Beleaguered Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has promised to pay workers in the state their salaries before the end of June.
The promise came in a statement released in Osogbo on Sunday by the governor’s media aide, Semiu Okanlawon.
It was however silent on how much of the seven-month salary backlog will be paid.
In the statement, Aregbesola stated that he had a great dream for the state and that was why he was in a hurry to begin many programmes which had earned him applause even outside the country.
He said further, “The dream has not gone awry and it is a clear vision that Osun must be on its feet, self-reliant and be a reference point in Nigeria. The race to ensure development within the first term of Aregbesola was informed by the fear of what is happening now.
“Aregbesola wanted an Osun that is self-reliant. That Osun, almost two decades after its creation, could not boast of tax-paying companies speaks volume about the magnitude of the works that awaited the Aregbesola administration.
“But he did not shy away from this task of industrialisation. Within his first term, his government had caused investors to bring up companies such as the Omoluabi Garment Factory, Osogbo, Adulawo/RLG Technology Company in Ilesa.
“Just last month, a leading telephone line company, Airtel, came to establish partnership with the Adulawo/RLG Company. These are aside the various agro-allied companies which have benefited from the growth schemes of the Aregbesola administration throughout the state.
“The government has also commenced aggressive drive for the development of the solid mineral sector with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with an Australian mining firm, Andalusian Mining Industry.
“It was in the same vein that the idea of an airport for aircraft maintenance was conceived.
“Only a lazy administration would accept the tag of Osun as a “civil servant” state as excuse for not developing initiatives for industrialisation.
“To accept that our state must continue to survive on the meagre inflow through what goes to the civil servants alone is to accept that we would continue to depend on external forces for our survival.
“We must work hard to give our people many choices. If you want to work in the civil service, it must be the choice that our people make on their own volition and not that there are no other choices regardless of their education, qualifications and expertise.”
“People must not forget that Lagos, in 1999 when former Governor Bola Tinubu took over, was generating a paltry sum. It was the ingenious interventions and immediate provisions of infrastructure that lured investors in to create various opportunities for the people and made tax administration much easier for what is now today’s Lagos. This feat can be repeated in Osun and other parts of Nigeria.”
