unpaid workers’ salaries while the Federal Government had to resort to borrowing to pay its workers. State governments are currently looking on to the government at the centre for a bailout.
According to Omachi, the ECA was established in 2004 to protect planned budget against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices.
He added that the FRC Act stated that savings from the ECA should not be accessed until oil price falls below the predetermined level for a period of three consecutive months.
He said that the sum accessed should be limited to the amount that would bring the revenue of government to the level contained in its budget estimates.
He, however, noted that over the years, the commission had noticed withdrawals that were contrary to this and had raised alarm severally at the way the ECA was being brazenly depleted.
The FRC boss stated, “In essence, the non-compliance with the relevant sections of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, is the cause of the financial management problem being experienced by the country in the light of the sliding oil price.
“If the account had been intact, the effect of declining oil price will have been accommodated with the ECA buffer to finance the budget.”
The management of the ECA pitched state governors against the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan with the governors accusing the immediate past government of spending from the account without carrying state governments along.
At a meeting held on May 20, 2015, state governors alleged that the last administration had spent $20billion from the ECA.
While reading the resolution of the meeting, former chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, said: “In the light of the fact that funds in the Excess Crude Account were last disbursed in May 2013, there is need for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to provide explanation for accruals to the account from June 2013 to April 2015, which is estimated at over $20 billion.”
In her swift response to this, Okonjo-Iweala said the issue of explaining accruals to the ECA had no basis as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) met every month “and the ECA is discussed at every session with all the state commissioners of finance present.”
In a statement issued by her Special Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, the minister added,
“Nothing is hidden. At these meetings, the Honourable Minister of State, who is the Chair of FAAC, announces the balance in the ECA, which is then discussed. So governors who want any information about the ECA should ask for details from their commissioners who should have the records of what was discussed and agreed upon.”
But again during the inauguration of the Nigeria Economic Council (NEC) by President Muhammadu Buhari n Abuja last week Monday, the ECA issue arose and Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State alleged that the former administration spent $2.1billion without the approval of NEC.
However, Okonjo-Iweala strongly refuted that, saying there was no time the government spent unauthorized money from the account.
In a statement issued by Nwabuiku, the former minister said, “How can some governors who fought FG’s efforts to leave robust savings in the ECA and even took the Federal Government to court over the matter turn around to make such unfounded allegations?
“The world knows that it was Okonjo-Iweala who pioneered, during her first stint as Minister of Finance in the Obasanjo administration, the practice of publishing monthly updates of all allocations to different tiers of government in order to empower Nigerians with information and knowledge of government revenues and expenditure. This enabled the Nigerian public to ask questions about the utilization of these resources. Of course many elected and appointed public officials were not happy with this development.”
TRIBUNE

To curb the growing rate of electricity equipment and installations vandalism in Osun State, the state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has declared its readiness to work with the Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN), in the state.
The state commandant, Alhaji Tajudeen Ayobami Balogun stated this during the courtesy visit to the NSCDC state headquarters in Osogbo by the members of the LECAN executives in the state.
Quoting from the enabling Act of the Corps passed in 2003 and the subsequent amendment in 2007, which empowered NSCDC to check their activities the commandant charged electricity contractors to shun any act of sharp practices that can damage the reputation of their profession.
According to the commandant, the Act further empowers NSCDC to curb the activities of oil pipelines and electricity transmission cable vandals and make sure that the act of vandalism and economic sabotage are prevented before they are executed.
With the location of the National Control Centre in Osogbo and other major installations around the state, the commandant revealed that the Critical Infrastructure and National Assets Protection Unit (CIPU) of the NSCDC is battle ready to combat the criminals.
In his remarks, chairman of LECAN in Osun State, Elder M.O. Akintayo stated that the purpose of the visit was to familiarise with the NSCDC as stakeholders in the protection of government’s critical infrastructures and assets and to decry the growing rate of electricity cables vandals in the state. Elder Akintayo stated further that LECAN has put in place a monitoring team that will liaise with NSCDC to combat vandalisation of electricity equipment. and installations.
LEADERSHIP

It had got to be the limit — Bayelsa senator, Ben Murray-Bruce’s attempt at wannabe activism.  He had “donated” his anticipated wardrobe allowance to feed hungry Osun workers — and a few Bayelsa widows.
Hare-brained activism never made a more hare-brained start!
Homeboy, Iyiola Omisore, also made a quiet rumble: doing his little bit to feed the hungry Osun multitude.  However, had he wanted to cause a stir, he would have parked trailer load of grains at the Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Osogbo; and invited the starving plebs of Abere, the state government’s secretariat, to come have their fill!
In Mr. Omisore’s world, charity and politics co-mingle for devastating effects!
Why, the controversial Buruji Kashamu, Omisore’s deep ideological soul mate in democratic feudalism, also sent in his own words of hope: trailers, creaking under loads and loads of victuals and myriad provisions, were snailing and snaking into Osun!
Has the SOS caravan arrived?
O, the media also weighed in; in the Osun wage hysteria.  Abimbola Adelakun (The Punch, June 11) intervened with a piece that betrayed structural split-personality. The headline, “Ogbeni Aregbesola, pay your workers” was a cynical taunt, in the classical Yoruba traditional sense.  But it ended with basic reason and admission that Osun’s problem stems from a national systemic failure. In-between were emotive and neo-liberal snarling against “populist” policies.
Ms Adelakun’s newspaper would later pour cold water on efforts, at the end of June, to start paying the salary arrears, suggesting, by its cynical angling of the news, that the efforts were too little, too late.  Of course, between The Punch and Aregbesola’s government, there appears no love lost.
Still, the very limit would come with a crusading jurist, ensconced in the Osun judiciary, inflicting great violence on judicial reticence and the separation of power doctrine.
Justice Oloyede Folahanmi, an Osun high court judge, wrote a petition calling on the Osun legislature to impeach Governor Aregbesola, over the salary arrears.  Her tone suggested the governor wilfully held salaries back to punish and intimidate workers.  But logically, why might he do that?
A few have defended Justice Folahanmi’s unprecedented conduct, insisting she wrote in her personal capacity; and not as a judge.  Still, the notorious fact (as her constituency would say) is that she is a sitting judge, sworn to some service ethos and etiquette!
Besides, if that apologia held, then the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), writing as a citizen, could  well gift himself the liberty to write the National Assembly for the president’s impeachment, should the Federal Government falter on salaries!  You see how misguided judicial activism could easily court anarchy?
But something should be clear.  Between friendly and hostile camps to the Osun governor’s salary odyssey, there is no high moral ground.  Both are driven by the logic of public policy analysis, a media activity critical to democratic deepening.
So, what is Ripples’ angst at the stand of Justice Folahanmi and co?  Good question; but before an answer, another caveat: other things being equal, salary delays are degrading and indefensible.  Their ripple effects can make a family really, really miserable; and it is a path no self-respecting adult wants to tread.  Besides, even a month’s delay is bad enough.  For months’ delay, one can imagine the anguish on the affected families.
So, what is wrong with telling it as it is — as Aregbesola’s media critics have done — and reading out the riot act to the governor: pay or quit?
The approach.  While compassion is noble, emotion-milking is vile, wilful and cruel.  It can only create two victims: the governor as demon, useless and uncaring; and hurting workers, fed on the daily diet of gubernatorial loathing.  Both can only work up emotions; but hardly solve the problem.
Besides, the skewed attention on Osun, when more than a half of the 36 states are involved in the salary meltdown, suggests a media roasting most bizarre, with the media becoming part of the problem, instead of navigating the polity towards a solution.
Of course, such unconscionable muddying of waters suits nicely Aregbesola’s political traducers.  That is where Omisore and co belong; and to the amoral political class, all is fair in war.
But the media, becoming ready and merry tools to fight these unholy wars, is tantamount to the media becoming smashed mirrors, from which only skewed images of society can emerge.
And for a serving judicial officer to unthinkingly barge in, is the judicial equivalent of dancing naked.
But the most tragic consequence of this politics-of-the-belly approach to a serious crunch, which calls for radical financial restructuring, is deliberate misdiagnosis, which has nothing to offer but mischief.
In the heat of the crusading passion, Aregbesola became the irredeemable Satan, not Goodluck Jonathan; under whose presidency the national purse became a sieve, putting most states in the present bind.
For instance, the Jonathan presidency declared daily stolen 400, 000 barrels, from the 2.6 million produced each day.  Though that should have translated into some 15 per cent reduction, states suffered a 40 per cent drop from Federation Account (FA) takings — without any cogent reason.
Then, the global oil price crash.  The cumulative effect of Jonathan’s leaking purse and the price dip, crashed Osun’s revenue by some 55 per cent.  Now, Aregbesola’s only blame here appears his huge appetite for developmental projects, financed with sundry loans and bonds,  invested in social and physical infrastructure.  That tenuous balance left the state heavily leveraged.  The shock, from this sudden financial storm, smashed Osun’s monthly FA taking below the N3.6 billion monthly civil servants’ wage bill.  That explains the salary default.
Even then, Osun’s internally generated revenue (IGR) for 2014, from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures, was N8.5 billion, placing 11th out of 25 states.  Compared with Akwa Ibom’s N15.6 billion (seventh placed, though Nigeria’s highest FA drawer), it would appear Osun is using its meagre resources to deepen its local economy, while Akwa Ibom, flush with oil derivation cash, seems largely content with its FA takings.
Besides, a global multidimensional poverty index (MPI) survey of Nigeria, with 100 other developing countries, has introduced a fresh perspective to Osun and poverty.
The MPI is based on a 10-point indicator, based on three broad poverty criteria: education (years of schooling and school attendance), health (child mortality and nutrition) — both gauging the meeting of a child’s social infrastructure needs  — and a six-point indicator under “standard of living”: assets, cooking fuel, floor, water, sanitation and electricity.
Under MPI, quoted from an Oxford University document called Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (2015), Osun placed second, only to Lagos, among Nigerian states least affected by poverty, via a pile chart tagged  ”Headcount of the ratios of MPI poor and destitute”.
That means that despite all the salary hoopla, Osun has somehow devised ways to improve its poverty level.
Still, many newspaper commentators thunder, from their Olympian heights of raw passion, that Aregbesola should scrap his high impact developmental programmes, because of the salary hoopla.
The Ogbeni, to his peril, would listen to such Mephistophelean counsel; though he should try his best possible to clear the salary arrears.
THE NATION

Everyone seems to have their opinion on the ongoing salary payment scenario in our great state of Osun. We were referred to this independent comment below and were so moved by the sincerity and understanding, we thought to share with everyone. Enjoy and share your comments with us here.

“So salary payment is your yardstick. Have even verified other claims in the article? How could a private school close down because civil servants are owed salaries? How many civil servants enrol their children in private school? In scientific critical analysis, the purported close down of just a single private school out of hundreds of such scattered across the state is unjustifiable and renders such claim as fallacious.

One thing the state Osun people enjoy today is good security. Part of the strategy behind this is the procurement of state of the art APC vehicle among other security logistics in 2012. 21 of them were procured, coupled with a chopper for air surveillance. Nobody made any complained against these efforts of government by then. In fact workers in the state and other citizens hailed Aregbesola. The opposition then lost their antagonistic voices then.

No worker or anybody, including the writer of above piece, saw anything bad in the purchase of the chopper among other security arrangements. They didn’t because workers in the state got SMS alert of their salary account between 26-27 day of every month that Aregbesola had paid salaries. This I laws even when allocations had not been received for that month. By then, Osun’s allocation was N4b plus; with the largest civil servants in Nigeria after Lagos State!

The last allocation of Osun is less than 700 million Naira. How would that, plus IGR of about N1b settle the salaries of close to N4b per month. It should be noted that overheads must also be settled monthly unless the state would be run quite aground! And it is ridiculous, more so mischievous that anybody would ever imagine that an chopper made available since 2012 should be sold to pay workers.

By such imagination, the individual has only displayed deep ignorance of the cost of a chopper within the range of what Osun government procured 3 years ago. The Internet would assist in this wise. If anybody is looking for how much a helicopter costs, it’s anywhere from USD $250,000 – $1,700,000, depending if it is a little 2 seater up to a five seater. Converting that to Naira leaves one with a paltry sum.

A big question that should have been addressed is why would allocations to states continuously reduce since last quarter of 2014 amidst daily loss of 400,000 barrels of crude oil under Jonathan? How about the indiscriminate spending of the indiscriminate spending from the crude oil account by Okonjo-Iweala? What happened to the sovereign wealth account -i.e monthly deductions from allocation of states?”

The Cable

A member of the National Assembly, Hon. Ajibola Famurewa, has cautioned the opposition parties to stop their campaign of calumny against Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, over the delay in the payment of workers’ salaries.
Famurewa said that Osun was not the only state owing its workforce.
Famurewa, representing the state Ijesa-South Federal Constituency, at a press conference in Osogbo accused the opposition of giving the crisis unnecessary media hype thus creating the impression that Osun was the only state where salaries were owed.

Famurewa said that the resources of the state were being judiciously managed for people-centred development by the Aregbesola’s administration.
He condemned what he described as spurious allegations against Aregbesola and media hype of the financial incapacity of the state by members of the opposition parties, just as he warned them against disparaging the governor.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

 

The inability of many states to pay accumulated workers salaries has been in the news for sometimes. Whereas, as many as 18 States are affected by this reality, Osun and its Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, are particularly singled out for the most vociferous attacks by opposition interest groups and their accomplice media anchors while some well-meaning persons and interest groups, too, have tried to express their deep concerns about the reality. It is in this context that a clear analysis of the issue becomes necessary, especially to establish objectively the causes of the crises and determine whether they are possibly avoidable; are they the result of economic mismanagement on the part of the State or the result of other determinants outside of it? Thus, it will be possible to dispose of the campaign of calumny rooted in malicious political interests while taking good lessons relevant to the successful resolution of the problems and prevention of future repeats. As at present, from media reports and the reports of none less than the NLC Task Force on the wage crises, not less than the half of the entire 36 States of the Federation are owing workers salaries to various extent: and the State of Osun is by no means the one leading the pack in terms of the number of months owed. Why then the singular and intense focus on Osun? Of course the answer is simple – the progressive and innovative governance approach of the Governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, his leadership style and political exploits. While it has earned him huge applause and recognition in enlightened quarters and internationally, it has equally earned him envy and malice from reactionary constituencies, as well as misunderstanding and confusion in the minds of many ordinary people whose understanding of life (Political Economy especially) is incomplete. Aregbesola, with his huge status and high profile as a prudent, proficient, visionary manager is not expected to be counted among the ranks of shortsighted overseers of failed States. He must, therefore, suddenly be a soft target for his longstanding traducers and their media stewards; why would they pick on his other peers who are not known to be that “newsworthy”? But then, let us examine the issue objectively going back to the root of the matter, the chief causative factor, which various subjective analyst always choose to conveniently ignore: the warped Nigerian Federation and the grave mismanagement of the nation’s economy by the Federal Government in the last 6 years (whence stealing is not corruption). Mismanagement is an understatement, and well-meaning and far-sighted Nigerians as well as Aregbesola and a few of his colleagues had raised alarm way back, but are now suddenly confronted by the devastating impact of it all. Federal Republic of Nigeria! It is an open secret that there is nothing federal in the Nigerian Federation; its REPUBLIC is not a Republic; its constitution merely an academic exercise on paper; its Rule of Law is a rule of might; and its corrupt institutions mere paper tigers, except when in ill-use; its mono-product economy ‘largest in Africa’ merely in its potential. However, even within the context of these realities, all that is required is for the head to purge itself of rots, in the furnace of democracy and justice, and commence the righting of all its bodily wrongs. A visionary leadership, at the Federal level, committed to the greatest good of Nigeria and Nigerians, is all it takes to begin national rejuvenation and prosperity; even within the limiting framework of the free enterprise variety of democracy: rule of law, a genuine federation, a true republic, the observance of fundamental human rights, and just leadership with a forthright example to follow. But what did we have since the return to the democratic (civil rule, rather) dispensation in 1999, and especially so in the last 6 years of the PDP-Jonathanian Presidency? One needs not chronicle the realities of those years that volumes in books will not exhaust as we are all living witnesses to an unprecedented reign of corruption and impunity in the hands of a divisive, inept, clueless and self-serving leadership, culminating in our worst yet insecurity experiences and unheard-of economic mismanagement and looting of the commonwealth on a scale and depth yet to be unraveled. The singular most devastating affront on the economy was the state-organized and sustained theft of incredible volume of crude oil, our key fountain of wealth; an act of economic sabotage that directly impacted the free fall of international oil price and the flight of fund from the Federation Allocation Account, especially since 2013 till the handover to a new government. It is well known, and has been a continued subject of public discusses, how most of the states in the federation are unviable. How then these federal allocation-dependent, unsustainable entities will not in the the long run be excruciatingly affected by a woefully managed economy by the federal government is unknown. Mind you, in the Nigerian circumstances, the task of taking the state’s economy to the path of self-sufficiency, even for the best economic genius as Governor, must begin with an intermediate (sustained for no less than 2 tenure – 8 years) plan, for which the seed fund (to explore productivity areas where the constitution had not already excluded it) must still be from the Federation Allocation Account; existing IGR being next to nil. Overwhelmed by recurrent expenditure never ever less than 60% of their entire earnings however much they wish to be prudent, saddled with a long-suffering and untaxable populace, and an infrastructure deficit (power , water and roads, especially) that undermine all potential investment drive, it has always been clear that nothing short of a complete overhaul of the socio-economic system (a revolution) would right all the wrongs. While the social revolution may be ages away, deep-going reforms of a popular nature will definitely inch the society along, and ameliorate the critical situation; providing a Federal Government that upholds the sanctity of the rule of law, democratic culture, refraining from impunity, near-zero tolerance for “stealing” and corruption, and intelligent, people-oriented investment of public wealth, which sources of flow must be quickly and systematically diversified – in agriculture and mining especially but also in tourism, medium and small scale enterprises, all happening within an environment of security, social welfare, functional education and guaranteed access to primary health care. In the near-absence of all of the above, and with a Presidency that for 6 years travelled in the exact opposite direction, what happened in the case of the State of Osun, while not excusing the imperfection of its Governor or government, is conclusive proof that it is nearly impossible for recent, emergent states to achieve development in the present Nigerian equation unless there is a complete overhaul of the Federation system as presently constituted, economically and politically. State of Osun is a clear testimony to arrested development occasioned by Federal failure. In arriving at the above conclusion, of course I am speaking with all those who are conversant with State of Osun realities and the mileage covered by the government in nearly 5 years since Ogbeni Aregbesola’s inauguration on November 27, 2010: a chronicle of advancement spanning all sectors and directly or i
ndirectly touching all families in the state – from education, youth empowerment, social welfare, infrastructure, agriculture, to security, e.t.c, too numerous to catalogue here. The facts are in the public domain, and on the streets of Osun, wherever you turn your eyes to. Those who chose to ignore, or even deny, the facts as they are, I exempt. In the meantime, whereas there is so much focus (genuine or malicious) on the failure of public governance to meet its workers’ salaries obligations, with its grave and painful consequences, there is an emerging and graver failure, being managed in a hush hush manner, in private sector and with private businesses. There is an indication of a huge bad debt volume owed to banks that must bother any patriotic citizen. To appreciate the concern, in just the case of Stanbic IBTC bank alone, over N400b is reportedly involved. This amount, given the best-ever monthly allocation that accrued to the State of Osun at N4.2b, is equivalent to the Federation Allocation to that State of 3.8m people for about 95 months! Money equivalent to what is expected to be used, at the best of times, for the uplift and development of about 3.8million people for about 8 years (2 Executive tenure) have been borrowed by private concerns who either cannot pay back, find it difficult or are reluctant to; and the bank now finds it expedient to threaten to expose and shame them. To IBTC, add similar experiences by other banks and the CBN, and your guess is as good as mine. Public and private sector debts are in themselves not anomalies. In fact, it is not the first time that the State of Osun, or any one State, owes workers 6 months salaries, bad and unacceptable as it always will be. Indeed, in the Chief Bisi Akande Administration in Osun State, similar situation happened, and the State survived, as it will surely this time. The gravity of the current situation, which is what narrow-minded analysts picking on Osun should see, is that ALL AT ONCE, more than half of the entire states in the federation find themselves insolvent, while the Federal Government itself equally grapples! I doubt if this situation has precedence, and this is what defines the economic crises that must now be resolved. Happily, beyond the realm of narrow-mindedness and malicious politicking, deep thinking Nigerians, among them the CEOs of the concerned states, already recognize that what they have in their hands, minimally of their own making but majorly the result of sustained national economic mismanagement, is a national financial emergency requiring concerted input, especially by the patriarchal federal government. The major repair work is of a long and intermediate term in nature and must involve reconstructing the federal architecture of Nigeria politically and fiscally as well as the diversification of its economy. However, as with all meltdown in every clime, an immediate bailout, however wrought, is urgently required to save the ordinary worker – now traumatized and endangered along with his family and society. Those making a comedy of this grave situation merely signposts the menace of infantile mind and politics, and their own all-round pettiness. Far from being an isolated case of management ineptitude, the Osun default in paying workers salary and pensions for upwards of 6 months, is a national trend, including even the federal government, and has been long in the making, veiled only by an all-important general election through which a national salvation is expected. That task of national salvation must now commence with attention to saving Nigerian workers and pensioners in the affected states, and indeed all over Nigeria, from the havoc wrecked by prolong economic sabotage by the outgone administration, even as attention is now focused on national security and economic recovery by the new administration. On the long run, unless we summon the courage to reconfigure Nigeria (even as we hopefully hope that we now have a presidency and federal government that will travel the right path of democracy, rule of law, justice, equity and the observance of fundamental human rights) a repeat of the crises, perhaps graver, is inevitable. The right principles and practices must go with the right structures; and happily, there is now in place a louder voice for the people and it is impressive that it is already seeking to drown the horrendous waste, extravagance and insensitivity of a bi-camera National Assembly whose configuration and consumption comparative to its value, the Nigerian reality and expectation, is simply exasperating.
Credit: THE CABLE

“A journey of 1000 kilometresSTARTS with one step. The man who removes a mountain starts by carrying stones away” – Osun State Head of Service, Sunday Owoeye, on the one month salary out of eight, paid by Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola last week.
Last week’s “Hell for Nigerian workers and pensioners” drew, as usual, both applause and ire of readers. In emails, text messages, and phone calls, readers ventilated their views; with many of them accusing me of surreptitiously defending Aregbesola. I protest that I did nothing of such! What I said was that going by the avalanche of media reports, I had thought Aregbesola was the only governor owing workers and pensioners; but upon investigation, I found that more than two-thirds of governors owe workers and pensioners. Some governors’ record in certain respect was even worse than Aregbesola’s. These are statements of fact but which do not, in any way, exonerate the governor from blame or excuse him from his responsibilities to the good people of Osun State. The buck stops on his table and he must carry the can. No buck-passing of any kind will be tolerated. I, too, have family and friends in Osun. My elder sister’s husband, a retired school principal who hails from Igbajo, has not been paid in eight months. A bosom friend of mine called from Osogbo last Monday night to narrate the story of how a pot of amala that was left on fire by the owner to steam was stolen! But God be praised, solution is on the way. May it come speedily! (From 1976 to 1982), I lived at Ede; worked at Osogbo Grammar School; attended the Sixth Form at Ilesa Grammar School before proceeding to the then University of Ife. Therefore, apart from my native Ondo State and Lagos where I have worked and lived since 1986, I am most familiar with Osun State.
The opening quote by Owoeye (by the way, is he a poet?); amusing as it sounds, is based on a Chinese proverb which has proved truthful all through the ages. May it even now! Amen! Aregbesola will, however, have to do more than pay only one month salary/pension arrears. I know he is working assiduously on this issue because he told me so himself. I can only enjoin him to work harder still. After he succeeds to pay a few more months, I willJOIN in appealing to Osun workers to end their strike action. Importantly, I know help is on the way because of some positive steps being taken at the federal level, engineered by embattled state governors many of who have relocated to Abuja. Good, if that will bring relief fast to suffering – even dying – workers and pensioners. First step is the committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari under the chairmanship of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to look into the demand for refunds of state funds spent on federal roads. This is one quickie that can bring solace to the governors. I enjoin the vice-president to expedite action. Without peace in the states, it is doubtful if the helmsmen in Abuja can sit pretty. Second step is the all-governors’ panel that is probing the NNPC/Excess Crude Account. The suspicion of many informed Nigerians is that the revelations so far, mind-blowing as they seem, are only a tip of the iceberg.
Third step is the pledge given by Buhari to the National Council of States and National Economic Council that all monies/receipts will henceforth be paid directly into the Federation Account by all government cash-cows. This statement is the best to have come from Buhari in his one month in office. If fulfilled, it will not only help to reduce impunity and mind-boggling corruption but also enhance the liquidity position of the states/councils. Another very profound statement made by the president last week was when he asked governors, especially those whose states are contiguous, to cooperate and complement one another across party lines. He said something like “a respectable distance should be put between politics and development issues.” I like that really much; politicising everything hasCOST us dearly in this country, especially so in the South-west.
Truth be told, the first blame for current economic down-turn is the Federal Government’s. If all monies were paid into the Federation Account, states/councils would have received twice or thrice what they take at the moment. Much of the money made by the cash-cows is spent/embezzled at source and only the remnant is remitted. Why successive civilian governments continued with the odious system is that it allows the FG unrestrained access to funds at source before theyGET captured in the Federation Account. States/councils suffer immeasurably from this. Once this very important leakage is blocked, the finances of states/councils will improve dramatically. I enjoin Buhari to clinically clean up the Aegean’s stable as his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, promised he is trying to do, before he appoints Ministers; otherwise, many ministers will prefer the existing obnoxious system because it allows them to preside over the sleaze at MDA level. That is why some ministries are called “Grade A”; it is because of the quantum of funds generated by the MDAs concerned and which the concerned Ministers can play monkey games with before remitting the balance to the Federation Account.
The second, third, and fourth blames for the parlous state of the economy will be shared by theTHREE tiers of government. Let us use this analogy: If a worker/government earns N50, 000 per month but spends N55,000 during the same period, it means he runs a deficit budget of N5000 plus the interest rate charged on the excess N5000 that he must source from outside. Often, the interest rate is crippling, especially if the source is a commercial bank. If this system of spending more than accruable income (deficit budgeting) continues month-in, month-out, the actual income available to the worker/government every month declines progressively because the lending authorities often put in place a mechanism that allows them to recoup the amount lent plus the crippling interest accruable on it at source. So, for a worker/government that had N50,000 to spend in the first month but spent N55,000 instead, it is going to have less than N45,000 available to it in the second month. Progressively, this was how borrowing (deficit budgeting) came to cripple theTHREE tiers of government.
On paper, it sounds reasonable to borrow to finance projects; a lot of theories and calculations of debt ratio to GDP are propounded to support this; but in reality, it is the expressway to economic doom, more so in our own setting where money is borrowed at crippling interest rates to pay salaries, settle political debts, provide for the comforts of our leaders etc. rather than be invested in activities that can yield enough returns to pay back the principal as well as the interest on it. From reports gleaned in the media, Osun appeared to have joined other governments in falling into this debt trap. But the Executive alone seldom take the decision to borrow; under our laws, the Legislature has to give legal backing. So the blame for the crippling debt burden whacking theTHREE tiers of government in Nigeria today, said to be well over N12 trillion, must also be shared by rubber-stamp legislatures. Lesson: Avoid borrowing. Remember the saying: He who goes a borrowing also goes a sorrowing.
A worker/government that earns N50,000 and spends everything, even if he stays within his income and does not borrow, treads on slippery ground. He has noSAVINGS; meaning that he has not made any provisions for the rainy day. He will have little or no problem for as long as his regular income of N50,000 comes in at regular intervals and he keeps his needs at the same level. But if, for reasons not of his own making, his monthly income drops from N50,000 to N20,000, he is certain to run into problems. This is the situation with the three tiers of government brought about by, one, the sharp drop inCRUDE OIL PRICE as a result of glut of the product in the international crude oil market; and, two, monumental corruption in the system. As stated above, the FG has a way of escape from the precarious situation more than the states/councils because it has endless ways and means of manipulating the porous system that it deliberately keeps so as to corner resources from source. So, the grandstanding by former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the states did not heed advice to prioritize salaries/pensions not only beggars the point but is also of dubious origin. The trapped statescouncils were simply at the mercy of the FG. Only a surgical operation on the odious system that criminally short-changes the states/councils, and which the Buhari administration is trying to carry out now, will save the situation. Having said that, however, all tiers of government must now imbibe the savings culture; the way governors always ran to the Excess Crude Account to rapidly deplete it made a mockery of their savings mentality. The allegation that the FG alone took money from the account without recourse to the states/councils who also are contributors should not only be thoroughly investigated but also arrested. Henceforth, a new mandate should have the concurrent signature of the three tiers of government. Apart from the Excess Crude Account, I also recommend that each state/council should have its own separate savings account into which some money must be dropped on a monthly basis. As the Yoruba would say, states/councils should stop eating with 10 fingers.
The various governments also ignored the warning signals of the bad times ahead even when the red light was flashing for all to see. None of them tightened their belts. The Jonathan administration set up the Osayande committee to recommend the streamlining of the MDAs but left its recommendations on the shelves to gather dust. In the states/councils, the same wishful thinking that the wind of adverse economic adversity would soon blow over pervaded. Speaking of Osun, I am not aware that Aregbesola did away with any of his O-Yes this, O-Yes that structures; he should have done that. He must reduce the cost of governance. It cannot continue to be business as usual. Other areas where the three tiers of government must share the blame are the appropriateness of policies and projects executed. I dare to say that this is not a problem area that can be easily surmounted because a lot of politicking is involved; so also are individual preferences. There is no new government that does not condemn what the former had done; everyone comes into office with his own brain wave and the usual practiceHERE is to abandon on-going projects and begin new ones. This is wasteful and must stop. Government, as they say, is a continuum. And projects should be properly thought through and not rushed. We must enthrone a system that will subject every important government project to something like an independent environmental impact assessment to thoroughly trash out the details before execution. If Osun had done that with its projects (Opon Imo, airport, mega schools/feeding of school children, helicopters/armoured tanks, for instance), it could have saved itself a lot of hassles and, possibly, losses.
Having said all of this, is the impeachment of Aregbesola or any of the other debtor-governor the solution, as was recently canvassed by a judge of the Osun State High Court, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede?NEXT week, God willing!
Credit: TRIBUNE ONLINE

 
Fellow Nigerians, let meSTART with an adage I first heard from the generalissimo himself, Aare Ona Kakanfo Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola: “The bigger the head, the bigger the headache”. On July 7, 2015 it would be 17 years since the great businessman and martyr of our democracy departed this turbulent world but I’ve never forgotten the wisdom buried in those words which rushed to my mind as I sat to craft this piece.`
Writing of 7/7, I remember the victims of that horrific tragedy which occurred on that day, 10 years ago, in 2005 when four bombs went off in Central London leading to murder and mayhem. Two out of the 52 people that lost their lives were Nigerian, 55 year old Ojara Ikeagwu and 26 year old Anthony Fatayi-Williams. I pray for the sweet repose of those innocent souls and my dearest mentor, MKO. Incidentally these three outstanding symbols of the hope of our nation have never been properly honouredHERE in Nigera. We should take a leaf from how the British honoured our son and daughter back in 2005 and even until today and how they gave military treatment and nationwide minute silence to 30 of their citizens massacred on a Tunisian beach. When we learn to imbibe such values and give honour where it is due, our country will surely become a better place.
Back to my main topic of today, you may be wondering why Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s headache is my business. My dear father, Jacob Momodu, migrated from his village of Ihievbe, Owan East Local Government of Edo State, long before I was born. How he settled in the ancient town of Ile-Ife will forever remain a mystery as he died (in 1973) at the beginning of my teenage years, before I could ask questions about his adventurous spirit. My dad met a beautiful woman called Gladys, from Gbongan Olufi in the State of Osun, and swept her off her feet. I’m the only product of their whirlwind romance.
By now I’m sure you can begin to feel mySTRONG link to the State of Osun. I was born in Ile-Ife and had all my education up to post-graduate studies in that great cradle of civilisation and learning. My other siblings, from my parents’ prior marriages still live in Ile-Ife till this day, except our eldest brother. You can thus visualise my emotional attachment to the land of my birth.
IRECEIVED what seemed an angry call a few weeks ago from my older sister who resides in Modakeke. I asked what the matter was because it is very unusual for her to sound irritated. “Help me beg your friend Aregbesola to pay our salaries because he has not paid us for several months,” she thundered. I pleaded with her to cool temper while I tried to explain the little I understood about the debacle. My sister was obviously not in the mood for any rigmarole or semantics but I tried my best to pacify her.
Weeks after that encounter, it seems the situation hasBECOME even worse in Osun with politicians making capital gains of it. There is the inherent potential for blackmail and I’ve taken time to examine some of their claims. Startlingly, I discovered that the Governor is a victim of his own obsession with rapid development. I will elaborate by illustrating my thesis with the story of Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. In his autobiography, President Clinton offered an insight into the danger of any government thinking it can solve all of society’s problems in 0ne fellk swoop or in the lifetime of its regime. He was desperate to do so much but ended up offending his people who could not endure the pain and sacrifice needed to achieve the monumental results he craved for them.
The case of Aregbesola is not too different. Love him or hate him, even Aregbesola’s bitterest enemies would attest to the fact that the man is a compulsive workaholic. I first noticed this about him as Commissioner forWORKS under Governor Bola Tinubu in Lagos State. Alhaji Rauf,as we fondly called him, was the Mr Fix It of that ground-breaking administration. Indeed, this was the reason Governor Tinubu and Aregbesola became almost inseparable.
In Osun, Aregbesola has embarked on massive infrastructural development. This would not have been too difficult in a country or State where theCOST OF running government is not so stupendous. But wait for this shocking revelation, the Osun Civil Service has a population of about 35,000, representing about 1% of the State’s population but the monthly wage bill gulps a handsome N3.6billion and a gargantuan N43.2billion annually. This alone devours about 70% of the total budget which is the sadTREND across our nation. Please, tell me why our country won’t continue to wear the look of a war-ravaged territory and wallow in misery with this level of government profligacy which does not even begin to help the unemployment mess that our governments try to ameliorate by hiring as much of the citizenry as possible.
At the end of the day, a government like that of Aregbesola which hopes to pursue personal human development throughSOCIAL WELFARE would ultimately get stranded in a cul-de-sac. The laudatory Osun School Feeding scheme ensures that over 250,000 students get fed daily during school terms and costs about N3.5billion per annum. Please, juxtapose this against the Civil Service of only 35,000 people gobbling up about N3.6billion monthly. Similarly, the Osun Youth Development Scheme engages about 40,000 youths at N3billion annually. Apart from the number of individuals directly benefitting from theseTWO schemes, thousands of extended families enjoy succour through indirect or ancillary employment and supplementary income freed up by the fact that parents don’t have to undertake these responsibilities.
Tragically, it seems that the problems facing Governor Aregbesola in Osun, like other states, lies with over-spending on a few while under-spending on the majority. The physical infrastructural projects in Osun are quite ambitious. Hundreds of kilometres of roads have been completed or stalled, including rural, township, intercity and Highway networks. These convinced the people that Ogbeni Rauf, (as he is affectionately called) with his simple style of governance matched exponentially by his appetite for wide ranging and significant development was the Governor to continue to take them to loftier heights and they therefore re-elected him.
However, in the midst of this commendable work, trouble started to creep in from 2012 with the arbitrary demand for wage increment by civil servants. This was further compounded in 2013 with the steady decline in statutory allocation. The situation deteriorated in 2014 with the crash ofINTERNATIONAL OIL PRICES.
Much has been made of the purchase of a helicopter by the Government but in a country where transportation is hazardous at best, and a State which demands prompt attention and reaction to various exigencies, faster means of transportation becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. Besides, the Governor has to find the right balance between interacting with his people and the seeming highCOST OF a helicopter. I would imagine that the people would prefer a Governor able to be closer to their problems by visiting at will. Moreover, when you consider that the cost of the helicopter will be spread over decades and not just years, clearly this is not as frivolous an investment as many would want to suggest.
What is the way forward? There are no easy answers or solutions but we must start somewhere. I believe so much in social welfare if properlyMANAGED and would never canvass for its abolition no matter the challenges today. It elevates majority of our people and it would spell unmitigated disaster if abruptly guillotined.
In the short run, great dividends will come if labour unions sit at a table with Aregbesola and his team to agree on cost-cutting measures. It may be necessary for workers to sacrifice part of their increased salaries or may have to suspend receipt of some arrears until the situation improves. Any short term solution is bound to bring anger and frustration but we must always be realistic and practical about these problems. The otherOPTION is mass retrenchment which I will never support because of its potential to increase social anguish and ignite violent unrests.
While it is easy to canvass for a sustained drive forINTERNAL generated revenue through indirect taxation and levies, we should be careful not to kill businesses or run the few employers of labour out of town.
The medium and long term solution rests in governemnt attracting domestic and foreign investment through the creation of an enabling environment that allows businesses to thrive. Fortunately, Osun State has always been an agrarian State with significant cash crops like cocoa. It has plenty of arable land and is close enough to Lagos State and the oil producing regions of the South South to tap from businesses which need support there. While I do not advocate that Government should wholly establish these businesses, the State can source for theINVESTMENT AND take a modest equity participation that will also enable it to directly benefit from its astuteness.
Osun is not the only culprit in this non-payment of salary scandal and it should not be singled out for victimisation. Politics should never be played at the expense and certainly not to the detriment of the people.
My thoughts and prayers are with our dear Governor as he courageously battles to redeem his State.
 
Source :OPINION RIVER

State of Osun House of Assembly has felicitated with Speaker Najeem Salaam over his award of excellence by the faculty of Social Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
In a statement signed by the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Timothy Owoeye, the award bestowed on Speaker Salaam who held his first and second degrees and currently on his P.hD from the faculty at the same university, in the mould of Professors Ogunbameru, Peter Ogunjuyigbe, Saturday Obiyan and others was clearSIGNAL of a prophet honoured at home.
Owoeye further stressed that the leadership style of Rt. Hon. Salaam was another testimony to hisCOMPETENCE as a trained political scientist from the ivory tower, saluting the faculty for searching for merit outside the box.
He said, “Speaker Salaam is a thorough bred Political scientist whose political sagacity and human relations could be used as a case study for students of politics on thesis, for he is endowed with the wisdom of fox to recognize political traps and has the courage of lion to weather any storm. Such a man deserves a medal”.
It would be recalled that the faculty of Social Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife honored Speaker Salaam with award of excellence at the first reunion of the alumni of the faculty last week Saturday, where late Professor Sam Aluko was given a posthumous award among others.
Signed:
Timothy Owoeye
Majority Leader,
State of Osun House of Assembly
Osogbo
 
Credit : OSUN DEFENDER

 
 

 
The Olumirin Waterfalls in Erin-Ijesha, Osun state will soon be developed into a tourist site, in theNEXT 16 months.
The cost is estimated at $17 ‎millionDOLLARS.
A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding among theINVESTORS, the government of the state of Osun and the community wasSIGNED TODAY in Erin Ijesha.
GeneralMANAGER Osun Tourism Board, Mr Abiodun Balogun described the development as a milestone in the history of tourism development in the state
Mr Balogun, who denied the sale of the site, assured the people of the area that the government would ensure that the investors comply with the spirit of the MOU.
ONEof the leaders of the community, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa said efforts had been made in the past to get government involved in the development of the site and commended the state Governor for its foresight.
The Director of operations of theINVESTING company, Mr Ladi Wilkey, said the project would be completed within 16months.
 
CreditTHE NEWS