CSOs oppose bill seeking pay rise for Osun public officers

A coalition of civil society groups based in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds, on Monday, accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of indiscriminate appointment of aides.

The coalition also warned the governor against giving assent to a recently passed bill, proposing an increase in salary for public officeholders in the state.

Addressing journalists in Osogbo, the Executive Director of the group, Prof Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, said he was disappointed with the large retinue of governor’s aides.

He said the fact that the state House of Assembly would still consider increasing the salaries of political officeholders, especially when the revenue available to the government was insufficient, was regrettable.

Oyedokun-Alli, who advised Adeleke not to sign the bill passed by the Assembly, also raised concerns over the quality of the job being done by the contractor handling the Oke Fia flyover.

He called on the state government to intensify monitoring of the flyover project, to ensure that the contractor not only delivered quality but also conformed to global engineering standards of quality and safety.

“We recently read in the news that the House of Assembly had passed a bill to increase the emoluments of political office holders in the state. This is grossly insensitive and illogical.

“In this same state where the government could not make clear-cut palliative plans to cushion the biting effects of the harsh economy, the state assembly is proposing an increase to the already-bogus salaries of political officeholders. This is irresponsible and unacceptable.

“In the same Osun State where many civil servants are currently finding it hard to survive, the House of Assembly, instead of making more pro-people laws, is passing such obnoxious bills that so flagrantly disrespect the mood of the average Osun dweller.

“At a time we all should be condemning the needlessly large population of political appointments already made by the governor, the Assembly wants to further increase the pressure on our scarce resources.

“This is not only disappointing, as we would ordinarily expect more productive actions from a youth-dominated assembly, it is also irresponsible,” he said.

He called on Governor Adeleke to decline assent to the bill which, the group said, would over-burden the over-stretched resources of the state.

“We cannot continue to add dead weight to the shoulders of a state that is just struggling to get out of the mountain of indebtedness that it was buried under a couple of years ago.

“The governor must say no to this bill in the interest of the people and deploy whatever resources the state has to the welfare of workers, whose salaries have already become seriously inadequate, and the common man on the streets, who is currently struggling to survive,” he added.

Oyedokun-Alli decried the selective implementation of cash-backing for promotion for workers, saying a category of teachers, local government staff members and tertiary institutions workers were left out without any justification.

Efforts to reach the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr Kolapo Alimi, for reaction failed, as he was said to be attending a meeting when he was called on the telephone.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Olamide Tiamiyu, advised the CSO to pick a copy of the said bill and read through it.

The state House of Assembly, on Monday, May 20, passed a bill increasing the stipends of some political officeholders in the state.

Tiamiyu, speaking on the bill, insisted that the Assembly did not increase public officeholders’ salaries, but proposed an increase in the emolument of chairmen of the rent tribunal and part-time board chairmen and members.

“The Mastermind should be diligent with what they do. They should have taken their time to get a copy of the said bill and asked questions if there was any.

“The proposed increment in remuneration as contained in the bill did not in any way affect the current salaries and emoluments of the honourable members, civil servants, and members of the executive cabinet of the state.

“Salaries of these categories of public officers are determined by appropriate Federal Government agencies. The categories of public officers targeted in the bill are part-time chairmen of boards and rent tribunal and part-time board members in the state,” he said.