There has been several noise on the social media, most of it ostensibly to discredit the effort of the governor and government of Kwara State.
I would have ignored the noise as rants of disgruntled elements, but experience have shown that when lies are left unchallenged for far too long, there is a propensity for the unsuspecting to believe such lies to be true.
Fact is that some ministries, departments and agencies such as tertiary institutions are revenue generating and were traditionally self sustaining. In such a situation, you won’t expect the governor to distort an already sustainable system just for the fun of it.
However, due to expansion in their staff strength government has been giving them monthly subventions. But when the FAAC allocations situation became too severe, the government suspended subventions payment to such institutions and focused on paying core civil servants who traditionally don’t generate any revenue due to the nature of their services. The Federal government bail out was therefore used to pay the arrears of core civil servants which are now up to date.
However, government has recently released one month subventions to all affected agencies who are revenue generating and they are expected to augment this largess from the government to pay their workers.
Also, the level of indebtedness to workers varies from institution to institution. Kwara State Polytechnic for example is up to date.
Some of the other institutions have also run into problems due to the order to close their various bank accounts and implement the The Single Treasury Account (TSA) in line with the Federal government directive.
Note also that most of these tertiary institutions had been operating illegal long distance learning and multiple campuses but when the government became inundated with complaints about the sharp practices going on in these various institutions, those affected were mandated to close down these illegal campuses and programs. Sadly their staff strength had become overbloated due to the practices noted above and this also contributed to their inability to pay staff salaries.
It must be stated that the state government will not be railroaded into making reckless financial decisions because of a few workers whose total population is less than 5 percent of the total population of the state.
It must be placed on recorded that his excellency, the governor of Kwara State, has touched the lives of other citizens and residents of the state through various ways using SMEs, helping cooperative development, commercial transportation, market women and men. He has shown that governance goes beyond just paying salaries, he has embarked on different innovative and creative projects to better the lives of the common people of the state.
We can criticize a governor and it is the prerogative of the citizens to do that, but we must always base our criticism on facts rather than lies and half truths…
*The writer, Mr. Obaoye lives in Ilorin, Kwara State
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