Dazed by the fettering crisis of inability to pay workers’ wages, Osun state Governor Rauf Aregbesola has declared that he was not helpless because Allah is with him.
He however regretted that he could not meet his obligations to the workers in the state.
Aregbesola who delivered a Ramadan Lecture titled : “Ramadan, Living in The Season of Positive Change”at the Women Development Centre, Abuja,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 revealed that he had borrowed up to N25 billion from banks to augment Federal allocation to pay workers salaries noting that banks have refused to extend more loan to him
According to the Governor, the state’s wage bill is 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.
