Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola express regret over inability to pay salaries

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has expressed regret over his inability to pay salaries for months now.

He however added that contrary to reports, he was not helpless about the unpaid salaries of civil servants in his state because he has Allah.


Delivering a Ramadan Lecture at the Women Development Centre, Abuja, the governor used the occasion to debunk reports that he ever said he was ‘helpless’.

He delivered a lecture titled : “Ramadan, Living in The Season of Positive Change”at the event organised by the Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society.

Aregbesola said, “It is extremely painful that I cannot pay salary. It is painful that I have to be in this condition.

“I am not helpless because I have Allah and the people with me. And whoever has Allah and the people has everything,” he said, assuring that he was making efforts to pay the outstanding salaries of the civil servants soon.

He noted that the state borrowed up to N25 billion from banks to support the allocation from the federation account to pay workers salaries but the banks have refused to continue lending him money.

He explained that the state’s wage bill was N3.5 billion monthly and his administration has found it difficult to pay in the face of dwindling allocation in spite of increase in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from N900 million to N8 billion annually.

“I didn’t envisage that 400,000 barrels of crude oil would be stolen daily. But the whipping boys must be the governors and I am the ‘Chief’ of the whipping boys,” Aregbesola said.

Credit: Gbenga Olarinoye/Vanguard