PAYMENT OF FULL SALARY IS A GIMMICK BY THE RULING APC TO HOODWINK THE PEOPLE OF OSUN STATE

PRESS STATEMENT OF COMRADE ALFRED ADEGOKE, THE SPN GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE IN OSUN STATE 2018 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION

My attention has been drawn to newspaper reports that the APC-led Rauf Aregbesola government in Osun State has commenced full payment of salaries to the workers of the state for the month of July 2018. We of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) consider it despicable that the Aregbesola/APC government in Osun-State could shamelessly engage in a vainglorious self-adulation for paying workers their well-deserved wages. 

It is a shame that the ruling APC is trying to make political capital out of this. Payment of workers full salary and entitlement is a basic, statutory and routine responsibility of government anywhere in the world. More so, workers worked for a full one month and therefore are entitled to nothing less than a full salary; so where is the achievement in doing this? Therefore instead of seeking any glorification, the ruling APC should cover its face in shame for paying fractions of salaries in the first place. We have said times without number that, in spite of the economic crisis, Osun state has enough resources to pay salaries and pensions but for the profligacy of Governor Aregbesola and his henchmen. That they have suddenly found money to pay full salaries few weeks to elections proves us right. 

Meanwhile the government still owes over 30 months of backlog of salaries and pensions and it has said nothing about when it will pay that. This is nothing but Greek gift and I call on the working people of the state not to fall for it. A leopard cannot change its spot. An APC victory on September 22 will mean another four years of hunger. Apart from the fact that I pledge to serve as Governor while living on the salary of a civil servant, only an SPN victory can guarantee payment of full salary and pension on a monthly basis and payment of all backlogs within the first few months after our inauguration. It is up to the people to vote wisely. 

The sudden U-turn away from the system of paying workers fractions of their statutory salaries, which the state government has employed for odd years, is a desperate attempt to trick the good people of Osun State into voting the candidate of the APC in the September 22 gubernatorial election of the state. That the palace courtiers of the APC/Aregbesola government could ever imagine that the people would fall for this shambolic trick is insulting to the sensibility of the peace-loving people of Osun. 

Is it not shameful that the Aregbesola/APC Government is paying July 2018 salaries in the third week of August? In fact, the June 2018 salaries and pensions were paid in the first week of August, when workers and retirees have been put into serious financial crisis. 

It should be recalled that the Aregbesola/APC government promised to commence full payment of salaries and pensions by April this year. But the government reneged on this. Indeed, the government was forced by workers' strike to pay full salaries in January 2018, but this was stopped in subsequent months. Therefore, workers and retirees should be wary of this sudden payment of full salaries. As we are writing this, some retirees who were paid a tiny fraction (100, 000 naira) of their long-overdue gratuities, were given fake cheque. This shows the dubious character of the Aregbesola/APC government. Also, staff unions in the state-owned polytechnics and colleges of education are on strike over several months of unpaid salaries, allowances and deductions, while lecturers in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), jointly owned by Osun and Oyo State have declared industrial action over failure of the two states to pay backlogs of salaries, and adequately fund the school. 

My party and I have always supported, from the frontline, the struggle of Osun State workers for an end to the modulated salary payment system and for the full payment of the backlog of arrears that are owed workers in the state. And we are not ready to relent at this time. As a cardinal aspect of our programme, the government of the Socialist Party of Nigeria in Osun State, if elected, shall immediately commence payment of backlog of workers’ salaries, and drastically cut the emolument of political office holders, who shall earn the same wage as professional workers of the state. 

I hereby demand that the full salaries and pensions of workers and retirees be paid across board, rather than the divisive method being currently employed. Several workers and pensioners are yet to receive full payment alerts while several cheques issued to pensioners have also reportedly bounced. The public should be wary of several other Greek gifts that the APC-Aregbesola government is about to shower on Osun people with the same hoarded resources that the government had starved the people with. The government should wake up from its sordid dreams, if it assumes Osun voters can be bought into another four years of misery with such despicable gestures!

Signed

Alfred Adegoke

Governorship Candidate of SPN in the 2018 Osun State Governorship Election