Makinde in trouble over American trip, as Oyo governor knocked for inflating state workforce number, wage bill

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By Lai Mahmood

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has been challenged to explain to the people of the state where he got the figures about the present number of workforce in the state’s civil service and their wage bill which he gave as 115,000 and N11b respectively, in the United States recently, as against 100,000 workforce and the wage bill of N5.2b given by the immediate past governor Senator Isiak Abiola Ajimobi.

This was contained in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan by the Oyedele Hakeem Alao (OHA) media office, which claimed that its attention was drawn to the statement by Governor Makinde in the United States of America.

Mr Oyedele Hakeem Alao, the Oyo State gubernatorial candidate of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 2019 elections, through the press release, called on Governor Makinde to explain to the people of the state where and how he got the figures he reeled to the participants of the Nigerian-American Business Forum held in Florida, the United States, about the number of the state’s workforce and their wages.

The AD gubernatorial candidate recalled that the figure given by Governor Makinde at the forum was not in tandem with the figures the immediate past governor, Senator Isiak Abiola Ajimobi gave at the twilight of his administration which Governor Makinde confirmed in August 2019.

According to the release, Alao says, “This assertion in the US by Governor Seyi Makinde about the state of the labour force in the state’s civil service came as a surprise and His Excellency is hereby sued to the public court to kindly explain to us where and how he got those staggering figures as against the information at the doorstep of the generality of the people of Oyo State regarding the subject.

“As at the time the immediate past governor was leaving office in May 2019, His Excellency, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi gave the total number of workforce in the state as 100,000 and their wage bill some N5.2b. This statement by Senator Ajimobi was even corroborated by Governor Makinde in August 2019.”

The AD chieftain, therefore, wondered how the figures quoted and agreed with by the two governors would rise overnight when there was no record of any employment in the state since the inception of the administration of Governor Makinde, adding that, “Even if the new minimum wage regime is put under consideration, the current wage bill should not skyrocket to that amount because the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage was not up to 50%. Or has Governor Makinde employed more personnel into the Oyo State Civil Service which the citizens and residents of the state did not know about?”

Speaking further, Alao recalled that, “As at the last check at the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Oyo State Government federal allocation was N4.66b monthly excluding the direct allocation of N5.5b to local governments. It would be illogical and preposterous for Governor Makinde to claim the combined allocation of both the state and the local governments to represent that of the state.”

Reacting to Governor Makinde’s statement at the forum that no civil servants in the state ‘are allowed to solicit or receive bribes and kickbacks’, Alao wondered “how a civil servant would not cut corners when the so-called increment has had no value on his/her income and the usual groaning is still on,” as he described the newly implemented minimum wage as a ruse, establishing that, “From investigations among the state workforce, it was discovered that it (the minimum wage) has had no significant effect on the take-home of some of the civil servants. How do you describe the status of a civil servant on GL 7 who was earning N40,000 before the minimum wage regime be and now he is earning N46,000? So, he/she has just got an increment of N6,000.”

Alao, a comrade-politician, however, warned Governor Makinde to be very careful if he had been using accommodation loan, a bank facility, to offset the Oyo wage bill on the 25th of every month and if the federal allocation to the state is still N4.66b or thereabouts, “so as not to run the state to a halt where there would be no meaningful developmental projects as the loans would be paid back with both the principal and the interests.”

The AD chieftain retorts, “how can our governor think investors would come to a place as filthy as our state is right now, and laden with street beggars and mentally challenged people?, adding that “This administration of Engr Makinde has not really and practically tackled the environmental challenges facing the state as his regime has not really added anything significant to what the last administration has done.”


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