NEWS : Salary payment statutory responsibility of government – AD chieftain, Alao tackles Makinde

 

A chieftain of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, on Sunday, declared that payment of salaries to workers is not an achievement any Governor should be celebrating.

Alao, who contested gubernatorial election on the platform of AD in 2019, said that Governor Seyi Makinde of the State was not rendering any assistance to workers in the when he announced that he has been paying salaries of workers since his assumption of office.

Our correspondent recalls that the State Governor had said that he is fulfilling one of the promises made to workers by paying their salaries as at when due.

But, Alao in a statement made available to  through his Media Aide, Omotayo Iyanda, insisted that the Governor should be reminded that salary payment is a statutory responsibility of any employer of labour.

Alao added that what was scary was the fact that the salaries were being paid with bank facilities tied to the federal government monthly allocation, adding that that practically, Oyo monthly allocation was being used to pay salaries alone.

Alao, who added that Makinde’s administration had been characterized with improprieties, burdens of loans, insincerity of purpose, inconsistency, pretence, policy reversal, called on Makinde to retrospect and start better in 2021.

He said, “Let the Governor be reminded that salary payment is a statutory responsibility and he is not rendering any favour to the Oyo State workforce.

“But what is scary is the fact that the salaries are being paid with bank facilities tied to the federal government monthly allocation of Oyo State. Practically, what that means is that the Oyo monthly allocation is being used to pay salaries alone by the time you do the calculation.

“A call has gone to Engineer Seyi Makinde to start his administration on a better slate from 2021 because his administration so far has been characterized by a lot of improprieties, burdens of loans, insincerity of purpose, inconsistency, pretence, policy reversal and attempt at siphoning the Oyo State money.”

Alao noted that Makinde had failed to fulfil the promise of generating revenues locally to run the State government.

“The administration of Governor Seyi Makinde, from critical observation and findings, has been characterized by a lot of improprieties, burdens of loans, insincerity of purpose, inconsistency, pretence, policy reversal and attempt at siphoning the Oyo State money. To start with, during the 2019 electioneering campaigns, Engr Seyi Makinde promised the people of Oyo State that when elected his administration would be run with revenues generated out of his administration’s ingenuity to fund developmental projects in the state.

“Till date and almost two years in the saddle, Oyo State has not produced maize to the point of exporting it even to the neighbouring Ogun State, rather our governor has only imported a professor from Botswana to become a commissioner in his administration whom he did not know where the professor is best suited. In less than two years, Governor Makinde has moved him to three different ministries. Honestly, there are so many minuses than pluses in this government which have become so obvious to only the discerning minds,” he stated.

Alao while speaking further notef that Makinde has portrayed himself as the most borrowing governor Oyo State has ever had.

“The administration of Governor Makinde has recorded a feat and decorated himself with the title as the Most Borrowing Governor (MBG) in the history of Oyo State which gives him away as a governor that lacks creativity and innovation to generate revenue. To date in less than two years of his administration, Governor Makinde has taken loans with all sorts of nomenclatures to classify them running to the tune of N170bn, which are tied to projects as infrastructures and agric resuscitation.

“Are there loans under whichever classification they come that they will not attract interest with their tenor? Governor Makinde has really put the state on a course of debt which is capable of putting the indigenes of the state in perpetual servitude,” he added.