By Junior Otabono
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has explained why civil servants in the state have not been paid for over seven month, saying that he’s still labouring spiritually and physically on how to offset the bill.
He said the reason was because the banks had stopped lending money to the government after it accumulated a loan of N24 billion.
He spoke in Abuja on Sunday at the annual Ramadan Lecture of the Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society of Nigeria with the theme “Ramadan: Changing Positively”.
According to him, “The challenge I face today was not my making, it is a national problem. I borrowed N24 billion to pay salaries, but when the banks say I cannot borrow again, there is nothing I can do in the face of dwindling revenue accruing to the state”.
The governor said, though he was not holding anybody responsible for his inability to pay workers’ salaries, the circumstances were beyond his control.
His words, “I am not shifting blame and I bear responsibility, but it was a responsibility the Nigerian state forced on me. I am still labouring physically and spiritually to pay the workers’ salary,” he added.
He said despite raising the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) from N900 million annually to N3.6 billion, he was yet to pay workers’ salary because the banks were not forthcoming on further loans.
“How can anyone accuse me of mismanaging the resources of the state when my campaign promises were based on populace welfare and infrastructural development?
“By God’s Grace, I have delivered on most of the promises. Initially, it was thought that only Osun owed workers salary, but it can be seen that it is a national issue and that 23 of the 36 states of the federation owed their workers”, he said.
